[Protecting Developers or Weakening Regulation? Section 604 of the CLARITY Act Faces Strong Opposition from the Judiciary Committee] BlockBeats News, January 17: The head of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee stated in a letter to the Senate Banking Committee that the Blockchain Regulatory Certainty Act would weaken federal regulations on fund transfers and should not be included in cryptocurrency market structure legislation. Chuck Grassley, the Republican chairman of the Judiciary Committee, and Dick Durbin, the leading Democratic member, wrote in the letter that Section 604 of the Banking Committee's market structure bill—intended to protect software developers from criminal liability for third-party misuse of their products—would "weaken" federal laws regarding unlicensed money transfer operations. "The Senate Judiciary Committee (which has jurisdiction over Title 18 of the United States Code) was not consulted nor given the opportunity for substantive review of the proposed changes in advance." The letter cited the case of the Department of Justice prosecuting Tornado Cash developer Roman Storm, stating that the case demonstrates the importance of current regulations in holding parties associated with unlicensed money transfer operations accountable. This letter represents another blow to the market structure bill, as the Senate Banking Committee had originally planned to debate and vote on the bill on Thursday but canceled the agenda on Wednesday night amid growing opposition. If the provision remains in the bill, the Judiciary Committee (responsible for handling legal matters) would need to sign off on the overall proposal as a third committee, and this latest controversy suggests that the legislative process may become even more complicated. DeFi advocates insist that if these specific protective provisions are removed, they may withdraw their support, signaling yet another difficult stalemate. The letter emphasized: "Therefore, we urge the committee to reject any proposed provisions, including Section 604, that could weaken the government's ability to hold parties accountable for unlicensed money transfer operations.