Montana Bill Classifying Crypto as Personal Property Approved by House of Reps

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Draft leg­is­la­tion that des­ig­nates dig­i­tal assets as “per­son­al prop­er­ty” passed the third read­ing in Montana’s House of Representatives. 

The bill, which also aims to fos­ter the oper­a­tions of local cryp­tocur­ren­cy min­ers, needs to receive a green light from the state’s Gov­er­nor – Greg Gian­forte – to become official. 

One Step Closer

After receiv­ing Senate’s approval at the end of Feb­ru­ary, bill num­ber 178 recent­ly passed Montana’s House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives with 64 votes in favor and 35 against. The fourth and final step before becom­ing offi­cial is the sig­na­ture of Gov­er­nor Greg Gianforte.

It is worth men­tion­ing that the politi­cian and state Sen­a­tor Daniel Zol­nikov (spon­sor of the leg­is­la­tion) are both part of the Repub­li­can Party. 

The bill aims at pro­hibit­ing the tax­a­tion on cryp­to trans­ac­tions when used as a means of pay­ment. It also clas­si­fies dig­i­tal assets (includ­ing sta­ble­coins and NFTs) as “per­son­al property.” 

Anoth­er goal of Montana’s even­tu­al leg­is­la­tion is to ban any dis­crim­i­na­to­ry ener­gy rates charged to cryp­to min­ers. Such com­pa­nies which oper­ate inside the state’s bor­ders will be pro­vid­ed with cer­tain ben­e­fits and reduced con­trol imposed by gov­ern­ment agencies. 

“The State of Mon­tana wants to pro­tect the right of indi­vid­u­als and busi­ness­es to mine 16 dig­i­tal assets and cre­ate legal cer­tain­ty for the dig­i­tal asset min­ing indus­try. Dig­i­tal asset min­ing has the poten­tial to sta­bi­lize the grid and pro­vide rev­enue for 18 infra­struc­ture upgrades statewide,” the doc­u­ment reads.

Which US States Are Marching Toward Crypto?

Texas, which has emerged as the cryp­to min­ing hub of the USA, is one of the friend­ly loca­tions. The vast area of the state, the favor­able cli­mate con­di­tions, and the rel­a­tive­ly low cost of elec­tric­i­ty have attract­ed numer­ous indus­try play­ers to set­tle there. As Cryp­toPota­to report­ed in the sum­mer of 2021, some Chi­nese min­ers eyed Texas as their next pos­si­ble des­ti­na­tion fol­low­ing the total ban on all cryp­to operations.

In addi­tion, junior Unit­ed States Sen­a­tor for Texas – Ted Cruz – is an out­spo­ken pro­po­nent of bit­coin, argu­ing it pro­vides finan­cial free­dom to peo­ple because gov­ern­ments can not con­trol it. 

Ari­zona is anoth­er region where BTC might pros­per. State Sen­a­tor Wendy Rogers pro­posed a bill last year that seeks to make the asset an offi­cial pay­ment method. The politi­cian has pre­vi­ous­ly dis­played inten­tions to turn the Grand Canyon state into a “cryp­to-friend­ly” territory.

Flori­da also finds a place on that list. Gov­er­nor Rob DeSan­tis said at the end of 2021 that the domes­tic author­i­ties should enable busi­ness­es to pay their state fees in dig­i­tal assets instead of fiat. The 44-year-old Repub­li­can who might run for Pres­i­dent of the USA next year recent­ly pre­sent­ed him­self as an oppo­nent of the cre­ation of a dig­i­tal dollar. 

He thinks such a mon­e­tary prod­uct could act as a sur­veil­lance tool and sug­gest­ed its total pro­hi­bi­tion in the ter­ri­to­ry of Florida. 

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