The Pennsylvania House of Representatives has passed a bill designed to establish a framework for transactions involving crypto and digital assets.
The crypto bill received overwhelming support from both parties in Pennsylvania, one of the battleground states likely to decide the upcoming U.S. presidential election. House Bill 2481, which has also been called the Bitcoin Rights bill, received only 26 votes against among the 202 members of the House. It is estimated that roughly 12% of the 13 million Pennsylvanians are crypto holders.
Crypto, stablecoins, and non-fungible tokens would fall under the proposed law’s purview, but the bill excludes any government-controlled digital assets like CBDCs. If the bill is passed, state and local governments in Pennsylvania won’t be able to restrict consumers or businesses from accepting digital assets as payment. In addition, any crypto transactions in the state will be taxed like fiat transactions, and additional taxes or fees on crypto payments would be prohibited.
Establishing a Framework
The Pennsylvania bill was developed in conjunction with the Satoshi Action Fund (SAF), a bitcoin advocacy group. Bill 2481 will now move to the Pennsylvania Senate, though it won’t receive a vote until after the election.
Lawmakers in 20 other states are considering crypto and digital assets regulations, and many of those efforts have been led by the SAF. Crypto regulations have already been enacted in Oklahoma, Louisiana, Montana, and Arkansas. Louisiana also recently became the first state to accept crypto payments for all state services.
Crypto Innovators
Crypto has become an important topic for regulators that has factored into the U.S. elections more significantly than ever before. The United States has fallen behind other regions like the EU, which launches its Markets in Crypto Assets (MiCA) regulations later this year.
Though there are no federal crypto laws on the books, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has made it clear through a series of enforcement actions that it considers crypto a security and crypto exchanges as unregistered securities brokers.
Because of such actions, there have been concerns that digital assets trailblazers will move elsewhere and the United States could lag behind the world in financial innovation.