U.S. SEC: Proof of Work (PoW) mining activities do not constitute a securities offering

ChainCatcher News, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) released a statement on March 20, stating that the "mining activities" of the proof-of-work (PoW) mechanism do not constitute the issuance of securities under the definitions of the Securities Act of 1933 and the Securities Exchange Act of 1934.

The statement pointed out that neither individual mining nor pool mining meets the key element of "reasonable expectation of profits derived from the efforts of others" in the Howey Test.

The SEC stated that miners secure the network, validate transactions, and add new blocks by contributing computational resources, and the rewards they receive are payments for the services provided to the network, rather than profits derived from the efforts of others. The SEC emphasized that this determination applies only to specific types of mining activities, and other transactions involving crypto assets will still require case-by-case analysis.