On January 13 (UTC+8), Senators Cynthia Lummis and Ron Wyden announced they have reintroduced a bipartisan bill aimed at clarifying when crypto developers and infrastructure providers are considered money transmitters under federal law. The bill, known as the Blockchain Regulatory Certainty Act, seeks to distinguish developers who write or maintain blockchain software from financial intermediaries that control customer funds.
According to the bill, developers and infrastructure providers would be excluded from the federal definition of money transmitters as long as they do not have legal rights or unilateral ability to move users' digital assets.Cynthia Lummis stated that developers who merely write code and maintain open-source infrastructure should not be classified as money transmitters if they do not have access to, control over, or custody of user funds.Ron Wyden said that forcing developers who write code to follow the same rules as exchanges or brokers is technologically unfeasible and could infringe on privacy and freedom of speech.[ME News]