Сенаторы защищают права DeFi-разработчиков от регулирования в рамках новой законодательной инициативы Translation: Senators defend the rights of DeFi developers from regulation under a new legislative initiative.

Senators Cynthia Lummis and Ron Wyden have unveiled the Blockchain Regulatory Certainty Act. This legislation relieves developers and providers of non-custodial services from the obligation to obtain money transmitter licenses.

The initiative states that software creators who do not manage users’ funds should not be subjected to the same regulations as financial intermediaries.

«Forcing code developers to follow the same regulations as exchanges or brokers is technologically illiterate. This is a direct threat to Americans’ rights to privacy and freedom of speech,» said Wyden.

The Blockchain Regulatory Certainty Act is expected to be part of a comprehensive reform package for the cryptocurrency market being prepared by the Senate Banking Committee. Hearings on amendments and voting are scheduled for January 15.

The DeFi Education Fund has come out in support of this initiative, emphasizing that protecting software developers is crucial for the future of the financial system.

On January 9, the nonprofit Solana Policy Institute sent a letter to the SEC, urging the Commission to clearly differentiate between centralized exchanges and non-custodial DeFi protocols.

The advocates of the initiative argue that applying the regulation defining «exchange» to open-source code is inappropriate. Smart contract developers do not hold clients’ assets, execute trades, or manage funds.

The Solana Policy Institute contends that equating DeFi with trading platforms will stifle innovation and drive businesses offshore.

The issue of programmer liability has intensified following the prosecution of the Tornado Cash mixer team. Authorities in the U.S. and the Netherlands are pursuing legal action against developers Roman Storm and Alexey Pertsev. The central point of contention is whether writing and publishing open code can be considered as complicity in a crime when the authors did not have access to users’ funds.

In January, Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin published a letter supporting Storm, who faces up to five years in prison. A staunch advocate for the importance of privacy, he has backed the mixer developer’s project from its inception.

Another notable precedent occurred in the case of the founders of Samourai Wallet. In November 2025, a court convicted them for laundering over $237 million. Keonn Rodriguez received a five-year prison sentence, while his colleague William Lonergan Hill was sentenced to four years.

In December, U.S. President Donald Trump allowed the possibility of granting clemency to Rodriguez. In January, the developer’s wife, Lauren Emily, confirmed on X that the family continues to pursue a review of the decision.

She urged the community to sign a petition to demonstrate the importance of freedom for Bitcoin developers.

It is worth noting that in August 2025, Matthew Galeotti from the U.S. Department of Justice stated that the agency would cease prosecuting DeFi application developers under the licensing provision for unlicensed money transmission businesses.