Blockchain technology, digital asset mining, etc.; Jt. Commission on Technology & Science to study.

Digital asset mining; holding, use, and transfer of digital assets; securities exemption; tax exemption. Exempts any person engaging in home digital asset mining, digital asset mining, or digital asset mining business activities, as those terms are defined in the bill, from the requirement to obtain a money transmitter license. The bill exempts issuers and sellers of digital assets from securities registration requirements if certain conditions are met. Under the bill, no locality's industrial zone may prohibit the use of such area for digital asset mining or digital asset mining business activities and no local sound ordinance may be more restrictive for digital asset mining or digital asset mining business activities than the current industrial zone noise ordinance of the locality. Additionally, the bill provides that, for taxable years beginning on and after January 1, 2024, up to $200 per transaction of any net capital gain from exchanges made after January 1, 2024, for one legal tender to another legal tender shall be subtracted from taxable income computations. The bill provides that any person in the Commonwealth may use or transfer digital assets to purchase legal goods or services or transfer or exchange digital assets using a blockchain protocol and that no person engaging in digital asset mining, digital asset mining business activities, or providing digital asset mining or staking services for another person or operating a node or series of nodes on a blockchain network shall be subject to liability for merely validating a transaction. The bill also directs to the Bureau of Financial Institutions of the State Corporation Commission to convene a work group for the purpose of studying and making recommendations related to blockchain technology, digital asset mining, and cryptocurrency activity in the Commonwealth.