SEC staff issues FAQ clarifying Howey test scope for digital assets

The FAQ's practical weight sits in what it removes: if maintenance and development work on an already-functional network no longer counts as essential managerial efforts, that narrows the fact pattern regulators have leaned on in token cases. It matters most to projects past the build phase and to counterparties pricing legal risk around staking receipt tokens, where the analysis has been murkiest. The caveat is structural — staff views, no legal force — so the open question is whether courts and future enforcement treat this as a durable boundary or a temporary one.