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The California State Assembly has unanimously passed AB 1180, a measure that allows authorities agencies to statesman accepting Bitcoin and different integer assets arsenic outgo for definite regulatory fees.
Authored by Assemblymember Avelino Valencia (D-Anaheim), the authorities cleared the Assembly level connected June 3 with a decisive 78–0 ballot (2 NV) and is present nether reappraisal by the Senate Rules Committee.
If enacted, the measure would necessitate California’s Department of Financial Protection and Innovation to make rules allowing businesses regulated nether the state’s Digital Financial Assets Law to wage licensing and introspection fees utilizing integer assets. The aviator programme would motorboat connected July 1, 2026, and tally done January 1, 2031.
“AB 1180 puts California astatine the forefront of digital-asset innovation,” Valencia said successful an earlier committee hearing. “It volition service arsenic a blueprint for statewide integration.”
Keeping gait with the crypto-curious states
California’s propulsion follows successful the footsteps of Colorado, Utah, and Louisiana, which already judge crypto payments for definite authorities services.
Colorado, for example, enables crypto taxation payments via PayPal’s service, charging users a level $1 positive 1.83% per transaction.
Similar to that model, California’s strategy would person integer payments into U.S. dollars upon receipt, avoiding the state’s nonstop vulnerability to crypto marketplace volatility.
The programme is designed arsenic a five-year testbed. By January 2028, DFPI indispensable submit an interim study evaluating the system’s effectiveness, operational costs, fraud oregon maltreatment risks, and nationalist feedback.
If successful, the aviator could pave the mode for broader crypto acceptance crossed different authorities agencies.
Strategic implications for California’s crypto ecosystem
The bill’s transition is peculiarly applicable to the state’s burgeoning crypto sector. California is location to large blockchain companies specified arsenic Ripple, Solana Labs, and Kraken, galore of which indispensable navigate analyzable and costly regulatory licensing processes.
By enabling crypto interest payments, the authorities whitethorn streamline compliance for these firms and awesome its openness to technological innovation successful fiscal services.
Crypto outgo processors similar BitPay, Coinbase Commerce, and PayPal are present imaginable contenders for a lucrative authorities contract. The nonstop supplier volition beryllium determined done a procurement process led by DFPI.
However, not everyone is connected board. Consumer advocacy groups and fiscal watchdogs person raised concerns astir transaction fees, volatility, and the biology footprint of crypto mining. Legislators person hinted that the Senate mightiness present consumer-protection amendments, specified arsenic interest caps oregon refund mechanisms, to code these risks.
Political momentum for crypto rights
The measure is portion of a broader legislative propulsion by Valencia, who is besides advancing AB 1052, a alleged “Bitcoin Rights” measure that aims to enshrine protections for self-custody, node operation, and peer-to-peer transactions successful authorities law. Backed by nationalist crypto advocacy radical Satoshi Action Fund, the measurement positions California arsenic a counterweight to national regulatory ambiguity.
“If Bitcoin rights walk here, they tin walk anywhere,” said Dennis Porter, CEO of the Satoshi Action Fund, successful an interrogation with Politico.
The Senate is expected to instrumentality up AB 1180 aboriginal this summer. If it passes and is signed by Governor Gavin Newsom, the DFPI volition statesman processing the crypto outgo strategy successful 2026, with an oculus toward statewide deployment by the decade’s end.
The experimentation whitethorn good signifier the aboriginal of nationalist finance, not lone successful California but nationwide. As Valencia put it, “California can’t spend to autumn behind.”
The station Largest US economy, California, moves to judge Bitcoin for authorities fees by passing caller measure to Senate appeared archetypal connected CryptoSlate.
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