Montana Governor Greg Gianforte has signed a bill that primarily prevents local governments in the state from passing laws banning cryptocurrency mining.
According to Montana Legislature records, Gianforte signed SB Bill 178 into law on May 2 after the bill passed both the state House and Senate. The legislation effectively protects the rights of crypto miners in the state by amending existing laws, banning discriminatory el electricity rates for mining companies and disallowing the taxation of cryptocurrencies used as payment methods. The most recent version of the bill suggests that the legislation was introduced in part as a precautionary measure in response to certain proposals in other states namely that “digital asset mining often face s difficulties with regulations at the state and local levels.” For example, in April,Lawmakers in the Texas Senate have introduced a bill that would limit incentives for cryptocurrency miners by participating in a program designed to compensate them for reducing load on the state's power grid.
Crypto advocacy group Satoshi Action Fund supports pro-mining legislation in some states. Lawmakers in the Arkansas House and Senate passed a bill similar to Montana's SB 178. Satoshi Action Fund CEO Dennis Porter reported that Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders has Signed the bill into law, but the legislature's website showed no such action at the time of publication. "At the state level, we can make a lot of progress, we can move things forward, and at the same time there's not much that the federal government can do ,” Porter said. The Mississippi legislature had been moving forward with similar pro-mining legislation, but the bill died in March. Porter said a bill in Missouri is "a little bit behind the curve" in the process but is still making progress in the Legislature.
At the federal level, the Biden administration recently pushed again for a 30% tax on cryptocurrency miners as part of its fiscal year 2024 budget proposal. The tax would likely target miners' electricity usage.
