Wyoming Bill Offers Legal Clarity on Digital Assets

By Swati Kishore

The State of Wyoming in the United States has introduced a bill that sheds light on the legal status of digital assets. The bill also aims to offer the custody of cryptocurrencies through banks rather than financial institutions.

The move is seen as a significant step towards the legitimization of digital assets and the advancement of Blockchain Technology in businesses across the United States.

The bill classifies digital assets as digital securities, cryptocurrencies, and digital assets.

It gives digital currencies the same treatment as fiat within the State of Wyoming. Such a classification is critical as offers clarity on where digital assets stand in the law.

It will also facilitate the adoption of cryptocurrencies, which have so far operated in a grey area.

With the introduction of the bill, Wyoming will be able to give banks the power to supervise digital asset custody according to a framework. Such supervision will meet the requirements of the Securities and Exchange Commission for qualified custodians of digital assets.

The advancement of custody for digital currencies in the State of Wyoming will be done through banks. However, it is interesting to note that the banks will not be taking deposits of digital currencies directly. Rather these will be ‘assets under administration.’

Since the bill intends to give digital currencies the same legal status as fiat money under the law, hence the rules under the Uniform Commercial Code Article 9 would also be applicable to cryptocurrencies in the State of Wyoming.

The UCC 9-332 reads,

“A transferee of money takes the money free of a security interest unless the transferee acts in collusion with the debtor in violating the rights of the secured party.”

It means that Bitcoin gets the same legal status without an intermediary. Hence, the law seems to run parallel with the peer to peer nature of digital currencies.

The eradication of intermediary means that no debtor/creditor relationship is formed. Hence, digital currency investors will have the rights of their crypto recognized.