SEC Announces "PoW Mining Does Not Constitute Securities Issuance" Action, Miners Welcome Regulatory Spring

By: blockbeats|2025/03/21 16:15:02

Original Article Title: "SEC Announces 'PoW Mining Not Considered Securities,' Miners Do Not Need to Register, Welcoming a Major Regulatory Victory"

Original Article Author: Natalia Wu, BlockTempo

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced regulatory guidance on Proof of Work (PoW) mining activities on the 20th, and for the first time concluded that "PoW mining activities do not constitute a securities offering," thus exempting them from federal securities law regulation, and mining participants do not need to register with the SEC.

This decision provides clear regulatory clarity for PoW miners and mining pools, alleviating their concerns about compliance with U.S. securities laws.

SEC Confirms PoW Mining Exempt from Securities Law Regulation

The SEC views PoW mining as an "administrative or transactional activity" rather than an investment contract. Miners validate transactions and secure the blockchain network by providing computational resources, earning newly minted cryptocurrency (referred to as "Covered Crypto Assets") as a reward. This process does not rely on third-party management or entrepreneurial efforts, which is a key criterion in the Howey test (used to determine whether an asset is a security).

The SEC considers "protocol mining" as the process of validating transactions and maintaining network security on a PoW blockchain. These networks are decentralized, permissionless systems, and miners add new blocks to the blockchain by solving complex cryptographic puzzles. Miners can participate without owning the network's native cryptocurrency, further distinguishing mining from securities issuance.

The SEC stated that its declaration covers only "protocol mining" activities involving:

• Miners mining cryptographic assets on a PoW network: The SEC emphasizes that these rewards come from the miners' own efforts, not third-party management, making them administrative tasks rather than securities transactions.

• The roles of mining pools and pool operators participating in the protocol mining process, including their roles in earning and distributing rewards. The SEC believes that miners' earnings in the pool are related to their computational contributions, not the pool operator's efforts, so these activities are also exempt from securities law regulation.

Cryptocurrency Mining Industry Regulatory Victory

This clarification is a significant victory for the PoW mining community. The SEC's confirmation that mining is not subject to securities regulation means that miners and pool operators can continue their operations without registering or complying with additional legal requirements. This decision may enhance confidence in the mining industry, especially in the context of ongoing regulatory scrutiny of mining due to energy consumption and environmental impact concerns.

It is worth noting that, after the Trump administration, the SEC has ushered in a crypto-friendly new leadership team and has been committed to providing a clearer regulatory stance. The SEC first defined the classification of digital assets at the end of February, categorizing Bitcoin as a digital commodity and determining that meme coins are not securities, with investors bearing the risk.

PoW Coins Experience Overall Decline in the Past 24 Hours

However, following the SEC's announcement, the prices of PoW tokens did not show a significant increase. In the past 24 hours, they followed the overall cryptocurrency market trend and experienced a general decline.

Due to the lack of highlights and substantial positive news in Trump's speech at the digital asset summit, as well as the escalating tariff war raising risk aversion sentiment, Bitcoin plummeted from $86,529 last night to a low of $83,642, a 3.3% drop, and has since slightly rebounded to $84,528, representing a 1.5% decline in the past 24 hours.

SEC Announces

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Mixin has launched USTD-margined perpetual contracts, bringing derivative trading into the chat scene.

The privacy-focused crypto wallet Mixin announced today the launch of its U-based perpetual contract (a derivative priced in USDT). Unlike traditional exchanges, Mixin has taken a new approach by "liberating" derivative trading from isolated matching engines and embedding it into the instant messaging environment.

Users can directly open positions within the app with leverage of up to 200x, while sharing positions, discussing strategies, and copy trading within private communities. Trading, social interaction, and asset management are integrated into the same interface.

Simplified Trading Experience: No KYC Required, Opening a Position in Five Steps

Based on its non-custodial architecture, Mixin has eliminated friction from the traditional onboarding process, allowing users to participate in perpetual contract trading without identity verification.

The trading process has been streamlined into five steps:

· Choose the trading asset

· Select long or short

· Input position size and leverage

· Confirm order details

· Confirm and open the position

The interface provides real-time visualization of price, position, and profit and loss (PnL), allowing users to complete trades without switching between multiple modules.

Social-Native Trading: Strategy and Execution Completed in the Same Context

Mixin has directly integrated social features into the derivative trading environment. Users can create private trading communities and interact around real-time positions:

· End-to-end encrypted private groups supporting up to 1024 members

· End-to-end encrypted voice communication

· One-click position sharing

· One-click trade copying

On the execution side, Mixin aggregates liquidity from multiple sources and accesses decentralized protocol and external market liquidity through a unified trading interface.

By combining social interaction with trade execution, Mixin enables users to collaborate, share, and execute trading strategies instantly within the same environment.

Referral Mechanism: Non-institutional users can receive up to 60% fee split

Mixin has also introduced a referral incentive system based on trading behavior:

· Users can join with an invite code

· Up to 60% of trading fees as referral rewards

· Incentive mechanism designed for long-term, sustainable earnings

This model aims to drive user-driven network expansion and organic growth.

Self-Custody Architecture and Built-in Privacy Mechanism

Mixin's derivative transactions are built on top of its existing self-custody wallet infrastructure, with core features including:

· Separation of transaction account and asset storage

· User full control over assets

· Platform does not custody user funds

· Built-in privacy mechanisms to reduce data exposure

The system aims to strike a balance between transaction efficiency, asset security, and privacy protection.

A New Path for On-Chain Derivatives

Against the background of perpetual contracts becoming a mainstream trading tool, Mixin is exploring a different development direction by lowering barriers, enhancing social and privacy attributes.

The platform does not only view transactions as execution actions but positions them as a networked activity: transactions have social attributes, strategies can be shared, and relationships between individuals also become part of the financial system.

Regulatory Background

Mixin's design is based on a user-initiated, user-controlled model. The platform neither custodies assets nor executes transactions on behalf of users.

This model aligns with a statement issued by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on April 13, 2026, titled "Staff Statement on Whether Partial User Interface Used in Preparing Cryptocurrency Securities Transactions May Require Broker-Dealer Registration."

The statement indicates that, under the premise where transactions are entirely initiated and controlled by users, non-custodial service providers that offer neutral interfaces may not need to register as broker-dealers or exchanges.

About Mixin

Mixin is a decentralized, self-custodial privacy wallet designed to provide secure and efficient digital asset management services.

Its core capabilities include:

· Aggregation: integrating multi-chain assets and routing between different transaction paths to simplify user operations

· High liquidity access: connecting to various liquidity sources, including decentralized protocols and external markets

· Decentralization: achieving full user control over assets without relying on custodial intermediaries

· Privacy protection: safeguarding assets and data through MPC, CryptoNote, and end-to-end encrypted communication

Mixin has been in operation for over 8 years, supporting over 40 blockchains and more than 10,000 assets, with a global user base exceeding 10 million and an on-chain self-custodied asset scale of over $1 billion.

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