Washington, D. C. – Congressman Tom Emmer has reintroduced the Blockchain Regulatory Certainty Act (BRCA), a bipartisan bill co-led by Congressman Ritchie Torres (NY-15) and both serving as Co-Chairs of the Congressional Crypto Caucus. The BRCA affirms that digital asset developers and service providers who do not custody consumer funds are not money transmitters, providing essential legal clarity to unlock blockchain development within the United States. Congressman Emmer emphasized, “If you don’t custody consumer funds, you aren’t a money transmitter. Plain and simple. Delaying this commonsense clarification risks pushing transformative technology overseas, harming American investors and innovators. This bill keeps the U. S. at the forefront of crypto. ” Congressman Torres highlighted that the bill reflects a refined bipartisan effort to create a framework protecting innovation without undermining oversight. He stressed the importance of clear rules for developers building open-source software and experimenting with new technologies, warning that outdated regulations drive talent and technology abroad.

The BRCA strengthens innovation, civil liberties, and U. S. competitiveness in the 21st-century economy. Peter Van Valkenburgh, Executive Director of Coin Center, stated that the BRCA protects American crypto developers from undue regulatory prosecution, which has chilled privacy-enhancing technology development. He described legal clarity and support for free speech and software development as core American values codified by the bill. Amanda Tuminelli, Executive Director and Chief Legal Officer of the DeFi Education Fund, praised the legislation for protecting non-custodial, peer-to-peer software developers from being wrongly categorized as operators of unlicensed money services businesses under the Bank Secrecy Act, marking it a vital step for U. S. digital asset development. Sarah Milby, Interim CEO and Head of Policy at the Blockchain Association, expressed strong support for the bill, which affirms that decentralized, non-custodial blockchain protocol builders should not be treated as financial intermediaries. She noted that the legislation provides appropriate regulatory guardrails, enhancing America’s leadership in crypto innovation. Cody Carbone, CEO of The Digital Chamber, recognized the BRCA as essential for freeing blockchain developers, miners, and validators from undue licensing requirements, urging swift Congressional action to allow them to build in the U. S. Kristin Smith and Miller Whitehouse-Levine of the Solana Policy Institute also supported the bill, emphasizing that it delivers necessary legal certainty for blockchain developers and entrepreneurs to build decentralized networks and next-generation financial infrastructure domestically. Ji Hun Kim, President and CEO of the Crypto Council for Innovation, applauded the BRCA for preventing unnecessary and technologically infeasible compliance burdens on non-custodial participants—including developers, node operators, miners, validators, and wallet providers—thus fostering critical U. S. innovation and national economic security. The BRCA addresses the existing burdensome, fragmented state-level money transmission regulations by clarifying that digital asset developers who never hold consumer funds are not money transmitters. This legal certainty is crucial to retaining noncustodial blockchain developers and service providers in the U. S. , rather than losing them to more favorable regulatory environments abroad. Originally introduced by Emmer in 2018, the full text of the bill is publicly available.