Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) Continues to Advocate for the BRCA; EU’s MiCA Regulation Under Review; Pertsev’s Trial Featured at Dutch Blockchain Week; and more.

Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) Continues to Advocate for the BRCA 

In a new letter to Senate leadership, Senator Wyden said: 

“I write to urge you to ensure that any version of the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act (Clarity Act) that is brought to the Senate floor preserves Section 604 of the bill as passed out of the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee. Section 604, also known as the Blockchain Regulatory Certainty Act (BRCA), is a bipartisan provision that provides critical safeguards for non-custodial blockchain developers while also ensuring that prosecutorial and investigative resources are used as efficiently and effectively as possible to target bad actors.” 

The DEF team wholeheartedly agrees, and we appreciate Senator Wyden and his staff for their continued leadership on this important, bipartisan provision. A comprehensive market structure bill must include strong software developer protections.

You can read the full letter here.

Law Enforcement Groups Comment on Clarity Act

On July 1, 2026, the Clarity Act won its first endorsement from a major law enforcement organization. In a letter to Senate leadership, the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives (NOBLE) wrote it “believes” the Clarity Act would “provide law enforcement with meaningful new capabilities.” The letter highlights provisions like Section 205, which applies heightened oversight to digital asset kiosks, and the expansion of regulatory obligations on new industry participants under Section 201. 

Then, on July 3, 2026, the Major County Sheriffs of America (MCSA) wrote to Senate Banking Committee leadership to inform them that the organization is “now neutral” on the Clarity Act. The update comes as MCSA continues to engage in negotiations and review the draft legislation. The letter asked the Committee to include state and local law enforcement with “a formal role” in the Treasury-led study of mixers and tumblers, as well as in any working groups or interagency advisory bodies currently contemplated in the legislation. 

You can read more coverage on the letters here. The DEF team also compiled a list of the sections in the Clarity Act that provide tools for prosecutors and law enforcement professionals, which you can find here. 

EU’s MiCA Regulation Under Review 

On July 1, 2026, the European Union’s Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) regulations went into full effect. After a three-year rollout, all crypto asset service providers with operations in the EU are now required to obtain authorization to continue doing business. 

The European Commission also launched a public consultation seeking feedback from industry participants and regulators. The consultation includes a standalone section on issues not originally contemplated by the regulation, including decentralized finance, lending, and staking. Industry participants have the opportunity to provide feedback on whether decentralized protocols and smart contracts should be subject to registration requirements and, if so, whether those requirements should be the same as those applied to MiCA-regulated crypto-asset service providers. The deadline to submit comments is September 30, 2026. 

You can learn more about the MiCA review process here. 

New DEF Blog: Alexey Pertsev’s Trial Featured at Dutch Blockchain Week

DEF authored a new blog post featuring highlights from a Dutch Blockchain Week 2026 panel. At the center of the conversation was the Tornado Cash case and the appeal of developer Alexey Pertsev. The panelists, a group of lawyers, builders, and human rights defenders, explored a key question: can code commit a crime? 

You can read the blog post here. 

Reminder to Join DEF’s OPSeC Initiative 

Calling all builders, developers, and investors that are committed to strengthening onchain security: we invite you to take the OPSeC pledge and join DEF’s newly launched Open Protocol Security Coalition (OPSeC). OPSeC is an industry-wide initiative in partnership with Security Alliance (SEAL) and Asymmetric Research that aims to promote operational security across blockchain ecosystems and onchain software. If you’re reading this and are curious to learn more about OPSeC, please email opsec@defieducationfoundation.org.   

You can learn more about OPSeC here.

Notable and Quotable

“[N]obody can credibly say phones are too indispensable to count as voluntary exposure while insisting bank accounts are optional. Either both should be protected, or neither should. Based on the arguments made in Chatrie v. United States, it’s time to recognize that the Bank Secrecy Act and warrantless surveillance of financial activity are an unjustified intrusion into people’s privacy.”

-Nicholas Anthony, the Cato Institute 

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