H.R. 3533

[Congressional Bills 119th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 3533 Introduced in House (IH)]

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119th CONGRESS
1st Session
H. R. 3533

To provide a safe harbor from licensing and registration for certain 
non-controlling blockchain developers and providers of blockchain 
services.

_______________________________________________________________________

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

May 21, 2025

Mr. Emmer (for himself and Mr. Torres of New York) introduced the 
following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Financial 
Services

_______________________________________________________________________

A BILL

To provide a safe harbor from licensing and registration for certain 
non-controlling blockchain developers and providers of blockchain 
services.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

This Act may be cited as the ``Blockchain Regulatory Certainty 
Act''.

SEC. 2. SAFE HARBOR FOR NON-CONTROLLING BLOCKCHAIN DEVELOPERS AND 
PROVIDERS OF BLOCKCHAIN SERVICES.

(a) Protection for Non-Controlling Blockchain Services and Software 
Developers.--No blockchain developer or provider of a blockchain 
service shall be treated as a money transmitter or as engaging in 
``money transmitting'' (as defined under any State or Federal law), a 
financial institution (as defined under section 5312 of title 31, 
United States Code), any other State or Federal legal designation 
requiring licensing or registration, or triggering liability for 
unlicensed or unregistered conduct, unless the developer or provider 
has, in the regular course of business, control over digital assets to 
which a user is entitled under the blockchain service or the software 
created, maintained, or disseminated by the blockchain developer or 
provider.
(b) Effect on Other Laws.--
(1) Intellectual property law.--Nothing in this section 
shall be construed to limit or expand any law pertaining to 
intellectual property.
(2) State law.--Nothing in this section shall be construed 
to prevent any State from enforcing any State law that is 
consistent with this section. No cause of action may be brought 
and no liability may be imposed under any State or local law 
that is inconsistent with this section.
(c) Definitions.--As used in this section:
(1) Blockchain developer.--The term ``blockchain 
developer'' means any person or business that creates, 
maintains, or disseminates software facilitating the creation 
or maintenance of a blockchain network or a blockchain service.
(2) Blockchain network.--The term ``blockchain network'' 
means any system of networked computers that cooperates to 
reach consensus over the state of a computer program and allows 
users to participate in the consensus-making process without 
the need to license proprietary software or obtain permission 
from any other user. The term ``blockchain network'' includes, 
specifically, a public network of computers that cooperates to 
reach consensus over the state of a distributed ledger 
describing transactions in a digital asset.
(3) Blockchain service.--The term ``blockchain service'' 
means any information, transaction, or computing service or 
system that provides or enables access to a blockchain network 
by multiple users, including specifically a service or system 
that enables users to send, receive, exchange, or store digital 
assets described by blockchain networks.
(4) Control.--The term ``control'' means the unilateral and 
independent legal right, authority, or ability to obtain upon 
demand data sufficient to initiate transactions spending an 
amount of digital assets, without requiring the approval, 
consent, or direction of any other third party.
(5) Digital asset.--The term ``digital asset'' means any 
form of intangible personal property that can be exclusively 
possessed and transferred person to person without necessary 
reliance on an intermediary.
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