The US Allowed Staking for Crypto Trusts and ETPs

• The US Treasury and the IRS have simplified regulations for digital assets.
• They allowed staking in crypto funds without tax risks.
• The new rules actually pave the way for the massive introduction of staking in the country’s regulated financial products.

The US Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has issued new guidelines that allow cryptocurrency trusts and exchange-traded products (ETPs) to profit from staking digital assets without losing their tax status as investment or grantor trusts. The document that has come into force is called Revenue Procedure 2025-31.

In his turn, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent called the decision a “clear path” for trusts to participate in staking without violating tax requirements.

According to the document, trusts can participate in the staking of digital assets, such as Ethereum or other cryptocurrencies operating on the Proof-of-Stake mechanism, without risking losing their tax status. For this purpose, there is a special safe harbor regime that sets out clear conditions for participation.

Consensys lawyer Bill Hughes explained that in order to comply with this regime, trusts must:

• Hold only one type of digital asset and cash
• Use a qualified custodian for key management and staking
• Maintain liquidity levels approved by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to ensure redemption even in the event of a staked asset
• Have independent relationships with third-party staking providers
• Limit its activities to custody, staking and redemption of assets — no speculative trading

According to him, the new policy will help to increase participation in staking, increase liquidity, and decentralize networks, and also establish staking as a “legitimate, conservative yield-generation strategy” within US financial products.

As a reminder, new rules coincided with the launch of the first spot ETFs with staking in the United States. In particular, on September 25, 2025, REX Shares and Osprey Funds launched the REX-Osprey ETH Staking ETF (ESK) on the Cboe exchange, the country’s first spot Ethereum ETF with staking, which allows shareholders to receive a portion of the rewards for blocking assets with a trust.

In addition, Bitwise Asset Management announced that on October 28, it will start trading its Solana Staking ETF (BSOL). On the same day, Canary Capital’s Litecoin and Hedera funds came to market, and Grayscale will launch a Solana-based convertible trust.