Silk Road

The US Internal Revenue Service (IRS), the country’s tax-collection bureau under the Department of the Treasury, updated its guidance for cryptocurrency exchange-traded products (ETPs) to include a safe harbor for trusts to stake digital assets.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent wrote in a Monday X post that the agencies&nbsp;<a href="https://x.com/SecScottBessent/status/1987968130971210154" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">released</a>&nbsp;guidance offering crypto ETPs "a clear path to stake digital assets and share staking rewards with their retail investors.”
According to the guidance <a href="https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-drop/rp-25-31.pdf" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">available</a> on the IRS website, government agencies would allow crypto trusts to participate in staking, provided they are traded on a national securities exchange, hold only cash and “units of a single type of digital asset,” held by a custodian, and mitigate specific risks to investors.
<figure>
 <img alt="Cryptocurrencies, IRS, Government, United States, ETF" src="https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2025-11/019a6f88-eb10-7aef-ac48-3774e2a2696b" title="">
 <figcaption style="text-align: center;">
 Source: <a href="https://x.com/SecScottBessent/status/1987968130971210154" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Scott Bessent</a>
 </figcaption>
</figure>
“The impact on staking adoption should be significant,” <a href="https://x.com/BillHughesDC/status/1987973410576867608" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">said</a> Bill Hughes, senior counsel at Consensys, in a Monday X post.
“This safe harbor provides long-awaited regulatory and tax clarity for institutional vehicles such as crypto ETFs and trusts, enabling them to participate in staking while remaining compliant, Hughes wrote. “It effectively removes a major legal barrier that had discouraged fund sponsors, custodians, and asset managers from integrating staking yield into regulated investment products.”
The guidance followed the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in September <a href="https://cointelegraph.com/news/sec-approves-generic-etf-listing-standards-clearing-path-for-digital-asset-listings-without-individual-approval" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">approving generic listing standards</a>, expecting to result in greenlighting crypto exchange-traded funds. The IRS and Treasury noted the SEC rule change as part of the updated guidance.
Related: <a href="https://cointelegraph.com/news/us-lawmakers-grapple-crypto-tax-policy-government-shutdown" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">US lawmakers grapple with crypto tax policy amid government shutdown</a>
<h2 id="guidance-coming-on-the-eve-of-the-end-of-the-government-shutdown">Guidance coming on the eve of the end of the government shutdown?</h2>
After more than 40 days, reports from Sunday said that several Democratic lawmakers in the US Senate broke ranks and were willing to back Republicans in a <a href="https://cointelegraph.com/news/hopes-us-govt-shutdown-end-institutional-buying-etf-hopes" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">vote to end the government shutdown</a> by passing a continuing resolution through January.
The Senate had not voted on the measure at the time of publication. Since the shutdown began on Oct. 1, staff at many departments and agencies, including the SEC and IRS, have been furloughed.
Magazine: <a href="https://cointelegraph.com/magazine/devil-takes-bitcoin-book-review-jake-adelstein/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Review: The Devil Takes Bitcoin, a wild history of Mt. Gox and Silk Road</a>

US opens door for crypto ETFs, trusts to earn staking rewards

Table of Contents

Cointelegraph

Other articles published on Nov 10, 2025

Join our free newsletter for daily crypto updates!