Morning Minute: SEC Gives Crypto Staking The Green Light

Morning Minute is a daily newsletter written by Tyler Warner. The analysis and opinions expressed are his own and do not necessarily reflect those of Decrypt. Subscribe to the Morning Minute on Substack.

GM!

Today's top news:

• Crypto majors dip after Monday’s rally; BTC at $114,300
• SEC gives green light to liquid staking, says not securities
• SBET adds 83,561 ETH in past week, now holds $1.9B
• Pump Fun re-flips LetsBonk in volume, market share; Pump coins jump
• Ape CryptoPunk sells for 720 ETH ($2.58M)

🏛️ SEC Gives Crypto Staking The Green Light

In a very good way.

📌 What Happened

The SEC has formally exempted major Ethereum and Solana staking protocols, Lido and Jito, from securities laws.

This ruling means that their staking services, and the liquid staking tokens they issue (stETH, mSOL, jitoSOL, etc.), will not be treated as securities under U.S. regulations.

The decision came after months of speculation that liquid staking might be in the crosshairs following the Commission’s lawsuits against other staking-as-a-service offerings.

And it’s likely the final clarification needed to give the greenlight to the staking ETFs.

🗣️ What They’re Saying

“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.” - Nate Geraci, on X

“The SEC continues to provide clarity––today, it's liquid staking. In a detailed statement, they carefully demonstrate why ordinary liquid staking activities should not be regulated under securities laws. Huge win.” - Miles Jennings, on X

🧠 Why It Matters

This is a major win for Ethereum and Solana, and for the broader crypto DeFi sector.

For months and years, crypto staking was in a gray zone.

That’s no longer the case.

The SEC’s move does more than remove legal risk for Lido and Jito; it clears the path for non-custodial, protocol-level staking.

• For ETH: Lido’s dominance (over 30% of all staked ETH) means this effectively safeguards a huge slice of Ethereum’s economy
• For SOL: Jito is central to Solana’s staking and MEV infrastructure, so regulatory clarity could accelerate institutional interest
• For DeFi: This could set a precedent for other decentralized protocols that operate without a central operator, especially in areas like restaking, liquid restaking, and cross-chain staking derivatives.
• For ETFs: Staking is very likely to be approved for both ETH and SOL

But perhaps the biggest takeaway of all - the SEC is making good on their promises and guidance laid out in Project Crypto.

And they’re accelerating.

Expect more clarity like this to keep on coming…

🌎 Macro Crypto and Memes

• Crypto majors are slightly red after Monday’s rebound; BTC -0.3% at $114,300, ETH -1% at $3,630, XRP -4% at $2.95, SOL -4% at $164
• PUMP (+6%), MNT (+3%) and TRON (+1%) led top movers
• ETH ETFs flipped green again on Tuesday with $73.3M in inflows after a 2-day outflow streak; the BTC ETFs are now on a 4-day outflow streak
• The SEC confirmed that Ethereum staking protocols such as Lido and Solana’s Jito were exempted from SEC securities laws
• Stablecoin usage hit a new ATH of $1.5T in July
• Coinbase launched an Embedded Wallets SDK letting developers integrate stablecoin-friendly crypto wallets directly into apps with simple logins, removing seed phrase friction
• Coinbase also plans to raise $2B via a convertible note offering
• Solana began shipping its second generation of Seeker smartphones

In Corporate Treasuries

• SharpLink Gaming increased its Ethereum holdings to 521,939 ETH (~$1.9B), adding 83,561 ETH ($307M) in the past week
• Strategy and Trump Media absorbed much of Galaxy Digital’s ~80,000 BTC ($9B) sale, boosting their corporate bitcoin treasuries and alleviating broader market pain
• Upexi announced it now holds over 2M SOL ($335M), trading at 1.6x mNAV
• CEA Industries raised $500M for its BNB treasury, while MEI Pharma purchased $100M of LTC for its treasury

In Memes

• Memecoin leaders are mostly red on the day; DOGE -3%, Shiba -2%, PEPE -3%, BONK -7%, PENGU -7%, TRUMP -2%, SPX -2%, and FARTCOIN -7%
• Pump Fun reflipped LetsBonk in volume, traders and tokens bonded according to Jupiter’s data (now 55% market share)
• TROLL jumped another 60% to $190M and a new ATH; HOUSE (+70%), SPARK (+450%), BUCKY (+30%) and CHILLHOUSE (+20%) led notable movers

💰 Token, Airdrop & Protocol Tracker

Here's a rundown of major token, protocol and airdrop news from the day:

• Succinct Labs launched its PROVE token, debuting at $237M ($1.2B fdv)
• Towns Protocol debuted its TOWNS token and airdrop, with TOWNS debuting at $86M market cap ($630M fdv)
• MoonPay introduced Virtual Accounts in partnership with Axal, offering automatic onchain yield (6-10% apy on stables), savings and DeFi tech
• Base briefly went down for 29 minutes on Tuesday where block production was halted
• Hyperliquid earned 35% of all blockchain revenue in July according to data from Artemis

🤖 AI x Crypto

• Overall market cap down 2% to $10.35B, leaders were mostly red
• FARTCOIN (-7%), VIRTUAL (-4%), TIBBIR (+7%), ALCH (-5%), & ai16z (-5%)
• GAMBLE (+200%), DARK (+70%) and TETSUO (+16%) led top movers

🚚 What is happening in NFTs?

• ETH NFT leaders were mostly even; Punks even at 51.5 ETH, Pudgy -1% at 14, BAYC +1% at 12 ETH
• Mooncats (+30%) and Otherdeeds (+20%) led notable top movers
• Bitcoin NFTs were mostly red or even
• Abstract NFTs were mostly green, led by Noah’s Ark (+160%) and Klara (+27%)
• An Ape CryptoPunk sold for 720 ETH ($2.58M) in the biggest Punk sale in months (Punk floor unchanged at 51.5 ETH)
• XCOPY’s ‘hello admin dm me’ sold for 65 ETH ($232,700) on Gondi
• A Skeleton Meebit sold for 23.8 ETH ($85,811)