Crypto groups push to add a bill that aims to protect software developers in overarching legislation

A group of cryptocurrency advocacy groups urged lawmakers to include legislation to protect software developers in a bill to regulate the digital asset industry at large.

The DeFi Education Fund, Coin Center, Solana Policy Institute, The Digital Chamber, Blockchain Association, Crypto Council for Innovation, and the Bitcoin Policy Institute issued a joint statement on Thursday asking for a bill that aims to do just that to be included in market structure legislation.

The bill, called the Blockchain Regulatory Certainty Act, would clarify that non-custodial crypto platforms — and the developers that build them — are not money transmitters or operators of an "unlicensed money services business." It was just reintroduced last month by Reps. Tom Emmer, R-Minn., and Ritchie Torres, D-N.Y.

The groups said on Thursday that specific software and infrastructure providers should not be treated the same as more traditional finance firms.

"As much-needed digital asset regulation develops in the United States, it is critically important to remember that developers creating peer-to-peer, non-custodial software and the infrastructure providers who enable decentralized networks have little in common with traditional financial institutions and should not be treated as such," they said in the statement.

Lawmakers in Washington are grappling with how to regulate the crypto industry at large. In the House, a bill called the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act, or Clarity, would create a clear regulatory framework for crypto in part through designating how the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission will regulate. The bill also requires digital asset firms to provide disclosures to customers and segregate customer funds from their own.

The House Financial Services Committee held a hearing on Wednesday to discuss the Clarity Act and was met with criticism from some Democrats over President Donald Trump's involvement with crypto, including the debut of Trump-backed World Liberty Financial and later the launch of its own stablecoin, to the president's decision to put forward a memecoin.

Lawmakers also delved into specifics about the bill, including how decentralization should be defined. The bill includes requirements around determining the maturity of blockchain systems.

A separate Democrat led hearing is scheduled for Friday to discuss the market structure bill.

On the Senate side, Sen. Cynthia Lummis, R- Wyo., told Bloomberg on Tuesday that work on a market structure bill would "begin" next week.