3 Reasons Why Crypto Staking Should Receive Another Look

Staking can open the door to more crypto investing opportunities
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Even as cryptoassets continue to make significant inroads into mainstream financial policy conversations, one significant obstacle and gap in the U.S. marketplace continues to hinder industry growth and expansion; the purpose of staking cryptoassets. This obstacle reflects a continued misunderstanding of what staking represents from a technical and network perspective, even if the taxability of staking rewards remains a contentious point for some in the marketplace.
Crypto staking, despite commentary to this effect, is not an investment in a product or service itself; rather it is an integral component of how proof-of-stake blockchains are secured and how transactions that take place on these blockchains are ultimately validated. With SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce leading efforts to pivot and revamp the SEC’s approach to cryptoasset regulation and treatment, there is optimism that this clarification will become more widely understood in U.S. policy circles. February 2025 brought this to the front burner, as the SEC acknowledged the proposal by Grayscale in include staking activities in the Ethereum ETFs already offered by the firm, with a decision expected by May 2025.
As conversations around crypto policy continue to evolve, and acknowledging that the volatility of bitcoin can lead to anxiety for more recent investors, let’s take a look at why crypto staking deserves a fresh look.
Proof-of-Stake Is The Dominant Blockchain
From a market stability as well as a growth perspective it makes sense for policymakers to actively support – or at least not work against – initiatives that support proof-of-stake chains. Regardless of which aspect of the cryptoasset market is examined the result is the same; proof-of-stake chains are the dominant model for innovation and growth moving forward. As per research from Flipside Crypto, approximately two-thirds of smart contracts deployed in 2024 were deployed via Ethereum Virtual Machines, which is language able to be understood by the Ethereum blockchain, which operates with a proof-of-stake consensus methodology.
Stablecoins are another area that has seen substantial increases in interest and investment from both the private sector and individual states such as Wyoming. Specifically both USDC and USDT run on the Ethereum blockchain, and with those two (2) tokens dominating trading volume and market capitalization there is little doubt of the dominance shown by Ethereum in the fast growing stablecoin space.