SEC issues guidance on how to view proof-of-work mining activities under existing securities laws

the U.S. SEC issued a "Statement on Certain Proof-of-Work Mining Activities" as part of efforts to provide greater clarity on the application of federal securities laws in the field of crypto assets. The Division of Corporation Finance expressed its views on certain activities conducted on proof-of-work (PoW) networks (referred to as "mining"). The statement specifically relates to mining of crypto assets closely associated with the programmatic functionality of public, permissionless networks, which are used to participate in or earn rewards from the consensus mechanism of the network, or to maintain or secure the technical operation and security of the network. We refer to these crypto assets as "Covered Crypto Assets" in this statement, and we refer to their mining activities on proof-of-work networks as "Protocol Mining."