U.S. Lawmaker Proposes New Blockchain Bill to Safeguard Developers’ Rights

• A US Congressman has reintroduced a bill (BRCA) that seeks to establish that entities or individuals who “do not custody customer funds” do not qualify as money transmitters. 
• While this seeks to protect blockchain developers and US innovators, this bill also provides the needed clarification for the smooth operation of crypto firms. 

Minnesota Representative Tom Emmer has reintroduced the famous Blockchain Regulatory Certainty Act (BRCA) to provide regulatory clarity for blockchain developers in their dealings with digital assets. According to the report reviewed by CNF, this regulation seeks to exempt digital assets developers and service providers from the money transmitters category.

The Details

Over the past several months, the US has worked tirelessly to introduce multiple crypto-friendly bills, as detailed in our recent coverage. This includes the stablecoin bill highlighted in our previous discussion.

The motive is to guide the operations of digital assets as part of the plans to facilitate its growth and position its use at the centre of the country’s financial system. Looking into BRCA, we found that it was co-led by Congressman Ritchie Torres, making it a bipartisan bill. Meanwhile, both Congressmen Emmer and Torres would operate as the “Co-Chairs of the Congressional Crypto Caucus.”

Shedding more light on the bill, Emmer highlighted that anyone who “does not custody customer fund” is not a money transmitter.

The longer we delay this commonsense clarification, the greater the risk that this transformative technology will be pushed overseas, harming American investors and innovators. This bill provides that clarification, and will help the United States remain a leader in the crypto space.

Additionally, he believes that the Blockchain Regulatory Certainty Act underscores the bipartisan efforts to implement accurate and fair digital asset policies. It is important to note that a similar bill was voted down in a committee markup after it was last introduced in 2023 as H.R. 1747. Our research also shows that Emmer first introduced the bill in 2018. Since then, there have been multiple reintroductions.

Fascinatingly, Torres believes that the latest BRCA comes with a sharper and smarter framework to protect and promote innovation.

Experts Comment on the Blockchain Regulatory Certainty Act (BRCA)

Supporting this development, the Executive Director of Coin Center, Peter Van Valkenburgh, has pointed out that signing BRCA into law would protect American developers and innovators from undue regulation. Meanwhile, this comes after we indicated in a post that the US Department of Housing and Urban Development is considering blockchain for housing grants

Several other reputable voices in the industry, including the CEO of The Digital Chamber, Cody Carbone, Kristin Smith, and Miller Whitehouse-Levine of the Solana Policy Institute, and the CEO of the Crypto Council for Innovation, Ji Hun Kim, have all praised the move.

According to Kim, this bipartisan legislation would facilitate the development of digital assets in the US.

We applaud the reintroduction of the Blockchain Regulatory Clarity Act. This bipartisan legislation will help ensure that non-custodial blockchain participants—including developers, node operators, miners, validators, and wallet providers—are not subject to unnecessary and technologically infeasible compliance burdens that would significantly impede American innovation.

Tom Emmer has been a long-term enthusiast of digital assets. He also participated in the Digital Asset Summit hosted in New York, which was reported in our recent blog post.

Above all, US President Donald Trump has signed an executive order to establish a strategic Bitcoin reserve and lay the foundation for a thriving crypto environment, as noted in our previous update.