Solana Policy Institute President Reveals Top CLARITY Act Priorities—Here’s The Latest On The Crypto Regulation Bill

Washington's playing catch-up with crypto—again. The Solana Policy Institute just dropped its roadmap for the CLARITY Act, and it's not about gentle nudges. It's a full-throttle push for regulatory certainty that could reshape the entire digital asset landscape.

Cutting Through The Regulatory Fog

The Institute's president isn't mincing words. The top priority? Defining digital assets clearly to sidestep the enforcement-by-lawsuit approach that's been chilling innovation. The goal is a framework where builders know the rules before they break ground, not after the SEC shows up at the door.

Speed, Scale, And Sovereignty

Next on the list: ensuring any new rules don't kneecap the very advantages that make blockchains like Solana tick. We're talking transaction speed and global scalability. The bill's latest draft reportedly tackles this head-on, aiming to prevent legacy financial plumbing from being forced onto next-gen networks.

The State Vs. SEC Showdown

Perhaps the most explosive priority is clarifying the messy turf war between federal and state regulators. The update suggests the bill is leaning towards empowering state-level innovation—a direct challenge to the SEC's 'one-size-fits-all' power grab. It's a bet that fifty laboratories of democracy can out-innovate a single, sluggish bureaucracy.

The bill's momentum is building, with key committee markups rumored for next quarter. In the end, the CLARITY Act isn't just another piece of legislation. It's a referendum on whether America will write the rules for the next financial system—or just another line item in the compliance budget for banks that are still trying to figure out what a blockchain even is.

Solana Policy Institute’s Optimism For CLARITY Act 

One of the main priorities disclosed by Smith in a recent post on social media platform X (formerly Twitter), is the importance of protecting open-source developers in the legislative landscape.

Smith pointed out that the recent delay in the markup of the market structure bill last week after Coinbase’s withdrawal should be seen as a temporary setback. “Despite the delay, industry engagement remains robust, and there is clear bipartisan support to achieve durable regulatory clarity for market structure,” she noted.

The Senate Agriculture Committee is making advancements with its own draft of the legislation expected to be released on Wednesday, as earlier reported by Bitcoinist.

Smith also highlighted a shared objective: to create a framework that protects consumers, fosters innovation, and provides certainty for developers operating in the United States. A central tenet of this goal is the safeguarding of developers, which Smith argued is crucial for the success of the industry.

Smith Advocates For Developer Protections

The solana Institute was founded to ensure that policymakers gain a comprehensive understanding of public blockchains and the protocols that underpin them. 

Smith articulated the critical role that open-source software plays within the crypto ecosystem, noting that developers around the world collaborate to produce software that anyone can inspect, use, or improve. “Openness is a strength—not a liability,” she asserted.

However, she raised concerns regarding the case against Roman Storm of Tornado Cash, indicating that it treats open-source innovation as something questionable. Smith warned that penalizing developers merely for writing and publishing open-source code endangers all those involved in such collaborative efforts. 

She emphasized the “chilling effect” that the prosecution could have on open-source developers, asserting that writing code is an expressive act protected by the First Amendment.

Smith called for clear policy that differentiates between bad actors and developers working on lawful, general-purpose tools. To bolster this cause, she encouraged supporters to draft letters expressing their stance in favor of open-source protections.

Roman Storm responded to Smith’s support, thanking her and the broader community for advocating for open-source principles. He remarked, “Criminalizing the act of writing and publishing code threatens not just one developer, but the foundations of digital security, privacy, and innovation.” 

At the time of writing, Solana’s native token, SOL, was trading at $130.33, mirroring the performance of the broader crypto market, dropping 11% in the weekly time frame.   

Featured image from DALL-E, chart from TradingView.com