Coinbase, Kraken, Solana have joined an array of cryptocurrency heavyweights urging the Congress to ensure that developer safety is retained in the final version of the CLARITY Act. The development comes at a time when the U.S. crypto market structure bill is closer to a full Senate vote. As per White House official Patrick Witt, this week would be a “big one” for CLARITY Act now that the draft legislation has been added to the Senate Legislative Calendar.
Over a 60 founders and CEOs who are building projects on blockchains like Solana and Uniswap, on Tuesday, reached out to the Senate leadership John Thune and Charles Schumer seeking the protection of Web3 developers against the money transmitter tag.
While this Web3 developer protection provision mentioned in the CLARITY Act is among a core talking point of the bill, it isn’t fully secure yet. As the bill approaches its final stage of text negotiations in the Senate, Web3 developers are fighting against the bill’s language being watered down or stripped out before it goes to a final vote.
The correspondence addressed to the Senate has urged the regulators to pass the CLARITY Act with a bipartisan support for Section 604 — also known as the Blockchain Regulatory Certainty Act (BRCA).
Here’s what the Web3 developers are batting for
The Blockchain Regulatory Certainty Act (BRCA) was originally introduced as a standalone bill by lawmakers like Representative Tom Emmer and Senator Cynthia Lummis in 2018. Later, however, the bill was absorbed under the broader CLARITY Act package.
The provision essentially ensures that Web3 developers, node operators, and wallet service providers — who do not control customer funds — will not be treated as “money transmitters”.
Before this clause was made part of the CLARITY Act, regulatory authorities could have argued that if a developer wrote the code for a decentralized exchange (DEX), they were enabling the movement of money. This would have required developers and node operators to need a money transmitter license and adhere by the associated laws.
“From core Bitcoin development to novel DeFi smart contract designs, developers need clear legal certainty to openly build, maintain, and contribute to community-driven software projects,” the letter by the Solana community said in its letter to the Senate. This letter has been signed by the leaders of a16z Crypto, Aave Labs, Anchorage Digital, Dragonfly, and Phantom Technologies among others.
“These provisions draw essential bright lines between intermediated finance and decentralized protocols, giving software developers and providers the clarity they need to understand when regulatory obligations apply. Clear boundaries do not weaken enforcement; they strengthen it by distinguishing lawful activities from illicit or non-compliant conduct,” the letter noted.
Brian Nistler, the Head of Policy at Uniswap Labs joined the discussion on Tuesday. In a message shared on X, Nistler said Web3 developers have been worried for years on facing unwarranted investigations and lawsuits merely for building decentralized software.
“We at Uniswap know what it takes to build noncontrolling noncustodial software. We know others have faced similar risks, and some have chosen to build their protocols and software outside the U.S. as a result,” Nistler pointed out, reasoning why Uniswap is among networks batting for the safety of the developers building on its network.
For now, the Senate’s response to these requests remains awaited. Senator Lummis, who is a co-sponsor of the CLARITY Act has, however, acknowledged the requests being pitched by the Web3 developer community.
Where’s CLARITY at?
On May 14, the Senate Banking Committee passed the 309-page draft version of the CLARITY Act in its markup session with 15–9 bipartisan vote. Once this draft is merged with its sister legislation drafted by the Senate Agriculture Committe, the final langauge of the legislation will be ready.
Along with developer protection guidelines, the final bill would introduce rules around asset classifications, stablecoin yields, staking protection, self-custodial rights, and tokenization among other topics — all of which will shape up the crypto market structure in the U.S.
For CLARITY, the next immediate challenges include more debates before a full vote by all 100 members of the U.S. Senate. To be able to get passed for the Presidential signing, the bill would need the support of 60 Senate members.
The lack of a clear ethics provision — that would restrict people in power like politicans against issuing their own digital tokens — is yet to be added to the bill. The Democrats are lobbying for the addition of this provision to ensure that public figures do not access the power to manipulate markets and tokenomics for their own benefit.
This topic could become a bone of contention in the Senate, crypto players expect.
If, however, the Senate does pass the bill it would have to secure a House-Senate reconciliation process to eliminate any differences between the Senate committees of Banking and Agriculture — before it can finally be presented to President Donald Trump.
If passed, the CLARITY Act would give the CFTC more oversight on the digital assets market, giving the industry a relief from strict SEC rules and regulations. The U.S. regulators are aiming to finalize this bill by July 4 as the U.S. would complete 250 years of independence.
Crypto heavyweights like Coinbase and Ripple have joined forces with over 200 players from the crypto space to push for the CLARITY Act’s presentation on the Senate floor.
