Montana Passes Bill to Define Utility Tokens

Monday, 27/05/2019 | 07:53 GMT by Arnab Shome
  • The state law will not impact the views of the SEC towards crypto.
Montana Passes Bill to Define Utility Tokens
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The US state of Montana has passed a bill to exclude utility tokens from the list of securities.

The bill, dubbed “Generally revise laws relating to cryptocurrency,” was introduced by State Representative Shane Morigeau (Democrat) and was finally signed into law by state governor Steve Bullock, effective July 1.

Defining utility tokens

The new law recognizes utility tokens and defines them as a digital unit that is created and recorded on a Blockchain and can be exchanged without the involvement of a third-party. Emphasizing the non-securities part of the utility tokens, the bill defines them as a unit “without vesting the holder with any ownership interest or equity interest in the issuer.”

Moreover, to qualify as a utility token, the bill defines a number of requirements, most notably, a token has to be “primarily consumptive” and its trading based on speculation or investment purpose has to be checked. The legislators restricted the use of utility tokens only to provide or receive goods, service, or content.

Though the Montana lawmakers took a big step towards defining digital currencies, the law is only confined to the state boundaries and has no impact on the federal regulation of crypto.

Crypto-friendly US states

Montana has now joined the ranks of other crypto friendly stats in the country like Wyoming and Colorado to legalize digital currencies. The legislators of the state of New Hampshire also introduced a bill earlier this year to legalize payments and taxes in Bitcoin and other Cryptocurrencies in the state agencies.

Meanwhile, a Texas lawmaker moved a bill in the house to ban all anonymous transactions using digital currencies within the state borders. This echoed a similar recommendation by a French finance committee to ban all privacy-oriented cryptocurrencies.

The US state of Montana has passed a bill to exclude utility tokens from the list of securities.

The bill, dubbed “Generally revise laws relating to cryptocurrency,” was introduced by State Representative Shane Morigeau (Democrat) and was finally signed into law by state governor Steve Bullock, effective July 1.

Defining utility tokens

The new law recognizes utility tokens and defines them as a digital unit that is created and recorded on a Blockchain and can be exchanged without the involvement of a third-party. Emphasizing the non-securities part of the utility tokens, the bill defines them as a unit “without vesting the holder with any ownership interest or equity interest in the issuer.”

Moreover, to qualify as a utility token, the bill defines a number of requirements, most notably, a token has to be “primarily consumptive” and its trading based on speculation or investment purpose has to be checked. The legislators restricted the use of utility tokens only to provide or receive goods, service, or content.

Though the Montana lawmakers took a big step towards defining digital currencies, the law is only confined to the state boundaries and has no impact on the federal regulation of crypto.

Crypto-friendly US states

Montana has now joined the ranks of other crypto friendly stats in the country like Wyoming and Colorado to legalize digital currencies. The legislators of the state of New Hampshire also introduced a bill earlier this year to legalize payments and taxes in Bitcoin and other Cryptocurrencies in the state agencies.

Meanwhile, a Texas lawmaker moved a bill in the house to ban all anonymous transactions using digital currencies within the state borders. This echoed a similar recommendation by a French finance committee to ban all privacy-oriented cryptocurrencies.

About the Author: Arnab Shome
Arnab Shome
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Arnab is an electronics engineer-turned-financial editor. He entered the industry covering the cryptocurrency market for Finance Magnates and later expanded his reach to forex as well. He is passionate about the changing regulatory landscape on financial markets and keenly follows the disruptions in the industry with new-age technologies.

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