UK Treasury: 'Coin Staking is Not Collective Investment'

The UK Treasury has concluded that coin staking does not qualify as a collective investment.

According to Cointelegraph on the 9th (local time), the UK Treasury specified through a financial law amendment that virtual asset staking required for proof-of-stake (PoS) blockchains like Ethereum (ETH) and Solana (SOL) is not included in collective investment.

As the UK has proactively recognized staking as a blockchain verification process, attention is focused on whether the United States will follow the UK's precedent.

The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) considered staking as a collective investment, i.e., fund sales, based on the fact that investors' virtual assets are pooled together with those of other investors.

Based on this, the SEC imposed an immediate service suspension and a $30 million fine on the virtual asset exchange Kraken for 'unregistered sales' while operating staking services. Since staking is considered a fund, financial authority reporting and regulatory compliance are deemed essential.

In the United States, the staking feature has also been removed from the Ethereum spot ETF. The SEC interpreted staking as having securities characteristics and demanded the removal of staking-related content as a condition for approving the Ethereum spot ETF.