California Legalizes Crypto Payments—Time to Pay in Bitcoin or Brag About It! 🚀💸

by

California Legalizes Crypto Payments—Time to Pay in Bitcoin or Brag About It! 🚀💸

Hold onto your digital wallets, folks! California’s lawmakers just gave a thumbs-up, unanimously, like a bunch of nodding bobbleheads, to a bill that lets you pay for state services with… wait for it… cryptocurrency! That’s right—next time you’re at the DMV, you might just be able to cough up your fees in Bitcoin! 🎉

On June 2, the brave heroes of the California State Assembly whipped out their digital pens and approved Assembly Bill 1180 (AB 1180) with a perfect 68-0 score—because who needs dissent when you’re about to make history? Now, it’s zooming off to the State Senate, probably hoping they won’t ask it to take a COVID test. 🦠

If the bigwigs in the Senate give it a thumbs-up (and they probably will, because why not?), the Department of Financial Protection and Innovation will be tasked with figuring out the *fine art* of letting you pay fees in digital currencies. Because, apparently, physical cash is so last century. The bill proposes a pilot program until 2031, with full digital domination starting July 1, 2026—if Governor Gavin Newsom is feeling generous or just really likes blockchain parties. 🎈

Under AB 1180, the brave Department of Financial Protection and Innovation will also report back by Jan. 1, 2028, how many crypto transactions went through—probably more than grandma’s bingo night! And they’ll tell us if anything went *splat* or if regulators had a meltdown trying to keep up with the crypto craze.

As defined, digital financial assets are any digital bits and bobs used as money but not “legal tender,” which is just fancy talk for “not real money, but who cares?” The goal? Bring California on par with other state trailblazers like Florida, Colorado, and Louisiana, who’ve already dipped their toes—or should I say, their wallets—into crypto waters. 🌊

Oh, and before the bill got the golden ticket, one tiny revision removed mentions of ride-share cars and personal vehicles—because why make things complicated? Now, it’s just about digital asset transactions, pure and simple, like a crypto smoothie. 🥤

Meanwhile, Assembly Member Valencia has another bill, AB 1052, waiting in the wings to protect your right to keep your crypto close—like a digital security blanket—and prevent the government from taxing or restricting your crypto hobbies. It even says you can self-custody your coins without the state sending a postcard. 📬

All this crypto love isn’t happening in a bubble—California’s political bigwigs, including Senator Ben Allen, are pushing for crypto-loving policies. A poll by Coinbase even found that almost 80% of crypto enthusiasts in the state would happily vote for pro-crypto candidates—because who doesn’t want to get paid in digital gold? 💰

Read More

2025-06-04 09:06