Over 110 crypto investors, developers, and advocacy groups have signed a sweeping letter to the U.S. Senate Banking Committee, warning that failure to protect open-source software developers could drive innovation overseas and stall crypto adoption.
The DeFi Education Fund has penned a letter to the U.S. Senate Banking Committee with support from over 110 crypto builders, investors and advocates urging Congress to “provide robust, nationwide protections for software developers and noncustodial service providers in market structure legislation.”
The letter, which has been signed by the Bitcoin Policy Institute, the Blockchain Association and the Digital Chamber to name a few of the signatories, states that crypto market structure legislation must protect developers if the broader industry is to support it.
“Without such protections, we cannot support a market structure bill,” reads the letter.
The letter draws a line between the regulatory framework that exists for the “traditional, intermediated financial world” and the world of open-source development, which requires protections for developers so as to not force them into “unworkable regulatory categories.”
If the United States is to fulfill President Trump’s vision of becoming the “crypto capital of the world,” states the letter, it must continue to welcome cutting-edge software development in the digital space as it has since the earliest days of the internet.
According to the letter, the total share of open source developers based in the United States dropped from 25% in 2021 to 18% in 2025, which is attributed to a “lack of regulatory clarity for software development.”
The letter expresses gratitude for both the House and the Senate having included language from both the Blockchain Regulatory Certainty Act (BRCA) and the Keep Your Coins Act that protects developers of noncustodial crypto software in their respective drafts of the CLARITY Act.
