Clarity Act Fails in Senate
But "illicit finance" regulations are still coming.
The Clarity Act has failed to advance in the Senate after accruing less than 60 votes.
A new version of the Act released on Sunday as a last ditch effort to pass the Bill in Congress had removed criminal liability protections for software developers, described by the advocacy group CoinCenter as "a tough pill to swallow". Other text, such as obligations under the PATRIOT Act, continued to remain in place.
Pedro Solimano
Long Live Clarity
As Senators John Kennedy and Ted Cruz told Eleanor Terrett of Crypto in America, the Bill is not necessarily dead. Key sticking points had remained, such as developer protections and ethics provisions, on which Democrats and Republicans ultimately could not come to an agreement.
Senator Lummis, who had previously called the Clarity Act a "law enforcement bill," took on harsher words – accusing her democratic counterparts of being "pro-socialism" and "pro-illicit finance."
Indeed, there appeared to be little left of a bill that would have any meaningful impact for software developers in the US. While Thursday's draft continued to exempt so-called "non-controlling" developers from being defined as money transmitters in the United States, the version put before the Senate today removed any reference to 18 U.S.C. § 1960, the federal law governing criminal liability for money transmission.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent had stated at the Congressional Treasury Oversight hearing this afternoon he is pushing for the Clarity Act to "seek out the evasion" of KYC and illicit finance detection.
L0la L33tz
Illicit Finance Regulations are Still Coming
Asked about the administration's promise to protect "non-controlling developers" from being defined as intermediaries to ensure that the US would remain the "crypto capital of the world", Bessent told Congress that the Treasury had received a lot of guidance on the issue, but a specific commitment to protect developers was not issued by the Treasury Secretary today.
This makes "Lewellen’s lawsuit [...] that much more important," writes CoinCenter Director of Policy Jason Somensatto. Michael Lewellen is suing the United States Government over infringement of his First Amendment rights, arguing that he is fearing prosecution for building free and open source privacy software after the conviction of Tornado Cash developer Roman Storm. Lewellen's case had previously been struck down.
"Protections" against illicit finance contained in Clarity, such as an updated broker rule and the extension of the PATRIOT Act, will now likely be introduced via the rule making process.
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