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In the US, lawmakers are opening up to cryptocurrencies. A new draft law aims to create legal certainty for developers, nodes, and DeFi, while the securities regulator SEC, under its new chairman, seeks to adapt regulation to crypto—rather than forcing crypto to adapt to it.
At its core, the legal situation is clear: anyone who custodies cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin on behalf of others is considered a financial service provider and is regulated accordingly. Those who don’t perform this function remain unregulated. There is a broad global consensus on this point.
However, some important questions remain troublingly unanswered in detail: What about developers who, like those working on Tornado Cash or Samourai, write software that protects privacy? What about operators of nodes, especially for Lightning, and miners or validators? What about those providing liquidity on decentralized finance (DeFi) markets?
The Clarity Act, currently being discussed in the US House of Representatives, seeks to establish legal certainty in such cases. It introduces the concept of a „non-controlling“ actor. This refers to individuals who write code or help other users self-custody coins and tokens, and therefore should not be treated as financial service providers. As a result, such lawsuits against developers would be preempted.
Furthermore, the law exempts a range of DeFi applications from oversight by the CFTC as long as there is no evidence of fraud or manipulation in these systems. Additionally, operators of nodes, oracles, and liquidity providers—such as those in DeFi pools—are not required to register and remain unregulated.
Essentially, the legislation affirms existing practices that are already common but do not yet enjoy legal protection. Individual lawsuits, such as those against the developers of Tornado Cash or Samourai, as well as against DAOs, illustrate the legal uncertainty that can come with this.
By providing clarity on these issues, the Clarity Act gives wallet developers, DeFi founders, node operators—including those on Lightning!—and liquidity providers legal security. In this respect, it represents a major step forward.
The Clarity Act also represents the currently favorable climate toward crypto in the US. This is further illustrated by statements from Paul Atkins, the new chairman of the securities regulator SEC.
Self-custody as a Fundamental American Value
Atkins delivered a speech at the SEC’s „Crypto Task Force roundtable on Decentralized Finance (DeFi)“ titled „DeFi and the American Spirit“.
During his remarks, he made it clear that „voluntary participation in a proof-of-work or proof-of-stake network as a miner, validator, or staking-as-a-service provider does not fall under the federal securities laws.“ This remains the status quo, which, however, has not previously enjoyed legal certainty. Now, at least from the SEC’s perspective, it is clear that miners and validators are not subject to regulation.
Atkins also advocates strengthening the idealistic core of Bitcoin and crypto—self-sovereignty. „I support allowing market participants greater flexibility to self-custody crypto assets, especially when intermediaries impose unnecessary transaction costs or restrict the ability to stake or otherwise participate in on-chain activities.“
Self-custody, Atkins noted, is a fundamental American value.
Regulating New Ideas with New Rules
At the same event, SEC Commissioner Mark T. Uyeda explained how the SEC intends to regulate DeFi: Approaches so far have been non-transparent and discouraging for founders. The Crypto Task Force aims to change this, as its mandate is to provide answers to many pressing questions.
„The SEC is committed to high-quality regulation. This takes time,“ he urges the market for patience. He is still uncertain what the ideal regulation should look like, „but the path begins with seeking input from the public.“ The process will be frustrating and arduous, but „by learning from DeFi innovators, we have a better chance of regulating securities transactions in DeFi and protecting American investors when they use decentralized services and products.“
Uyeda sees DeFi as „a new landscape of opportunity. People can transfer directly with one another, without relying on banks or other central intermediaries.“ The SEC should not shy away from „supervising new ideas simply because those ideas require thinking outside the existing framework.“
The traditional basis for regulatory oversight has assumed the existence of numerous intermediaries. According to Uyeda, the SEC must now break away from this assumption to provide an appropriate response to the regulatory challenges of DeFi.
This would indeed mark a radical change of course. While crypto has so far been regulated according to the standards of legacy finance, the SEC now wants to adapt regulation to the unique nature of crypto itself. One can only hope that this new perspective will be adopted internationally.

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