Two new house bills have been passed by the state legislature of Wyoming – An American state. The objective of these new bills is to provide a favorable regulatory environment for innovations in the field of cryptocurrency and blockchain. These two bills are – House Bill 57 and House Bill 62
These updates were reported by the Caitlin Long, The President of the Wyoming Blockchain Coalition, by tweeting the updates.
The last official update on the status of both the bills was given on January 8th post which there has been no update. The status on the bill, House Bill 62, was updated on Wyoming’s state legislature page stating that it passed with an 8-1 vote share in its favor and has been placed on the general file.
Long’s tweet on January 11 said “ANOTHER ONE in the books for #Wyoming, 8-1 on HB 62, which broadens #utilitytoken language enacted in 2018 & moves it out of securities chapter into its own chapter of WY law, creating a brand new class of property (digital assets). Here testifying to committee”
The official status of the second bill, House Bill 57, is yet to be given. However, Long, via her tweet, today reported that even the House Bill 57 has passed unanimously with a 9-0 vote share.
The tweet stated “aaaannnddd ANOTHER ONE! #Wyoming #fintech sandbox bill passed House committee 9-0!! Way to go @Tyler_Lindholm! Thanks to the small army of people who came to Cheyenne today! Vote on #bank bill deferred to next Friday, so stay tuned for updates on that big one!”
The Bill 62 which is termed as “Wyoming Utility Token Act-property amendments” is important in classifying a new asset class, defining “open blockchain tokens with specified consumptive characteristics [as] intangible personal property.” The bill states that “The open blockchain tokens governed by this act do not constitute securities because a person who is sold a consumptive open blockchain token cannot receive a cash payment or share of profits from a developer or business, but will instead receive a fixed amount of consumable services, content or property.”
The Bill 57 concentrates on innovations. Termed as “Financial technology sandbox,” it aims at forming a fintech regulatory “sandbox.” This will ensure a flexible testing environment to conduct innovations and will assist in providing waivers from specific statutes and rules which otherwise could affect innovations. The bill’s objective is to provide a favorable working environment for the makers of new financial products and services which will, in turn, bring in more fintech talent to the state.
Previously in early 2018 House Bill 70 was passed by both the Wyoming Senate and House of Representatives. This Bill eased out the securities regulations and money transmission laws for specific tokens issued via an initial coin offering (ICO) within the state.
Earlier in February, a house bill was passed by Wyoming which exempted the virtual currencies from state property taxation. Later in March, another separate house bill with respect to the exemption of virtual currencies from the Wyoming Money Transmitter Act was also passed.
Earlier, Caitlin Long had also stated that the definition of utility tokens as a new asset class is essential in bringing them under the control of the state legislators, instead of those being managed by national agencies such as the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the Commodities and Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN).
