The Pennsylvania House of Representatives has passed a bill to establish a framework for transactions involving crypto and digital assets.
The crypto bill received overwhelming bipartisan support in Pennsylvania, one of the battleground states likely to decide the next US presidential election. House Bill 2481, also known as the Bitcoin Rights Bill, received only 26 votes against among the 202 members of the House. It is estimated that about 12% of Pennsylvania’s 13 million people hold cryptocurrencies.
Cryptocurrencies, stablecoins, and non-fungible tokens would fall under the scope of the proposed law, but the bill excludes any government-controlled digital assets like CBDCs. If the bill passes, state and local governments in Pennsylvania will not be able to prevent consumers or businesses from accepting digital assets as payment. Additionally, all crypto transactions in the state will be taxed like fiat transactions, and additional taxes or fees on crypto payments will be prohibited.
Establish a framework
The Pennsylvania bill was developed in collaboration with the Satoshi Action Fund (SAF), a bitcoin advocacy group. House Bill 2481 will now move to the Pennsylvania Senate, although it won’t be voted on until after the election.
Lawmakers in 20 other states are considering regulating crypto and digital assets, and many of these efforts have been led by the SAF. Crypto regulations have already been passed in Oklahoma, Louisiana, Montana and Arkansas. Louisiana also recently became the first state to accept crypto payments for all utilities.
Cryptography Innovators
Crypto has become an important topic for regulators and has been factored into the US elections more than ever. The US is lagging behind other regions like the EU, which is launching its Markets in Crypto Assets (MiCA) regulation later this year.
Although there are no federal crypto laws, the United States Securities and Exchange Commission has made clear through a series of enforcement actions that it considers crypto to be a security and crypto exchanges to be unregistered securities dealers.
As a result of these actions, there is concern that digital asset pioneers will move elsewhere and that the United States will lag behind the world in financial innovation.
