Latest news with #staking
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
SEC Flags Concerns on Crypto ETFs Offering Staking Rewards
(Bloomberg) -- A potentially watershed effort to launch US crypto exchange-traded funds that offer staking rewards is throwing up regulatory doubts, even after the funds said they received initial SEC registration approval. Billionaire Steve Cohen Wants NY to Expand Taxpayer-Backed Ferry Now With Colorful Blocks, Tirana's Pyramid Represents a Changing Albania NYC Congestion Toll Brings In $216 Million in First Four Months The Economic Benefits of Paying Workers to Move Where the Wild Children's Museums Are Issuers REX Financial and Osprey Funds are targeting to launch ETFs tracking Ethereum and Solana that offer staking exposure, which allows investors to earn rewards by pledging tokens to help operate the blockchain. US regulators are now raising concern the vehicles may not legally qualify as ETFs at all under federal securities law. In a letter late Friday sent to ETF Opportunities Trust — the legal entity that issues various ETFs including those managed by firms like REX — Securities and Exchange Commission staff said the two ETFs may fail to meet the legal definition of an investment company, a designation needed for the funds to list in the stock market. The SEC said it was concerned the funds 'improperly filed their registration statement' and that 'disclosures in the registration statement regarding the funds' status as investment companies may be potentially misleading.' 'We think we can satisfy the SEC on the investment company question, and we don't intend to launch the funds until we do that,' said Greg Collett, general counsel at REX Financial. The SEC declined to comment beyond the letter. SEC Commissioner Caroline Crenshaw, the commission's lone Democrat and frequent critic of its new view on crypto in President Donald Trump's administration, said the situation was emblematic of the agency's recent piecemeal approach to crypto regulation. During his reelection campaign, Trump touted his own digital collectibles, gathered campaign donations from crypto fans and said he would make the US the 'crypto capital of the planet.' Since February, following the launch of a special advisory group on cryptocurrency, SEC staff have issued statements saying crypto assets such as memecoins and stablecoins aren't securities, meaning they aren't under the SEC's jurisdiction. Yet firms see opportunities to register with the SEC to launch new products, Crenshaw said in a statement Saturday. 'How is it that these crypto assets are supposedly not securities when it comes to registration requirements, but conveniently are securities when a registrant sees an opportunity to sell a new product?,' she said. 'If you're confused, join the club.' It's the second time in recent months that the SEC has publicly expressed doubt on a listed fund investing in alternative asset classes. In March, it rebuked an ETF by State Street Corp. and Apollo Global Management — the world's first to invest in private credit — hours after the fund listed. 'Even if the SEC doesn't allow this structure to list, we still believe the more straightforward attempts to allow staking in a US ETF will ultimately be successful,' Bloomberg Intelligence ETF analyst James Seyffart said. 'It's a matter of when, not if. But the SEC doesn't seem to be a fan of the way Rex tried to push these listings through.' REX said it received a so-called effective registration for the two ETFs earlier Friday, meaning they could be listed anytime. REX founder Greg King said at the time the company was planning the launch by mid-June for both. 'To the extent that these concerns remain unresolved, the Commission staff will consider the appropriate next steps to ensure compliance with the federal securities laws,' the SEC said late Friday. (Updates with comment by Democratic member of SEC starting in eighth paragraph.) YouTube Is Swallowing TV Whole, and It's Coming for the Sitcom Millions of Americans Are Obsessed With This Japanese Barbecue Sauce AI Is Helping Executives Tackle the Dreaded Post-Vacation Inbox How Coach Handbags Became a Gen Z Status Symbol Mark Zuckerberg Loves MAGA Now. Will MAGA Ever Love Him Back? ©2025 Bloomberg L.P. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Bloomberg
2 days ago
- Business
- Bloomberg
US Regulators Say Two Crypto Vehicles May Not Qualify as ETFs
A potentially watershed effort to launch US crypto exchange-traded funds that offer staking rewards is throwing up regulatory doubts, even after the funds said they received initial SEC registration approval. Issuers REX Financial and Osprey Funds are targeting to launch ETFs tracking Ethereum and Solana that offer staking exposure, which allows investors to earn rewards by pledging tokens to help operate the blockchain.
Crypto Insight
3 days ago
- Business
- Crypto Insight
SEC crypto staking guidance ‘major step forward' for US: Crypto Council
The US Securities and Exchange Commission's (SEC) new guidance on cryptocurrency staking is widely seen as a major win for the crypto industry and the push toward globally consistent digital asset regulation. In a May 29 statement, the SEC's Division of Corporation Finance said 'Protocol Staking Activities' such as cryptocurrencies staked in a proof-of-stake blockchain 'don't need to register with the Commission transactions under the Securities Act.' The agency's new guidance marks a 'major step forward' for the US cryptocurrency industry, said Alison Mangiero, head of staking policy at the Crypto Council for Innovation. 'The SEC has now recognized what we've long argued: Staking is a core part of how modern blockchains operate, not an investment contract,' she told Cointelegraph. 'That clarity is critical.' Crypto industry watchers have long advocated for clearer guidelines on staking. In April, the CCI's Proof of Stake Alliance project led a coalition of almost 30 organizations to submit a detailed letter to the SEC's Crypto Task Force, outlining that a non-custodial or custodial staking service provider is 'distinct from investment contracts.' 'The SEC has opened the door to more sensible regulation,' said Mangiero, adding that this is a 'win for stakers and the broader crypto community.' However, industry participants are still waiting for the approval of the first Ether staking ETFs. On May 21, the SEC delayed its decision on Bitwise's application to add staking to its Ether ETF, along with its decision on Grayscale's XRP ETF. SEC guidance marks 'notable shift' The SEC's new guidance marks a 'notable shift from previous enforcement-heavy approaches,' said Marcin Kazmierczak, co-founder and chief operations officer at blockchain oracle firm RedStone. 'This represents genuine progress toward regulatory clarity, but it's evolutionary rather than revolutionary,' he told Cointelegraph. 'The foundation is being laid for more comprehensive crypto regulation, with staking ETF approval becoming increasingly plausible by late 2025,' Kazmierczak added. The establishment of the SEC's dedicated Crypto Task Force on Jan. 21 marked another step away from the previous enforcement-heavy regime. The task force, headed by Commissioner Hester Peirce, is preparing to release its first report on regulations during the 'next few months,' SEC Chair Paul Atkins said in a May 20 hearing. The new guidance comes after years of efforts by CCI's Proof of Stake Alliance, which has been educating policymakers about the importance of cryptocurrency staking. 'We've consistently argued that protocol staking is not an investment activity — it's a core function of how modern blockchains operate,' said Mangiero, adding that the new SEC guidance is a meaningful progress toward 'recognizing that distinction.' Source:
Bloomberg
3 days ago
- Business
- Bloomberg
Next-Gen Crypto Funds That Offer Rewards Beckon After SEC Signal
A new generation of crypto ETFs that allow investors to earn yield — not just bet on prices — looked poised for their Wall Street debut. REX Financial and Osprey Funds have received a so-called effective registration from the US Securities and Exchange Commission for two new exchange-traded funds tied to Ethereum and Solana on Friday. These products offer so-called staking, which allows investors to earn rewards by pledging Ether tokens to help operate the blockchain.
Forbes
25-05-2025
- Business
- Forbes
How To Stake Solana And Earn Rewards
Staking solana comes with benefits of income generated by staking and the ability to contribute to ... More the stability of the Solana network. Staking is the process by which a token holder delegates Solana (SOL) tokens to a validator so that the validator can participate in consensus, which determines which blocks should be added to Solana's blockchain. Validators have the ability to vote on which blocks contain valid transactions and should therefore be added to this network's blockchain. Investors who stake solana by delegating their tokens to one or more validators can both earn rewards in the form of income for contributing their digital assets to the network's consensus and also help make the network more secure. Generating rewards: One major benefit of staking solana is generating rewards in the form of income. The amount of income an investor receives for staking their solana depends on several variables, including how much SOL they have staked on the network and solana's inflation rate. Network reenforcement: Solana's network is vulnerable to the impact of bad actors who could potentially submit invalid transactions to the network. By participating in staking, investors can help ensure that only blocks containing valid transactions are added on the Solana network. Validators are nodes that vote on transactions and therefore determine which are added to Solana's blockchain. More specifically, they vote on individual blocks containing these transactions to decide whether they are acknowledged by the Solana network. To enable this process, individual investors delegate their tokens to validators, which in turn shows their faith in these particular nodes. The more tokens investors delegate to an individual validator, the more weight that node's votes will have in terms of deciding consensus. This weight is referred to as stake-weight, and the network determines consensus by considering all votes cast in this manner. Anyone can run a validator, as long as they fulfill certain requirements. These include having adequate hardware, as well as having a certain amount of solana available to stake. To participate in staking, you need to have a wallet that supports this function. Not all wallets support this functionality, so investors can benefit from thoroughly checking whether any wallet they are considering has this characteristic. Several hardware (or cold) wallets offer this functionality. The Ledger Nano S Plus, for example, supports solana staking. The Trezor Safe 3, Trezor Trezor Safe 5 and Trezor Model T all permit staking. There are also online (hot) wallets that permit solana staking, for example the Phantom wallet, which is self-custodial meaning that using it provides you with full control over your private keys. Solflare is another self-custodial wallet that offers solana staking. Certain exchanges, for example Kraken, let investors stake solana. Before staking any tokens, an investor must move them from their wallet into one or more stake accounts, at which point they can delegate the tokens contained therein to a validator. Investors should keep in mind that a stake account can only be delegated to one validator at a time. In other words, if an investor wants to assign their tokens to multiple validators, they will be required to establish several stake accounts. Investors should keep in mind that for a vote account to contribute to consensus, it needs 'a rent-exempt reserve of 0.02685864 SOL.' Past that, if a validator is in favor of a block, voting for that block requires sending a vote transaction, something that can cost as much as 1.1 SOL every day. Staking rewards are a function of four variables. One is how much SOL an investor has delegated to staking. Another is the network's current inflation rate, which started out at 8% but is scheduled to decline 15% per year until it reaches an annual rate of 1.5%. The third variable is the validator fee, a commission that validators charge their staking accounts every time the network issues inflationary rewards. A validator charges this fee and then the remainder of these rewards go into the staking accounts delegated to that particular validator. The fourth variable is validator uptime, which is how often an individual validator contributes to consensus. A validator will earn a Vote Credit every time it votes for a block that is in turn added to the Solana network's blockchain. These vote credits are in turn used to determine how much every validator will earn when rewards are counted and distributed. Before an investor can stake their SOL tokens, they need to be sure they have a wallet that allows such activity. Once an investor has attained this, they can create one (or more) stake accounts and then move your tokens to these accounts. Keep in mind that each stake account can only be delegated to a single validator, so you will have to set up multiple stake accounts if you want to stake your solana to various validators. One popular wallet you can use to stake solana is Phantom, a self-custodial option. To stake solana using this wallet, you must use the app, select your solana balance, click on 'Start earning SOL' and then select 'Native Staking.' You can then pick out an amount of solana you want to devote to this purpose and select 'Stake.' Another wallet you can use to stake solana is Solflare, another popular method for doing so. At the time of this writing, more than $9 billion worth of SOL was staked through this wallet, according to the Solflare website. This hot wallet is self-custodial, providing complete control of your keys, and it also provides significant flexibility when it comes to selecting a validator for staking. To stake SOL using Solflare, there are several steps you must follow. To stake through a desktop, you must first open a browser and then select 'Access Wallet.' From there, you pick out the 'Staking' tab from the menu on the left side of the page. Next, you click on 'Stake,' determine the amount you want to use for this purpose, and then select a validator. Keep in mind that by completing the aforementioned steps, you are delegating SOL to a validator. However, newly delegated units of SOL are not eligible to earn staking rewards right away, and they will not be able to do so until they are activated fully. These units can change their status once something called a new epoch begins. An epoch is roughly two days in length. Selecting a validator to stake your SOL has significant implications for both you and also the broader Solana network. As an investor, this choice can mean the difference between you earning rewards in the form of commission or losing SOL. Past that, any time you stake your SOL to a validator on the Solana network, you are basically vouching for that validator since you are trusting it to safeguard your digital currency. Another way of putting it is that you are 'voting' for that particular validator and showing the broader network that you are willing to trust it. One major factor to consider when choosing a validator is how much commission they charge on the rewards they generate by staking SOL. Investors should keep in mind that public validators charge between zero and 10% every year. SOLRealms, Solana Compass and Reflect Validator, three public validators, all charged roughly 7.35% annually at the time of this writing. Considering what is at stake, investors can benefit greatly from researching the background and reputation of any validator they are considering. Past that, it might be wise for them to stake SOL to multiple validators so as to avoid putting all their eggs into a single basket. To stake SOL tokens, you must establish a wallet that allows such activity. There are many hot and cold wallets that support this activity, but you can benefit from double checking that any wallet you want to use can provide this functionality. You can first obtain some SOL tokens and then transfer it to your wallet. Once again, make sure your wallet supports SOL staking. Once the SOL tokens are in your wallet, you can figure out which validator (or validators) you want to stake your tokens to. There are many other factors you might consider when selecting a validator, including validator fees and validator uptime. Once you have figured out which validators you want to contribute your SOL to, you can delegate the tokens in question. Remember that a stake account can only be delegated (assigned to) one validator at any given time, so if you want to delegate tokens to many validators, you will need multiple stake accounts to achieve this objective. There are multiple ways you can track the rewards you earn by staking your SOL tokens. For example, you can use Ledger Live, the app designed for Ledger devices. With this app, you can check out this particular metric using the Earn dashboard. To do so, you select the 'Earn' tab in Ledger Live, scroll to your Solana account, which will illustrate both the rewards you have built up and how much SOL you staked to earn them. If you want to check your staking rewards using the Phantom wallet, go to the assets tab, select the 'Solana' token, and then click on 'Your Stake.' From here, select your Stake account and proceed to check the 'Last Reward' section. Once you have put your SOL tokens toward staking, you can unstake them, and once they are available again, you can use them however you want. To unstake using Trezor Suite, the app for Trezor hardware devices, you start by navigating to the tab for Solana Staking and click 'Unstake.' At that point, you can determine how much of your SOL you want to remove from staking in this manner, click on 'Unstake' and then use your Trezor device to verify this particular action. At this point, you must wait for the SOL in question to become available, something that will take about one epoch. You can then select 'Claim' in the Staking tab to move your SOL to your Trezor wallet. Unstaking SOL in the Phantom wallet is a bit simpler. In your wallet, select your solana token balance and then click on the 'Your Stake' row. Next, pick out the validator (or staking account) containing the tokens you wish to free up and then select the 'Unstake' button in the bottom right of the screen. Once you complete these tasks, you will need to wait for deactivation to occur, and then you will have the ability to move the associated funds to your wallet. Keep in mind that you could lose any SOL put toward staking because of something called slashing. Basically, if a validator is guilty of taking certain malicious actions, the network can then punish that validator by destroying some of the SOL that validator has put aside for staking. This has been put in place to provide validators with a valid reason to avoid taking part in such malicious activities, as slashing a validator's SOL reduces the awards it earns by participating in staking and could also cause reputational risk. Interested parties should keep in mind that the existence of slashing can prove beneficial for investors. It gives them incentive to avoid staking their tokens to validators that might engage in malicious activities. Past that, the existence of staking gives them a good reason to avoid putting all their eggs into one basket, so to speak. Tax treatment of SOL staking varies depending on jurisdiction. In the U.S., for example, tokens received through this process are treated as taxable income, the IRS clarified through Revenue Ruling 2023-14. The Canada Revenue Agency treats any tokens received through staking as income during the year they are received. It can prove quite helpful to maintain accurate records that include every crypto transaction you make. It may very well be worth it for investors to stake solana. For example, crypto investors interested in generating income may take a keen interest in such opportunities. Past that, investors who are interested in contributing to the stability of the Solana network may want to take part in staking the digital token. However, investors who are thinking about participating in staking should keep in mind that doing so will put their SOL at risk because of slashing. Any time an investor stakes their digital tokens to a solana validator, they could potentially lose it to slashing, which is something the platform uses to give validators economic incentive to avoid certain malicious activities. Bottom Line Investors who want to stake solana should keep in mind that it certainly comes with its benefits, specifically income generated by staking and the ability to contribute to the stability of the Solana network. At the same time, risk is inherent to investment, and investors can potentially lose any SOL tokens they put toward staking as a result of the network taking part in slashing. Investors can benefit from conducting thorough due diligence on any validator before staking their tokens to it. Inactive stake refers to tokens that are not contributing to the staking process and are therefore not helping make the network stable or earning rewards. Investors who want to stake their solana need 0.01 SOL in their wallet to pay the network fee. They also need to have whatever SOL they want to contribute to staking. Yes, it is possible to stake solana on multiple validators. In fact, the existence of slashing provides interested parties with significant incentive to do so. Staking solana comes with risk, specifically slashing. If you stake your tokens to a validator, you could lose those digital assets should that validator take part in malicious acts. If you want to stake solana, you will need a wallet that supports such activities. There are hardware wallets, for example Ledger and Trezor devices, that allow staking, as well as online wallets like Phantom.
