PANews reported on May 30 that according to the official website, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) issued a policy statement on PoS network staking activities, clarifying that three types of staking activities do not constitute securities issuance: 1) autonomous staking (node operators use their own encrypted assets to participate in network verification); 2) third-party non-custodial staking (asset owners retain control and only delegate verification rights); 3) compliant custodial staking (the custodian strictly isolates customer assets and does not use them for operations or re-pledge).

The statement pointed out that the network rewards obtained from the above-mentioned staking activities are the consideration for verification services, rather than investment income based on the management efforts of others, and therefore do not meet the securities identification standards of the Howey test. At the same time, it is clarified that the four types of supporting services (forfeiture insurance, early unbinding, reward restructuring, and asset aggregation) do not change the nature of the pledge. This policy does not apply to pledge services that provide fixed income or use customer assets for trading and other operating activities.

The SEC emphasizes that custodians must ensure that pledged assets are: 1) independent of operating funds; 2) prohibited from lending or re-pledge; 3) not subject to third-party recourse. The policy is intended to provide regulatory certainty for compliant pledge activities while maintaining law enforcement authority over security tokens.