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South Dakota gov vetoes bill excluding crypto from definition of ‘money’

Press Releases Crypto News Cointelegraph South Dakota gov vetoes bill excluding crypto from definition of ‘money’

Kristi Noem, the governor of South Dakota, has used her authority to veto legislation aimed at changing the definition of money to exclude cryptocurrencies.

In a March 9 notice to South Dakota House Speaker Hugh Bartels, Noem said she had vetoed House Bill 1193, which proposed amending the state’s Uniform Commercial Code, or UCC, to specifically exclude cryptocurrencies and other digital assets — with the possible exception of central bank digital currencies, or CBDCs. According to the governor, the passage of the bill would put South Dakota residents “at a business disadvantage” and potentially allow for “future overreach” from the federal government in issuing a digital dollar.

“By expressly excluding cryptocurrencies as money, it would become more difficult to use cryptocurrency,” said Noem. “HB 1993 opens the door to the risk that the federal government could more easily adopt a CBDC, which then may become the only viable digital currency. […] It would be imprudent to create regulations governing something that does not yet exist.”

I have returned HB 1193 with my VETO.

The bill adopts a definition of “money” to specifically exclude cryptocurrencies. But these revisions do include Central Bank Digital Currencies as money.

These developments concern me for several reasons, which are found in this letter: pic.twitter.com/3eqzdI80if

— Governor Kristi Noem (@govkristinoem) March 10, 2023

Conservative advocates supported efforts to have Noem veto the legislation, citing concerns about financial freedom. The organization Club for Growth penned a letter to the South Dakota governor urging her to oppose the bill and making comparisons between a U.S.-issued CBDC and China’s digital yuan. The South Dakota Freedom Caucus — a group of Republican state lawmakers — lauded Noem’s actions: