SEC Green Light on Liquid Staking Sends ETH Past $4K. Spurs Broad Staking and Layer-2 Rally

Regulatory clarity fuels surging prices across Ethereum’s staking ecosystem, with layer-2 tokens and optimistic rollup projects posting double-digit weekly gains. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's (SEC) clarification around liquid staking continued to lift asset prices across the staking sector this week, with ETH rising to $4K for the first time since December on Friday. Several layer-2 networks have also been the beneficiary of ETH's recent ascent. Ethereum scaling solution Optimism's native token (OP) rose 8% in the past 24 hours to cement a weekly gain of 13%, rival network Blast also experienced a uptick of 6.3%. Mantle, which uses optimistic rollups to process transactions off-chain before settling them on the Ethereum mainnet, was the leader of the pack, with the MNT token jumping by 50% in the past week. The staking sector in general has outperformed the wider market, with LDO up 12.3% and ETHFI up 5.4% in the past 24 hours. The clarification comes after a very brief "altcoin season" last month that led to a series of significant moves for altcoins against their bitcoin trading pair. The SEC's clarification on liquid staking could open the floodgates to institutional capital, which has been open to investing in assets like ether but not acquiring a yield through DeFi due to it previously being a regulatory gray area. Rebecca Rettig, part of Jito’s legal team, hinted that liquid staking tokens could become a part of an ETF following the SEC's announcement. Oliver Knight is the co-leader of CoinDesk data tokens and data team. Before joining CoinDesk in 2022 Oliver spent three years as the chief reporter at Coin Rivet. He first started investing in bitcoin in 2013 and spent a period of his career working at a market making firm in the UK. He does not currently have any crypto holdings. https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2025/08/08/sec-greenlight-on-liquid-staking-sends-eth-past-usd4k-spurs-broad-staking-and-layer-2-rally #crypto #bitcoin #ethereum #cryptocurrency #news #blockchain #litecoin #cryptonews #cryptonewstoday #cryptoworld #cryptonewstoday ***NOT FINANCIAL, LEGAL, OR TAX ADVICE! JUST OPINION! I AM NOT AN EXPERT! I DO NOT GUARANTEE A PARTICULAR OUTCOME I HAVE NO INSIDE KNOWLEDGE! YOU NEED TO DO YOUR OWN RESEARCH AND MAKE YOUR OWN DECISIONS! THIS IS JUST ENTERTAINMENT! This information is what was found publicly on the internet. This information could’ve been doctored or misrepresented by the internet. All information is meant for public awareness and is public domain. This information is not intended to slander harm or defame any of the actors involved but to show what was said through their social media accounts. Please take this information and do your own research. bitcoin, blockchain, crypto, cryptocurrency, altcoin, investment, ethereum, bitcoin crash, xrp, cardano, ripple