New York Assembly Proposes Crypto Payments Bill

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The New York State Assembly introduced a new bill that would support cryptocurrency as a method of paying fines and taxes.

The bill in question would allow citizens to pay fines, civil penalties, taxes, fees, and other state-charged payments using cryptocurrencies. Essentially, the bill allows state agencies to enter into agreements with individuals to ensure state offices accept cryptocurrency as payment for various types of fees.

While the bill does not require agencies to accept payments via crypto, it does give them the freedom to legally accept such payments. Moreover, according to the bill, these agreements should be enforced by the courts. According to cointelegraph.com, the bill defines cryptocurrency as any form of digital currency in which the generation of monetary units has been done using encryption techniques.

The list of recognized cryptocurrencies would include bitcoin, ethereum, litecoin, bitcoin cash, and potentially other digital assets. As for stablecoins such as USD Coin or Tether, they could also be recognized depending on how the bill is interpreted. For example, since the supply of stablecoins is generally regulated not by the crypto but by the issuer, the bill would not recognize stablecoins as cryptocurrencies. However, the bill recognizes that some cryptocurrencies have issuers.

To become law, the bill still has to pass through the New York Assembly and Senate before being signed by the state’s governor.

New York’s attitude towards crypto

According to cnbc.com, in November 2022, New York became the first US state to ban cryptocurrency mining due to energy consumption concerns. This new law temporarily halts the renewal of air permits for companies that have carried out cryptocurrency mining operations in former fossil fuel factories. However, the law did not apply to individual crypto miners, as it primarily targeted companies that used large amounts of energy for proof-of-work authentication.

Additionally, the state’s regulatory regime, commonly referred to as BitLicense, imposes a set of strict disclosure and consumer protection requirements on any company that offers cryptocurrency-related services to New York residents.

According to cointelegraph.com, BitLicense is a commercial license for the use of cryptocurrencies, which was issued on August 8, 2015 by the New York State Department of Financial Services (NYSDFS).

The license defines the main rules applicable to companies operating with digital currencies, such as the control, administration, maintenance, storage, issuance, holding, exchange operations and software development of virtual currencies. The license applies to entities, while retailers and individuals are allowed to transact without it.

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