On Tuesday, House Bill 920 (Virtual Currency Kiosk Consumer Protection Act) cleared two committee votes and then floor votes in the NC House. The bill now goes to the NC Senate for consideration. H 920 seeks to regulate operators of crypto ATMs and provide consumer protections for users. Currently, crypto ATMs operate essentially without any oversight aside from operators registering with the Office of the Commissioner of Banks as money transmitters and ensuring that digital currency purchased at the machines in exchange for cash is processed as a blockchain transaction and then transferred to a specified digital wallet.
During a House Finance committee meeting, legislators considered a proposed committee substitute for H 920 that changed the cap on crypto ATM operator fees from 3%, as proposed last week, to 14% instead. Rep. Neal Jackson, one of the bill’s primary sponsors, said the goal of the bill is to bring oversight to a business model that operates like the Wild West but not to put operators out of business. He indicated that the change to the cap on fees came after negotiations with stakeholders, including the crypto ATM operators.
During debate, legislators amended the bill to move the cap back to 3% and appeared to vote the bill out of committee as amended only for the committee chairman to bring the bill back for consideration less than 30 minutes later for technical reasons related to an irreconcilable conflict between two sets of amendments that each had passed changing daily transaction limits. Upon reconsideration of that issue, legislators again pushed the cap to 14% on a party line vote with Republicans voting for the higher cap and Democrats pushing for the 3% cap. While there was a difference over the cap, there was broad agreement among legislators that changes are needed, particularly to help older adults and those victimized by scams who in some instances put their life savings in the machines and send to digital wallets belonging to fraudsters.
Author: sdbrownlow
Student of Design
