Mar 23, 2026

For a decade, the crypto industry faced a difficult and often ambiguous regulatory environment. That fog is now clearing.

On March 17, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) issued an interpretive guidance classifying 16 cryptocurrencies as digital commodities and establishing a taxonomy for most of the other assets in the sector. The list of assets includes Ethereum, Solana, XRP, Cardano, Chainlink, Bitcoin, and Dogecoin, among others.

Impact on Staking Mechanisms

One of the most important parts of the new guidance is that it clarifies the way that regulators view staking. Staking is the process by which holders lock their coins to…