NOBLE Endorses CLARITY Act As First Major Law Enforcement Backer

The National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives endorsed the Digital Asset Market CLARITY Act, becoming the first major law enforcement organization to publicly back the crypto market-structure bill.

The NOBLE endorsement letter said the bill preserves existing criminal justice authorities while adding investigative tools for digital-asset cases. The group addressed concerns around illicit finance, fraud, money laundering, sanctions enforcement and digital asset crime.

NOBLE said the bill would expand regulatory obligations for digital-asset industry participants, strengthen digital-asset seizure authority and transparency, and tighten oversight of virtual-asset kiosks. The group also said existing federal criminal authorities used by investigators and prosecutors would remain intact.

The endorsement comes after earlier law enforcement criticism focused on CLARITY Act Section 604, the Blockchain Regulatory Certainty Act provision covering certain non-custodial software developers and infrastructure providers.

Law Enforcement Split Remains Visible

NOBLE’s support lands after police and prosecutor groups warned that Section 604 could weaken crypto crime oversight if the final language shields too many actors from money-transmitter, AML or sanctions obligations.

That dispute has centered on non-custodial software, DeFi interfaces, infrastructure providers and developers that do not directly custody customer funds. Industry supporters argue that neutral software developers should not be regulated as financial intermediaries. Some law enforcement groups have argued that broad exemptions could reduce compliance hooks in investigations involving illicit fund movement.

Sen. Cynthia Lummis recently defended the bill’s illicit-finance safeguards, citing Bank Secrecy Act coverage, sanctions tools and temporary holds on suspicious transactions. NOBLE’s letter uses similar enforcement framing while formally endorsing the legislation.

The bill’s enforcement sections include AML and sanctions coverage for covered digital-asset intermediaries, digital asset kiosk rules, information-sharing language, seizure-related provisions and temporary holds on suspicious transactions.

Senate Path Still Requires Floor Passage

The CLARITY Act has cleared the House and advanced through Senate Banking, but it has not passed the full Senate. The bill still needs floor consideration, possible alignment with Senate Agriculture language, reconciliation with the House version if changes are made, and a presidential signature.

The Senate Banking version would split federal digital-asset oversight between the SEC and CFTC, while setting rules for intermediaries, digital commodities, digital securities, custody, disclosures, stablecoin-related issues and certain DeFi activities.

White House officials previously held a CLARITY Act law enforcement meeting as lawmakers worked through illicit-finance concerns, developer protections and the Senate vote path.

As of July 2, NOBLE had publicly endorsed the CLARITY Act, while the bill remained short of full Senate passage.

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