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HB 920

Virtual Currency Kiosk Consumer Protection Act.

2025-2026 Session Introduced by Brian Biggs and 2 co-sponsors

NC recognizes select long-standing digital assets as lawful media of exchange and lets taxpayers pay state taxes with them, plus privacy protections and new-customer safeguards.

Ch. SL 2026-45
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WeVote Research Nonpartisan
Bill Summary · HB 920

Summary — HB 920: NC Digital Asset Freedom Act (House Bill 920)

Status and procedure
- Short title: North Carolina Digital Asset Freedom Act.
- Introduced: April 10, 2025. Referred to Commerce & Economic Development (and, if favorable, Finance). Passed First Reading (April 14, 2025). Companion: SB 1603.
- Effect if enacted: establishes a new statutory framework recognizing certain digital assets as valid media of exchange, adds consumer protections for some virtual-currency transactions, and allows use of qualifying digital assets to pay State taxes (with reporting requirements).

Purpose and intent
- To recognize digital assets as a lawful medium of exchange in North Carolina, promote innovation and privacy in digital-asset commerce, provide limited consumer protections for new customers using kiosks, and permit persons to pay State taxes with qualifying digital assets.

Key provisions
1. Definitions and scope (G.S. 66-513)
- The Article applies only to digital assets that meet all enumerated criteria, including:
- Decentralized, fairly launched (no pre-mining or insider allocations), and lacking centralized governance.
- Proven security and immutability with at least a 10‑year uninterrupted track record (no protocol-level hacks/rollbacks).
- Operated continuously in a permissionless market for at least 10 years and not classified as a security.
- Minimum market capitalization of $750 billion and daily trading volume > $10 billion across multiple regulated U.S. exchanges.
- Secured by proof-of-work (energy-based) consensus; high cost of a 51% attack.
- Censorship resistance, globally distributed nodes/miners, and minimum network uptime of 99.98%.
- Strict, transparent, programmatic supply schedule (non‑inflationary).

  • Practical effect: the criteria are narrowly drawn and likely limit “eligible” assets to a very small number of major, long-established proof‑of‑work cryptocurrencies.

  1. Legal recognition (G.S. 66-514)

    • Transactions are not to be denied legal effect or enforceability solely because they use a qualifying digital asset.

  2. Privacy and security protections (G.S. 66-515)

    • Parties to a digital-asset transaction may not require other parties to disclose personal financial information (except as otherwise required by law).
    • The State will ensure privacy protections comply with applicable privacy/data-protection laws.

  3. Payment of taxes in digital assets (G.S. 66-516; amended G.S. 105-241)

    • A person may choose to pay taxes to the Department of Revenue using a qualifying digital asset.
    • Taxpayers who pay with digital assets must report the U.S. dollar equivalent at the time of payment (and for reported transactions, provide USD equivalent at time of transaction).
    • The Department of Revenue must publish and update daily digital asset–to–dollar exchange rates on its website.

  4. Protections for new virtual-currency customers at kiosks (Article 16B, § 53‑208.70)

    • Defines “new virtual currency customer” as a person whose first transmission with a licensee occurred within 72 hours.
    • Licensees must impose a $2,000 daily transaction limit (USD equivalent) for new customers when transmitting virtual currency through kiosks.
    • Licensees must refund the full transmission amount if (a) the customer was a new customer, (b) was fraudulently induced, and (c) reported the fraud to the licensee within 14 days.

Other
- Includes a severability clause: invalidation of one provision does not affect others.

Who is affected
- Consumers and businesses that hold or transact in large, long‑established proof‑of‑work digital assets (including taxpayers choosing to pay taxes in such assets).
- Department of Revenue (must maintain exchange rates and accept qualifying assets).
- Virtual-currency licensees and kiosk operators (must impose limits for new customers and comply with refund rule).
- Financial and legal practitioners involved in contract drafting and dispute resolution where digital-asset payment is used.

Potential impacts and considerations
- Narrow eligibility criteria concentrate benefits on a limited set of digital assets (reducing regulatory uncertainty for those assets but excluding most tokens).
- Administrative burden for the Department of Revenue to maintain daily exchange rates and to accept/record digital-asset tax payments.
- Consumer protection measures (kiosk limits, fraud refund) aim to reduce losses by inexperienced customers.
- Legal recognition reduces enforceability risk for contracts settled in qualifying digital assets, but conversion/reporting requirements introduce practical compliance needs (USD-equivalent reporting).

Compiled from official sources — confirm details with the bill’s official record.

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