A New York lawmaker has introduced a new bill that would accept dollar-pegged stablecoins as a legal form of paying bail. The partisan bill introduced by New York State Democrat Latrice Walker on May 10 details existing methods of paying bail, including cash, insurance bonds and credit cards, and seeks to add “fiat-collateralized stablecoins” to the list.
The bill seeks to amend the state's current criminal procedure law to include legally collateralized digital asset classes. It is unclear which major “fiat-collateralized stablecoins” will be included in this new authority, and whether any stablecoins will be deem ed unacceptable by New York officials .
On December 22, 2022, two sureties posted a $250 million bond in Manhattan federal court on behalf of FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried, allowing him to be placed in strict family custody ahead of his criminal trial on October 2. The new bill comes less than a week after New York Attorney General Leticia James proposed new regulations on May 5 that would give the state further powers over cryptocurrency exchanges.
The proposed legislation would give New York officials the power to issue subpoenas, impose civil penalties on crypto companies that violate state law, and shut down companies suspected of engaging in fraudulent or illegal activity. While the introduction of the bill shows that the New York state The government is willing to include stablecoins in its criminal procedure law, James has been cracking down on cryptocurrencies in recent months.
On Jan. 5, James filed a lawsuit against former Celsius CEO Alex Mashinsky, and most recently, on March 9, James sued Seychelles-based cryptocurrency exchange Kuoin for selling securities and commodities without registration.
