The SEC’s Division of Corporation Finance issued a statement on Tuesday relating to liquid staking or ‘protocol staking.’

“It is the division’s view that liquid staking activities in connection with Protocol Staking do not involve the offer and sale of securities,” within the meaning of the Securities Act of 1933 and Securities Exchange Act of 1934, it stated.

The statement continued to note that liquid staking participants “do not need to register with the Commission transactions under the Securities Act.”

The SEC’s Division of Corporation Finance issued a staff statement on certain liquid staking activities to provide greater clarity on the application of federal securities laws to crypto assets. https://t.co/w4plTWmAJv

— U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (@SECGov) August 5, 2025

Staking Providers Not Entrepreneurial

Liquid staking allows crypto holders to deposit their assets with a provider or in a DeFi protocol and receive the equivalent in staking tokens.

These tokens represent ownership of the deposited crypto, plus any staking rewards, while allowing holders to maintain liquidity without withdrawing from staking. They can also be used as collateral or in other cryptocurrency applications.

Ethereum liquid staking platform Lido is one of the largest, issuing stETH tokens for staked ETH. It currently has almost 8.9 million ETH staked worth around $32 billion.

The SEC defined staking tokens as ‘receipts’ for the assets staked. “A Staking Receipt Token is not a receipt for a security because the deposited Covered Crypto Asset is not a security,” it stated.

Using the Howey test for investment contracts, the SEC determined that liquid staking providers only perform administrative functions rather than “entrepreneurial or managerial” efforts. They act as agents facilitating staking rather than making investment decisions, and don’t guarantee returns.

However, if staking providers engage in more complex entrepreneurial activities beyond basic staking services, securities laws may still apply.

Last Hurdle for Staking ETFs

ETF expert Nate Geraci opined that this is the “last hurdle in order for the SEC to approve staking in spot ETH ETFs.”

He added that the reason was that liquid staking tokens will be used to help manage liquidity in spot Ether ETFs, “something that was a concern for the SEC.”

SEC says certain liquid staking tokens are NOT securities…

Think last hurdle in order for SEC to approve staking in spot eth ETFs.

The reason?

Liquid staking tokens will be used to help manage liquidity w/in spot eth ETFs, something that was a concern for SEC. pic.twitter.com/tKJbEoQVNp

— Nate Geraci (@NateGeraci) August 5, 2025

BlackRock filed for a staked Ether ETF in July, which, if approved, would enable it to offer additional yields to investors.

Crypto analysts are largely in agreement that if staking Ether ETFs are given the green light, it could send ETH into new price discovery and to a new all-time high.

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin and developer Anders Elowsson have introduced EIP-7999, a proposal to overhaul the network’s fee structure by unifying multiple resource costs under a single maximum fee.

The move aims to simplify transaction pricing while improving capital efficiency, addressing long-standing concerns about Ethereum’s complex fee market design.

A Unified Approach to Ethereum’s Fee Market

EIP-7999 seeks to replace Ethereum’s current multi-layered fee system, where users set separate fees for gas and blob data, with a single max_fee parameter. This change would allow them to specify one aggregate fee covering all transaction resources, including computation, storage, and data blobs.

The protocol would then dynamically allocate this total fee pool to cover the actual costs incurred across the different resource dimensions, reducing the risk of failed transactions due to misallocated budgets.

Buterin’s suggestion builds on earlier work such as EIP‑7706, multidimensional gas proposals, and normalization mechanisms like EIP‑7742 and EIP‑7918. Calldata will be the first resource targeted for integration, with the potential to expand to other EVM dimensions later on. The goal is to improve fee predictability, reduce cognitive load on users, and allocate capital more efficiently across resources.

It also follows the co-founder’s earlier push for a 16.7 million gas cap per transaction (EIP-7983), signaling a broader effort to refine Ethereum’s economic model as adoption grows. Developers argue this shift will enhance user experience, as most participants think in terms of total ETH costs rather than individual resource prices.

Market Impact and Future Implications

Meanwhile, at the market, ETH has bled some value recently, dipping slightly by 0.3% in 24 hours and a more noticeable 4.1% over seven days. However, it remains resilient across longer timeframes, being up nearly 42% in the last month and 46.4% year-over-year.

The introduction of EIP-7999 could further influence sentiment, particularly if it leads to lower transaction costs or smoother fee estimation.

Beyond immediate UX improvements, the proposal lines up with Ethereum’s long-term scaling goals. By decoupling resource pricing, developers can gain finer control over network constraints, such as state growth and computation limits, without sacrificing decentralization.

If adopted, EIP-7999 could lead to more sophisticated fee structures, supporting Ethereum’s evolution as a multi-dimensional execution layer. For now, it remains under discussion, with developers weighing its technical and economic trade-offs.

Over the past few days, the price of Tron (TRX), the native cryptocurrency of the Tron network, has ranged between $0.32 and $0.33; however, investors have been locking in profits.

The profit-taking spree has led to TRX recording its second-largest single-day profit event this year. An analysis by the market research firm Glassnode has revealed which cohort of investors is responsible for this development.

Who Is Taking Profits?

According to Glassnode, the majority of the profit-taking is coming from wallets that have held TRX for three to five years. This shows that investors who participated in the 2020-2021 bull cycle are exiting into strength. Glassnode said this shift in behavior could influence short-term market dynamics. It remains to be seen whether this shift will be positive or negative.

The three-to-five-year cohort spearheaded the profit-taking on August 5, driving the 24-hour Realized Profit metric to $1.4 billion. This figure comes second to the $2.2 billion recorded on May 30. Even Bitcoin’s  24-hour Realized Profit metric sat below Tron’s, at $665.1 million, while that of Ethereum stepped down further to $337.2 million.

Glassnode says profit-taking for TRX has remained accelerated since Saturday, with roughly $1 billion realized every day. This is the most sustained wave of realized profit the Tron network has seen in months.

On the other hand, the Net Unrealized Profit & Loss indicator is in Optimism/Anxiety territory, and the Spent Output Profit Ratio (SOPR) is greater than one. This confirms that investors are taking profit into strength. Tron’s 24-hour Realized Loss was a mere $31,600.

Tron Sees Increased Activity

The latest development comes as the Tron ecosystem sees an increase in network activity. The blockchain recently beat Ethereum in global Tether USD (USDT) transactions by more than five times. Since the beginning of the year, the USDT supply on Tron has grown by more than $20 billion. As at writing time, the network hosted over $81 billion USDT, per data from analytics platform DeFiLlama.

Tron also handles about 60% of all USDT transfers, serving as the preferred network for institutions and developing countries. Last week, TRX ranked among cryptocurrencies dominating social media discussions, highlighting sustained investor interest in the digital asset.

Meanwhile, the crypto treasury adoption wave did not leave Tron behind. One leisure goods company, named SRM Entertainment, adopted TRX in its treasury strategy and changed its name to Tron Inc.