A Washington Senate bill that addresses licensing and enforcement provisions applicable to money transmitters and currency exchanges, including the ones dealing in digital currencies, has cleared both chambers of the state's legislature, CoinDesk reported.
Introduced in January this year, Senate Bill 5031 is sponsored by Senators Jan Angel and Mark Mullet.
“"Money transmission" means receiving money or its equivalent value (equivalent value includes virtual currency) to transmit, deliver, or instruct to be delivered to another location, inside or outside the United States, by any means including but not limited to by wire, facsimile, or electronic transfer”, the bill states.
The bill has now been sent to Governor for approval. If approved, digital currency businesses would be required to maintain reserves in relevant digital currency and equivalent to the funds they hold on the behalf of their customers:
"A licensee transmitting virtual currencies must hold like-kind virtual currencies of the same volume as that held by the licensee but which is obligated to consumers in lieu of the permissible investments required in of this subsection."
In addition, the bill requires mandatory third-party cybersecurity audits of "all electronic information and data systems”.
Cryptocurrency exchange Bitstamp discontinued its services in the Washington state in December 2016. More recently, Poloniex and Bitfinex also decided to cease their operation in Washington state.
