New York state Sen. James Sanders Jr. (D-N.Y.) introduced a bill Wednesday that seeks to establish a crypto task force, as the state reassesses its regulatory stance amid federal policy shifts affecting the industry.
The bill, now under review by a Senate committee, would require experts to deliver their findings on crypto’s impact on state revenue and the environment toward the end of 2027.
The proposed 17-member panel would investigate crypto’s effects on state tax revenue, environmental impact, and market transparency, according to the bill’s text.
The task force would include representatives from the Department of Financial Services, environmental conservation groups, and academic experts in economics. Members would serve without compensation but receive expense reimbursements.
Members would be appointed within 90 days of the bill’s effective date, with findings expected to inform future crypto policy in a city that Sanders characterizes as “arguably the financial capital of the world.”
The task force would examine New York’s position among 20 other U.S. states that continue to consider crypto investment legislation. Those efforts could drive $23 billion in Bitcoin demand, according to VanEck’s head of digital assets research Matthew Sigel.
New York enforces some of the toughest crypto regulations in the U.S., largely due to its BitLicense framework, implemented in 2015.
The state’s Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) regulates crypto businesses, requiring them to secure a BitLicense or a limited-purpose trust charter to operate.
Those requirements have made New York a difficult market for many crypto firms, prompting some to bypass the state entirely.
New York is “competing with London, Tokyo, Shanghai, and Hong Kong for financial investments” and its “position as a fiscal leader,” Sanders said in a statement.
Missed opportunities
Sanders also cites blockchain technology’s “impact on innovation, jobs, economic growth, energy consumption, and environmental issues” as a reason to study it, adding that it should “supplement the BitLicense with the correct legislative framework.”
New York is “vying for future financial transactions and activity,” Sanders added, claiming how “almost every global market and state” is considering the same.
This is not the first time New York has looked into crypto and how it could help bolster the city’s standing, with two other similar initiatives stretching back to 2019.
From that year, the state enacted legislation to establish the New York State Cryptocurrency and Blockchain Study Task Force, signed by then-Governor Andrew Cuomo.
“Despite its establishment, the task force was never convened, and its objectives remained unfulfilled,” Jason Brett, founder and chairman of Washington, D.C.-based education, research, and advocacy group Value Technology Foundation, told Decrypt.
By 2023, the state revisited a similar initiative, passing a bill that sought to re-establish the task force. However, at the time, Governor Kathy Hochul vetoed the bill.
Brett, who previously worked as Director of Operations at the Chamber of Digital Commerce and also served as Policy Director at ConsenSys between 2017 and 2018, believes the initiative is unlikely to succeed.
People observing how the third attempt in New York for such a bill goes forward “should understand the current Governor already vetoed this once before in 2023,” and ask “why it is so hard to make studying this emerging technology a priority,” Brett told Decrypt.
This led to other proposals to create various task forces and commissions with “concerns over unbudgeted expenditures totaling $35 million,” Brett said.
Disclaimer: Consensys is one of 22 investors in an editorially independent Decrypt.
Edited by Sebastian Sinclair
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