All about SEC’s new crypto FAQs on staking, buybacks and investment contracts

The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has come up with a set of Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) on the 25th of September.

Here, the aim of the FAQs is to provide additional clarity on how the agency’s March 2026 Interpretive Release should be applied to different types of crypto assets and transactions. 

Notably, these FAQs are not SEC rules or regulations. Instead, these are just staff guidance. And it goes without saying that this guidance does not have legal force, and as of now, the SEC itself has neither approved nor rejected this content.

In fact, it explains how the ‘Division of Corporation Finance’ interprets existing securities laws and the earlier interpretive release.

SEC’s staff take on staking tokens

Speaking of the FAQs, the SEC staff clarified its definitions of “functional” and “decentralized”. They said these definitions are used to classify crypto assets but do not determine whether an issuer has fulfilled its specific promises to investors.

Then they cleared the air around staking receipt tokens, which they believe can be classified as a digital tool. This is because they simply represent ownership of an underlying digital commodity and are not subject to an investment contract.