North Carolina 2025-2026 Regular Session

North Carolina House Bill H920 Latest Draft

Bill / Amended Version Filed 04/14/2025

                            GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF NORTH CAROLINA 
SESSION 2025 
H 	1 
HOUSE BILL 920 
 
 
Short Title: NC Digital Asset Freedom Act. 	(Public) 
Sponsors: Representatives N. Jackson, Ross, and Biggs (Primary Sponsors). 
For a complete list of sponsors, refer to the North Carolina General Assembly web site. 
Referred to: Commerce and Economic Development, if favorable, Finance, if favorable, Rules, 
Calendar, and Operations of the House 
April 14, 2025 
*H920 -v-1* 
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED 1 
AN ACT TO ALLOW THE USE OF DIGITAL ASSETS IN ECONOMIC TRANSACTIONS 2 
AND IN THE PAYMENT OF TAXES AND TO ESTABLISH PROTECTIONS FOR NEW 3 
CUSTOMERS TRANSMITTI NG DIGITAL ASSETS. 4 
The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts: 5 
SECTION 1. Chapter 66 of the General Statutes is amended by adding a new Article 6 
to read: 7 
"Article 52. 8 
"North Carolina Digital Asset Freedom Act. 9 
"§ 66-511.  Short title. 10 
This Article may be cited as the North Carolina Digital Asset Freedom Act. 11 
"§ 66-512.  Legislative findings. 12 
The General Assembly finds all of the following: 13 
(1) The General Assembly finds that digital assets, when properly regulated and 14 
aligned with principles of decentralization, security, and resilience, can be a 15 
valid and stable medium for economic exchange. 16 
(2) The principles set forth in this Article reflect North Carolina's commitment to 17 
fostering innovation, commerce, and privacy. 18 
(3) The General Assembly further finds that decentralized digital assets, which 19 
are not governed by any central entity or foundation, align with the economic 20 
principles of limited, noninflationary money and are capable of ensuring the 21 
security and integrity of transactions. 22 
"§ 66-513.  Scope. 23 
This Article applies only to a digital asset that satisfies all of the following requirements: 24 
(1) Decentralization and fair issuance. – The digital asset shall have been 25 
launched fairly, without pre-mining, insider allocations, or central authority 26 
control, and shall not rely on a single entity, foundation, or small group of 27 
insiders for its ongoing operation or governance. 28 
(2) Lack of centralized governance. – The digital asset shall operate without 29 
unilateral control over protocol changes, and any upgrades shall occur through 30 
a decentralized, voluntary consensus mechanism that prevents governance 31 
capture. 32 
(3) Security and immutability. – The asset shall have a proven track record of 33 
security spanning at least 10 years, without any successful protocol-level 34  General Assembly Of North Carolina 	Session 2025 
Page 2  House Bill 920-First Edition 
hacks or rollbacks. Transactions shall be immutable once confirmed, 1 
preventing centralized actors from altering the ledger history. 2 
(4) Market longevity and free market endurance. – The digital asset shall have 3 
operated continuously in an open, permissionless market for at least 10 years, 4 
without requiring external intervention or state support to maintain viability, 5 
and shall have survived regulatory scrutiny without being classified as a 6 
security. 7 
(5) Liquidity and market depth. – The digital asset shall have a minimum market 8 
capitalization of seven hundred fifty billion dollars ($750,000,000,000) and a 9 
daily trading volume exceeding ten billion dollars ($10,000,000,000), with 10 
availability across multiple highly regulated U.S. exchanges to ensure 11 
institutional-grade liquidity and price discovery. 12 
(6) Regulatory clarity and legal standing. – The digital asset shall have been 13 
deemed a commodity or an equivalent non-security by U.S. regulators, such 14 
as the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, U.S. Commodity Futures 15 
Trading Commission, or other relevant authorities. Assets subject to ongoing 16 
litigation or regulatory uncertainty regarding their classification as a security 17 
are disqualified. 18 
(7) Energy-based consensus and cost of attack. – The digital asset shall be secured 19 
by a proof-of-work mechanism, ensuring that attacks require significant 20 
real-world economic resources. The cost of a fifty-one percent (51%) attack 21 
shall be demonstrably high, ensuring network security is infeasible to 22 
compromise. 23 
(8) Censorship resistance. – Transactions shall be permissionless, meaning no 24 
entity, government, or corporation can prevent users from sending or 25 
receiving funds. The network shall be operational across multiple 26 
jurisdictions, with globally distributed nodes and miners, preventing 27 
geographical or political capture. 28 
(9) Network resilience and uptime. – The digital asset's network shall have 29 
maintained ninety-nine and ninety-eight hundredths percent (99.98%) uptime 30 
or better, functioning independently of third-party financial institutions, 31 
ensuring accessibility during market crises, bank failures, or geopolitical 32 
instability. 33 
(10) Predictable and non-inflationary supply. – The asset shall have a strictly 34 
limited total supply and a fully transparent, programmatically enforced 35 
issuance schedule, ensuring long-term scarcity and resistance to arbitrary 36 
inflationary issuance. 37 
"§ 66-514.  Recognition of digital assets as valid medium of exchange. 38 
Digital assets are recognized as a valid medium of exchange in North Carolina. A transaction 39 
shall not be denied legal effect or enforceability solely because it uses a digital asset. 40 
"§ 66-515. Privacy and security protections. 41 
(a) Except as otherwise provided by law, a party to a transaction that uses a digital asset 42 
shall not require another party to disclose personal financial information. 43 
(b) The State of North Carolina shall ensure that privacy protections are in place for 44 
persons using digital assets, in compliance with applicable privacy and data protection laws. 45 
"§ 66-516.  Payment of taxes in digital assets. 46 
As provided in G.S. 105-241, a person may choose to use a digital asset to pay taxes to the 47 
Department of Revenue." 48 
SECTION 2. Article 16B of Chapter 53 of the General Statutes is amended by adding 49 
a new section to read: 50 
"§ 53-208.70.  New virtual currency customers; daily transaction limit; refund for fraud. 51  General Assembly Of North Carolina 	Session 2025 
House Bill 920-First Edition  	Page 3 
(a) In this section, the following definitions apply: 1 
(1) Kiosk. – An electronic terminal acting as a mechanical agent of a licensee. 2 
(2) "New virtual currency customer" of a licensee. – A person whose first 3 
transaction with the licensee to transmit virtual currency occurred within 72 4 
hours. 5 
(b) A licensee shall impose a daily transaction limit equivalent to two thousand dollars 6 
($2,000) on a new virtual currency customer for transmissions of virtual currency through a 7 
kiosk. 8 
(c) The licensee shall refund the full amount of a transmission of virtual currency to a 9 
person if all of the following apply: 10 
(1) At the time of the transmission, the person was a new virtual currency 11 
customer. 12 
(2) The person was fraudulently induced to transmit the virtual currency. 13 
(3) The person reported the fraudulent nature of the transmission to the licensee 14 
within 14 days of the transmission." 15 
SECTION 3. G.S. 105-241 reads as rewritten: 16 
"§ 105-241.  Where and how taxes payable; tax period; liens. 17 
(a) Form of Payment. – Taxes are payable in either the national currency. currency or a 18 
digital asset that satisfies the requirements of G.S. 66-513. The Secretary shall prescribe where 19 
taxes are to be paid and whether taxes must be paid in cash, by check, by electronic funds transfer, 20 
or by another method. 21 
(a1) Payment by Digital Asset; Reporting Digital Asset Transactions. – If a person chooses 22 
to pay taxes with a digital asset, the person shall report the U.S. dollar equivalent of the payment 23 
amount using the digital asset-to-dollar exchange rate at the time of payment. Additionally, if a 24 
person reports a transaction using a digital asset, the person shall include the U.S. dollar 25 
equivalent of the amount of the transaction using the digital asset-to-dollar exchange rate at the 26 
time the transaction occurred. The Department of Revenue shall maintain on its website digital 27 
asset-to-dollar exchange rates and shall update these rates daily. This subsection applies only to 28 
digital assets that satisfy the requirements of G.S. 66-513. 29 
…." 30 
SECTION 4. If any provision of this act or its application to any person or 31 
circumstance is held invalid, then the invalidity shall not affect other provisions or applications 32 
of the act that can be given effect without the invalid provision or application and, to that end, 33 
the provisions of this act shall be severable. 34 
SECTION 5. G.S. 66-516, as enacted by Section 1 of this act, and Section 3 of this 35 
act become effective January 1, 2026. The remainder of this act is effective when it becomes law. 36