The Solana Institute has urged U.S. senators to preserve key provisions of the CLARITY Act as industry participants increasingly look toward an August timeline to advance the legislation in Congress.
Summary
- The Solana Institute urged senators to keep BRCA protections intact as the CLARITY Act moves closer to Senate consideration.
- Kristin Smith said non-custodial node developers, validators and operators should not be classified as money transmitters.
- Rising procedural hurdles have pushed expectations that the CLARITY Act will pass as early as July 4 into the congressional recess in August.
According to Solana Institute President Kristin Smith, the Blockchain Regulatory Certainty Act provisions included in the CLARITY Act should remain unchanged as lawmakers prepare to consider the bill in the Senate.
In comments posted on X, Smith said the CLARITY Act could soon reach the Senate floor, while arguing that protections for non-custodial blockchain participants are essential to the legislation.
Smith said the BRCA would establish that blockchain developers, node operators and validators who do not take custody of customer funds should not be treated as money transmitters under US law.
He argued that the language creates a clear distinction between software and infrastructure providers and companies that directly control users’ assets.
Describing the measure as consistent with guidance issued by the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network last year, Smith said the provision provides legal certainty for open source software developers and network operators.
He added that top founders, executives and investors across the cryptocurrency sector had jointly asked Senate leaders not to dilute those protections.
Lawmakers continue to debate key provisions
As industry groups push to keep the language intact, several outstanding issues continue to be debated in Washington. Smith noted that the BRCA provisions were recently reviewed during a White House meeting involving law enforcement officials, where participants discussed possible changes. Ongoing negotiations over ethics-related language also remain unresolved.
Those discussions come as lawmakers, regulators, investors and industry representatives prepare to gather in Chicago for discussions focused on digital asset regulation and market structure legislation.
Among the participants expected to contribute to those talks is Rep. Dusty Johnson, who helped push an earlier version of the legislation through the House Agriculture Committee in a bipartisan 47-6 vote last year.
Cryptojournalist Eleanor Terrett said she is particularly interested in hearing how members of the House Agriculture Committee view the Senate version of the CLARITY Act.
As chairman of the House Agriculture Committee’s Subcommittee on Commodity Markets, Digital Assets and Rural Development, Johnson is expected to offer insight into how House lawmakers can respond to the revisions currently being considered in the Senate.
August schedule gains support
Recent reports have suggested that the timing of Congress may be becoming a bigger obstacle than political disagreements.
Like crypto.news above reportedLawmakers, industry organizations and market watchers have increasingly shifted their expectations from a July 4 signing target to the congressional recess in August.
According to a Crypto In America report cited by Terrett, the Senate must still combine separate versions passed by the Banking and Agriculture Committees, secure 60 votes to advance debate, navigate additional cloture votes on amendments, and approve final legislation before any revised measure can return to the House.
Terrett wrote Monday that even if the remaining political disputes were resolved immediately, the legislative calendar leaves little room for a July 4 signing.
He CLARITY Law would establish jurisdictional limits for digital assets, placing decentralized cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum under the supervision of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and leaving qualified securities under the supervision of securities regulators.
The bill also contains provisions covering stablecoins, anti-money laundering requirements, decentralized financial activities, and blockchain validators.
Pointing to competitiveness concerns, Smith said the American share of open source cryptocurrency developers has fallen from 38% in 2015 to about 19% today.
He argued that maintaining regulatory certainty could influence where future blockchain development will take place, warning that jurisdictions such as Singapore and Abu Dhabi are competing to attract the industry’s next generation of builders.
