Senators Cynthia Lummis (R-WY) and Ron Wyden (D-OR) this week introduced the Blockchain Regulatory Certainty Act, a bipartisan provision that clarifies software developers and infrastructure providers who don't custody or control user funds aren't money transmitters under federal law. Without it, developers of non-custodial software face potential criminal liability under Section 1960 of the federal criminal code — simply for publishing code.
Why the bill exists now
The push comes after a string of federal prosecutions. In 2025, developers behind Tornado Cash and Samourai Wallet were criminally charged for writing and publishing code, not for laundering money or conspiring with criminals. Keonne Rodriguez and William Lonergan Hill were sentenced to federal prison in the Samourai Wallet case. Roman Storm is being re-prosecuted and faces over a century behind bars. Those cases have sent a chill through open-source crypto development — and made non-custodial tools a legal minefield.
What the BRCA actually does
The bill draws a clear line: if you build software that never takes custody of user money, you're not a money transmitter. That's a simple fix on paper, but it cuts directly against the theory prosecutors used in those 2025 cases. The BRCA would make Section 1960 inapplicable to anyone who merely writes code for peer-to-peer transactions, as long as they don't hold or control the funds. It's a narrow shield, but a critical one for developers who've been watching colleagues get handcuffed for open-source work.
What's at stake if it fails
The BRCA isn't moving in a vacuum. It's tied to the broader CLARITY Act, a market structure bill that's expected to hit the Senate floor this session. If the CLARITY Act passes without strong BRCA protections, developers and crypto firms are likely to leave the United States for jurisdictions like Singapore, Switzerland, or the UAE. That's a concrete risk — and one Lummis and Wyden are trying to head off with this provision.
A separate fight over stablecoin yields
The stablecoin yield debate — whether crypto platforms can share yield from Treasury bill reserves with holders — is a different question, but it's snarled in the same market structure legislation. The American Bankers Association has mobilized lobbying against allowing yield sharing, aiming to protect traditional banks from competition. That fight is separate from the BRCA, but it's part of the same legislative logjam that could determine how much crypto innovation stays in the U.S.
The Senate is expected to take up the CLARITY Act in the coming weeks. The question is whether the BRCA survives negotiations — and whether the coders who built the industry's backbone will still be around to see it.
