Derek Wolf

Last-minute negotiations between Banking Committee Republicans and Democrats this morning led to a compromise that removed language from the Blockchain Regulatory Certainty Act (BRCA) in Section 301 of the CLARITY Act. This is significant. The BRCA was the provision that explicitly protected noncustodial software developers from being classified as money transmitters. It was the direct response to the Tornado Cash and Samourai Wallet prosecutions, the carve-out that Senators Grassley and Lummis negotiated to shield good-faith developers while preserving prosecutors' ability to go after those who knowingly facilitate crime. That language has now been stripped to secure bipartisan votes. DeFi advocates are already raising alarms, saying the move could gut critical protections for software developers as the bill moves to the full Senate. Despite the concession, Senator Mark Warner (D-VA) still did not vote to advance the bill, even after positively referencing the changes during the markup. Senator Bernie Moreno said during the hearing that there's "still work to be done on Section 301," signaling that negotiations on developer protections will continue as the Banking Committee and Agriculture Committee merge their texts ahead of a floor vote. The bill passed committee 15-9. But the developer protection language that made this bill matter to the people actually building in Bitcoin just got traded away for votes that didn't even materialize.