Summary
- Pennsylvania has just passed a bipartisan bill that brings regulatory clarity to Bitcoin and crypto.
- Also, crypto ownership in the state has accelerated with 1.5 million residents owning digital assets.
According to the latest reports, Pennsylvania has just passed a bipartisan bill that brings more regulatory clarity to Bitcoin and crypto, accelerating and supporting adoption.
CEO and co-founder of Satoshi Act Fund, Dennis Porter, revealed that the state passed “Bitcoin Rights” in the House by a sweeping majority. Both Republicans and Democrats united to pass the important bill.
Pennsylvania is poised to be the most important state in the upcoming 2024 US Elections and this bill will play a role, according to Porter’s X post.
Protecting Residents’ Rights to Self-Custody Crypto
Fox Business also reported on the matter, highlighting that the move comes amidst continued confusion on the federal level over crypto regulation, and which federal agencies should be taking the lead in enforcing basic investment rules on the nascent trillion-dollar crypto industry.
Today, The Pennsylvania House of Representatives passed a bill that:
- Protects users’ rights to self-custody digital assets
- Ensures users’ ability to use Bitcoin as a payment
- Offers explicit guidelines around taxing BTC transactions
The House Bill 2481 is called the Bitcoin Rights Bill, and it received strong bipartisan support, winning by an overwhelming majority of 176 votes to 26. The votes included 76 Democrats and it received unanimous backing from all 100 Republican members.
The bill was crafted by the outside Bitcoin advocacy group Satoshi Action Fund (SAF) and it’s the latest effort to support lawmakers in understanding the nuances of blockchain technology and Bitcoin, as Fox Business reported.
SAF helped write and pass similar legislation in 20 other states. The main target of the group is to help mainstream Bitcoin adoption and encourage state lawmakers to establish clear regulations for crypto and normalize it as a way of transaction.
Crypto ownership in Pennsylvania has accelerated and now, around 1.5 million residents own some kind of digital assets. This translates into 12% of the 13 million people who live in the state.
This is an important move forward for the mass crypto adoption in the US. This year, Bitcoin, digital assets, and the entire crypto industry have been one of the center focuses of the upcoming US elections.