New York Crypto Currency Regulation: New York Introduces bill to make digital assets legal form of payment

Crypto Currency Regulation in New York – Understanding the Latest Laws and Regulations

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A move that’s been doing the rounds this month is New York’s landmark leap towards legalizing crypto as recognizable digital assets and a form or means of financial payment within the state.

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The passing of the bill- A progressive crypto currency revolution

Image Source: https://www.bizepic.com/2017/12/28/crypto-revolution-bitcoin-blockchain-hashgraph/

What really happened on the fateful day was, the NY legislation newly introduced on January 26 made quite significant changes to the state’s current constitutional financial laws, allowing for the lawful use of cryptocurrencies as acceptable financial payments to state owned agencies.

According to the passed bill, New York state agencies should now be accepting digital cryptocurrencies as a legalized form of financial payment.

New York state assembly also introduced crypto payments as a legally acceptable mode of bill repayment for fines, taxes, etc.

The bill further clarified that state agencies can also legally agree to widespread acceptance of cryptocurrency authorized financial payments and that these agreements should be equally enforced by the courts for further ensuring procedural legality.

It would also allow state agencies to freely accept cryptocurrencies as a legalized form of payment for repaying debts, fines, civil penalties, taxes, fees and other official payments chargeable by the state.

What’s more to know about the new Crypto Regulation in New York

Image Source: https://techdaily.ca/is-cryptocurrency-legal-in-canada

The much talked about New York State Assembly Bill A523 is introduced by a Democratic Assembly Member named Clyde Vanel, who is rather touted as a crypto-friendly politician gladly welcoming this move. 

This regulation allows state agencies to enter into agreements with individuals for granting legal acceptance of cryptos, under the aegis of offices of the state.

Recognizing cryptocurrency as a legalized means of payment for a number of payment scenarios including repayment of

• Civic fees
• Fines 
• Civic penalties
• Rents
• Rate
• Tax
• Service fee
• Charges
• Revenues

Financial obligations to the state or any other pending amounts, like penalties, special assessment fees and interests, owed to state owned agencies.

The bill does not directly impose state agencies to accept crypto as legal tender or as modalities of payment, but it does implicate that state agencies can autonomously and legally start agreeing to accept such modes of payment and that such transactional agreements shall be legally enforced and backed by the courts.

The bill clearly defines “cryptocurrency” as a virtual form of digitized currency involving encryption techniques for the generation of its units of currencies that includes but is not limited to, bitcoins, Ethereum, Litecoin’s and bitcoin cash.”

Depending on how exactly this proposed definition is legally interpreted, it might or might not be including the stable coins like USD Coins (USDC) and Tether (USDT) as of now.

On the hindsight, the immediate supplies of stable coins is self-regulated by the issuer rather than by the norms of cryptography.

On the contrary, the bill does recognize that some of the cryptocurrencies as having an “issuer,” and it also provides inclusions of the fact that state agencies can in turn charge the payor an additional extra fee if such a fee has been charged by a cryptocurrency’s issuer.

Crypto – is now legal!

Image Source: https://www.cointribune.com/en/united-states-is-most-crypto-ready-country/

The now viral document defined cryptocurrencies falling under the newly revised state law legislation, mentioning the obvious

• Bitcoin ( BTC),
• Ethereum ( ETH)
• Litecoin (LTC) 
• Bitcoin Cash (BCH)

as legally acceptable modes of financial repayment options.

The passed regulation and the implementation of digital assets or cryptocurrencies have been doing the rounds as a new finance hot topic in the recent months, as various regulatory bodies grapple on how to approach these often controversial virtual assets.

This bolt from the blue follows next to the significant losses experienced by the economies and  industries post pandemic in 2022 and the rising cases of fraudulent activities that were alarmingly uncovered, there had been some really  increasing pressure building up to legally regulate digital assets now.

The Consequences

Image Source: https://penntoday.upenn.edu/news/beginners-guide-cryptocurrency

Why this news really matters a lot now: In the awakening of Arizona’s latest attempts for making Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies reckoned as legal tender for financial payments in the state, New York being the Manhattan main street of finance had to follow suit with this amendment shortly.

The bill boldly stated, the act amendment allows the states financial law in its relation to allowing and granting New York state agencies  acceptance of cryptocurrencies as a form of legal financial means of payment.

The legal document also had laid out straight, the requisite guidelines for  defining the financial implications and modalities of cryptocurrencies and its authorized use by state agencies as acceptable legal tender.

Furthermore, the bill entails each state agency to be authorized for signing up an agreement with individuals to provide due acceptance, either by offices of the state, of digital cryptocurrency as a means of legal payment for fines, civic penalties, rent, rates, taxes, and more such civil duties involving transactions.

Concluding Thoughts

With all controversies set aside, bitcoin still might not be quite ready yet to be widely accepted as a real-time payment method for everything.

Nevertheless, this strategic act surely shows that the US desperately wants to be on the map as a place for inviting innovation in fintech and blockchain policies as part of the financial future of this era. And we all surely know history repeats itself.

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