A bill to regulate Bitcoin (BTC) mining in Arkansas has passed the state’s House of Representatives and Senate and is now awaiting approval from the governor’s office.
The Arkansas Data Centers Act of 2023 aims to regulate the Bitcoin mining industry in the state, creating guidelines for miners and protecting them from discriminatory regulations and taxes.
The bill, proposed by Senator Joshua Bryant on March 30, was quickly passed by state legislators. The document acknowledges that data centers create jobs, pay taxes, and provide economic value to communities.
The approved bill requires digital asset miners to pay taxes and fees in acceptable currency and operate in a way that doesn’t stress an electric public utility’s generation capabilities or transmission network.
Crypto miners in Arkansas will now have the same rights as data centers, and the government will not impose different requirements for digital asset mining businesses than for data centers.
Arkansas’ move follows a similar initiative in Montana, where a bill passed in late March aimed at protecting crypto miners against taxes on digital assets used for payments and eliminating energy rates that discriminate against home-based miners and digital asset businesses.
Meanwhile, Texas passed legislation on April 4 that would remove incentives for miners operating under the state’s crypto-friendly regulatory environment. New York banned crypto-mining activities with a proof-of-work mining moratorium in November 2022, while a budget proposal introduced on March 9 by President Joe Biden could subject crypto-miners in the US to a 30% tax on electricity costs.
