Crypto Licensing Potential For New Jersey, New Senate Bill Introduced

New Jersey has been inching closer to a successful implementation of a cryptocurrency license program. This licensing would be similar to that of New York’s BitLicense, with New Jersey’s neighbour state being rather famous (and infamous) for having very stringent regulations that crypto firms must follow through.

A New Bill For The Senate

This new bill has been sponsored by Senator Nellie Pou (D-35), and has been aptly named the “Digital Asset Blockchain Technology Act”. This new bill was introduced last Thursday to the Senate.

Senate Bill 3132 aims to regulate the crypto service providers of the state, putting them under the Department of Banking and Insurance for New Jersey.

Should this proposed bill be passed, it would mandate that any entity aiming to provide storage, trading, sales, purchase, borrowing/lending, exchange, or even issuance services for digital assets, would need a license.

Hefty Fines Proposed

As a result, any entity, be it an individual or a business, will be expressly forbidden from conducting any form of business activity with digital assets. The only way to do such business within New Jersey, should this bill be passed, is to own a license either from the state, or own a reciprocal license from another state.

As one would imagine, should any entity operate without licensing with this bill being passed, the entity in question can see a hefty fining process. The bill stated that the entity will be fined $500 every day until it has successfully filed an application for a license. As one would imagine, this could quickly start to add up.

Massive Traction

This senate bill follows after the same legislation was introduced to the General Assembly of the state, being introduced back in February this year. In the General assembly, the bill in question is tagged Bill Number A2891. The bill had seen subsequent referral to the Assembly Appropriations Committee, as well.

With a similar bill being present in both Houses, it seems that the bill holds a high likelihood to become law, should it be signed by Governor Phil Murphy. If nothing else, the bill will at least be token seriously thanks to the large amount of traction it seemed to gain.

New Jersey isn’t the first, nor probably the last, state to implement its own licensing for digital asset businesses. The world is slowly starting to realise the sheer versatility of blockchain technology and its cryptocurrencies, to boot. As such, more intensified regulations will come to pass as a natural desire to keep it controlled arises.