A new bill, put forward by a group of Republican and Democrat representatives and senators, seeks to amend definitions relating to the Wyoming Money Transmitter Act in order to include digital currency as a permissive investment.
The Act that was introduced in Chapter 22 of Title 40 - Trade and Commerce, one of the Wyoming Statutes of 2011, caused cryptocurrency businesses in the US state to almost cease their operations during mid-2014, when the Wyoming Division of Banking communicated the regulatory policies’ effects on cryptocurrency exchanges, CoinTelegraph reported.
The most notable was Coinbase that suspended its services indefinitely in the state in October saying:
“The Wyoming Division of Banking has recently communicated regulatory policies which we believe will render continued Coinbase operations there impractical. In particular, we understand that the Wyoming Division of Banking interprets the Wyoming Money Transmitter Act to require licensure of entities which offer hosted bitcoin wallet services, and that as a condition of such licensure, licensees must maintain dedicated fiat currency reserves in amount equal to the aggregate face value of all bitcoin held on behalf of customers.”
The amendment proposed in the new House Bill 26 implies that cryptocurrencies would be treated the same as U.S. dollars, Euros or any other currency when dealing with monetary transfers, Wyoming News reported. If the bill is passed, it would enable digital currency exchanges to resume their operations in the state.
Sen. Chris Rothfuss, D-Laramie, one of the co-sponsors of the bill, said that although he does not have full confidence in the bitcoin system, the state of Wyoming should not treat bitcoin differently than any other currency.
Rep. Tyler Lindholm, R-Sundance, the bill’s main sponsor, admits that the nature of the digital currency may make it difficult to explain to fellow legislators who are unfamiliar with it, but he is positive the bill can achieve the two-thirds majority threshold needed for successful introduction in the House of Representatives in a budget session.
“A big reason for me pushing this bill is that we don’t want to run businesses, especially emerging technologies, out of Wyoming”, Lindholm added.
