Bipartisan Senators Introduce Bill Shielding Crypto Developers from Money Transmitter Rules
Washington just threw crypto developers a regulatory lifeline—and Wall Street's compliance departments are already sweating.
The Regulatory Sidestep
A new bipartisan bill cuts straight through the legal fog. It carves out a clear exemption: if you're writing code or developing protocols, you're not a money transmitter. Full stop. The legislation draws a bright line between creating the tools and operating the financial service, a distinction that's been blurred for years in enforcement actions.
Why This Changes the Game
For developers, it means breathing room. The constant threat of being slapped with century-old money transmission laws for building decentralized networks just evaporated. Innovation gets a sandbox, not a courtroom. It signals that lawmakers are finally—maybe—starting to understand the tech stack beneath the tokens.
The Fine Print & The Pushback
Don't expect regulators to roll over. The bill forces a fundamental rethink of the Bank Secrecy Act's application to software. Expect think tanks to churn out dire warnings about "regulatory arbitrage" and shadowy financing. The banking lobby will likely counter that a rule for thee should also apply to me—watch for amendments that could dilute the core protection.
It's a bold political bet: that protecting coders will foster more American-led innovation than chasing it offshore. One cynical take? Traditional finance has spent decades building moats with compliance costs; this bill just drained a section of the water. The race to rebuild the system just got a massive subsidy—and the old guard hates nothing more than a subsidized competitor.
The senators introduced the Blockchain Regulatory Certainty Act
The bill is simple, noting that if a developer never handles someone else’s money, they should not be classified as a money transmitter. Money transmitters are businesses that send or manage money on behalf of others, such as banks or payment companies. That is a key distinction because old rules were confusing, and developers feared they could accidentally run afoul of the law in an unexpected way.
The bill is intended to spur innovation by clarifying who should and should not be affected by money transmission laws, while protecting individuals’ financial interests. It’s bipartisan as well, with votes coming from Republican and Democratic senators. This means that legislators from different political parties concur: software developers need government assistance both on how to grow and extend technology.
This provision, part of a larger piece of legislation, could also be included because developers and users who manage their own finances should be protected. The organization said in a post on X that the BRCA needs to be included in market structure legislation and called on all Congressional leaders to join Senators Lummis and Wyden in insisting on clarity and protections for software developers building the financial future.
Bringing Clarity to Broader Crypto Regulations
The Blockchain Regulatory Certainty Act is part of a broader national push by Congress to regulate the cryptocurrency industry.
Senators Wyden and Lummis sit on the Senate Banking Committee, which is responsible for drafting a comprehensive bill that addresses various sectors of the cryptocurrency market.
This higher-level legislation should include the Blockchain Regulatory Certainty Act. The Senate Banking Committee was preparing to hold a hearing on the larger crypto bill, while the Senate Agriculture Committee’s session was pushed to later this month.
A litany of issues lawmakers are debating at present, from how to regulate stablecoins, which are cryptocurrencies engineered to maintain a steady value, to how to govern decentralized finance (DeFi) systems, where individuals can swap or lend money among themselves without traditional banks, to the prospect of conflicts of interest over President TRUMP and his family’s activities in cryptocurrency. The larger bill would establish definitive rules for the industry and promote a balance between innovation, safety, and fairness.
The Blockchain Regulatory Certainty Act would prevent developers who write only code, not code that manages funds, from being unfairly regulated. The bill is a significant step forward for society because cryptocurrency is growing so fast, and laws need to follow suit.
The concept of treating developers as banks could hinder innovation, potentially stalling the initial rollout of new tools. Transparent rules like those proposed in this bill are likely to protect developers, aid users, and facilitate the progress of the digital economy.
Senators hope the law will clarify exactly who is responsible for managing money, and who is only constructing the systems that enable cryptocurrencies to operate.
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