BlackRock Put Staking and Tokenized Securities Before SEC Crypto Task Force

BlackRock representatives met with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s Crypto Task Force on May 9, 2025 to discuss staking-enabled exchange-traded products, tokenized securities, crypto ETP approval standards and options on crypto funds.

The meeting was consequential because it brought several unresolved boundaries between crypto markets and regulated investment products into one documented discussion with the world’s largest asset manager. It was not, however, an SEC approval, rulemaking or formal endorsement of BlackRock’s proposals. The primary record establishes what BlackRock placed on the agenda, not what SEC staff accepted.

Five parts of an institutional agenda

The SEC’s meeting memorandum states that task-force staff met BlackRock representatives on May 9 to discuss approaches to regulating crypto assets. BlackRock’s attached request organized the discussion around five areas.

First, the firm proposed an overview of its digital-asset products and identified the iShares Bitcoin Trust, or IBIT; the iShares Ethereum Trust, or ETHA; and the BlackRock USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund, or BUIDL. Their inclusion connected spot crypto exposure and tokenized fund infrastructure within the same regulatory conversation.

Second, BlackRock sought discussion of the regulatory treatment of staking, including considerations for exchange-traded products capable of staking their underlying assets. Staking generally involves committing assets to the operation or security of a proof-of-stake network in exchange for protocol-generated rewards. Incorporating it into an ETP would also raise questions involving custody, liquidity, tax treatment, reward accounting and the legal characterization of the activity.

Third, the firm asked how tokenization of securities could advance under the federal securities-law framework. Tokenization can change how ownership records and transfers are implemented, but it does not by itself remove an instrument from securities regulation.

Approval standards and options limits

BlackRock also asked the task force to discuss specific factors for approving crypto ETPs, including what would be sufficient to satisfy Section 6(b) of the Securities Exchange Act. It raised the possibility of an interim framework for activities conducted by ETP issuers.

That agenda item addressed a recurring market-structure problem: whether regulators could apply consistent criteria across products instead of evaluating each proposed crypto instrument through an uncertain sequence of exchange filings and amendments. The meeting record does not show BlackRock proposing a complete test, nor does it establish that SEC staff agreed to create one.

The final subject concerned options on crypto ETPs. BlackRock requested discussion of standards for position and exercise limits, including liquidity thresholds for the underlying securities. Such limits constrain the number of options contracts a market participant may control or exercise. The policy question was how existing investor-protection and market-integrity controls should apply when the referenced exchange-traded product holds a continuously traded crypto asset.

Why staking was the pivotal question

An ETP that holds a proof-of-stake asset without staking may forgo rewards available through the underlying network. Allowing staking could reduce that difference, but it could also introduce operational dependencies that do not exist in a passive fund holding an unstaked asset. Withdrawal queues, validator performance, custody arrangements and the treatment of rewards could all affect a product’s liquidity and tracking.

BlackRock’s participation made the discussion institutionally significant. The meeting showed that staking and tokenization were no longer questions confined to crypto-native businesses; they had become product-design and market-structure issues for a major regulated asset manager.

What May 9 did not decide

No rule, exemption, no-action position or ETP amendment was approved at the May 9 meeting. The SEC memorandum records a staff discussion, while the attached document records BlackRock’s requested topics. It does not provide minutes, staff conclusions or commitments by the Commission.

The verified development is therefore narrow but important: BlackRock formally placed staking-enabled ETPs, tokenized securities, crypto-product approval standards and options limits before the SEC Crypto Task Force on May 9, 2025. Every substantive regulatory outcome remained unresolved at the end of that date.