Solana Institute urges Senate to preserve developer protections in CLARITY Act

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Solana Institute on CLARITY Act

Highlights

More than 60 crypto CEOs, including Solana’s Anatoly Yakovenko, signed an open letter urging the Senate to preserve developer protections in the CLARITY Act.
The CLARITY Act, which cleared the Senate Banking Committee in May, may reach a floor vote this summer and aims to clarify liability for blockchain participants.
SEC Chair Paul Atkins's move away from regulation through enforcement signals a potentially lower legal risk environment for U.S. crypto developers and infrastructure providers.

Senate bill puts developer liability in focus

As reported by Cointelegraph, Smith said in a thread on X that the CLARITY crypto market structure bill has a realistic path through the Senate, making it important for lawmakers to keep protections for software developers intact.

She said more than 60 crypto CEOs and founders, including Solana co-founder Anatoly Yakovenko, signed an open letter calling on the Senate to maintain robust developer safeguards in the legislation. Smith argued that open-source developers, validators and non-custodial wallet providers should not be regulated as brokers or custodians because they neither hold user funds nor execute transactions.

Smith also pointed to the bipartisan Blockchain Regulatory Certainty Act, introduced in January by Senators Cynthia Lummis and Ron Wyden. That proposal is designed to give legal certainty to noncontrolling software developers and blockchain infrastructure providers that do not custody customer assets or control transactions, and to prevent them from being classified as money transmitters solely for publishing code.

The CLARITY Act cleared the Senate Banking Committee in May and has since been placed on the Senate Legislative Calendar, setting up the possibility of a floor vote later this summer.

Broader regulatory shift supports crypto sector stance

Smith's position aligns with recent remarks from U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Commissioner Hester Peirce, who says publishing open-source blockchain code is protected speech. Speaking last week at the IC3 Blockchain Camp at Princeton University, Peirce said many blockchain projects involve publishing open-source software, an activity that is generally protected under the First Amendment.

The debate comes as the SEC's approach to digital assets continues to shift under Chair Paul Atkins. Atkins has pledged to end what he describes as regulation through enforcement, a change the crypto industry sees as potentially reducing legal risk for developers and other infrastructure participants across the U.S. market.

Our earlier coverage of a new U.S. House proposal to modernize digital asset tax rules explained how lawmakers aim to reduce reporting burdens, clarify treatment for common crypto transactions, and apply established tax principles to digital commerce. The article highlighted the House Ways and Means Committee’s push for clearer “rules of the road” to support compliance and strengthen U.S. competitiveness as cryptocurrency ownership grows nationwide.

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