Amanda Fischer, former SEC staff director and policy director, is facing strong backlash from the cryptocurrency community for comparing liquid staking to the Lehman Brothers case, which was one of the main causes of the 2008 financial crisis.
The SEC stated in an official document released on the 11th (local time) that "certain liquid staking activities do not constitute securities issuance" and clarified that the service is not included in their supervision. This is a somewhat differentiated interpretation from the SEC's existing regulatory direction and could provide a positive implication for the cryptocurrency industry.
However, Fischer strongly criticized the SEC's stance on the same day through her X (formerly Twitter) account, directly comparing liquid staking to Lehman Brothers' rehypothecation practices and arguing that the SEC is neglecting major risks. Lehman Brothers secured liquidity by using customer assets as collateral for their own trading, and the liquidity collapse triggered by this process dealt a fatal shock to the global financial system.
Fischer posted that "the SEC is once again giving the cryptocurrency industry a free pass" and "they are now allowing the use of rehypothecation, which brought down Lehman Brothers, even more freely in cryptocurrency without supervision from the SEC or the Federal Reserve".
While Fischer's remarks may resonate with some traditional financial professionals, they are criticized as being far from the core design principles of blockchain-based ecosystems. Liquid staking is a mechanism that allows users to utilize deposited assets flexibly even in a locked-up state, and it is relatively widely used in blockchain ecosystems including Ethereum (ETH). In particular, counterarguments followed that the automated execution of smart contracts, transparent asset traceability, and decentralized verification methods are essentially different from traditional financial collateral reuse practices.
With the SEC officially stating that they will not consider liquid staking as securities, the debate surrounding regulation and safety is likely to continue for the time being. This controversy once again highlights the perception gap between the cryptocurrency industry and traditional regulatory authorities, emphasizing the need to secure legislative clarity in the future.
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