Commentary

The Irony Of Wyoming's Cryptocurrency Strategy

In a state where many small businesses do not have a website or use search advertising to market or advertise their products and services, I find it ironic that U.S. Senator Cynthia Lummis is working on a technology bill that would help establish a framework for digital assets in Wyoming. 

Many Wyoming businesses tend to use social media to get their messages to consumers. 

Despite Wyoming’s love-hate relationship with technology, I’ve had the honor of calling the state with the lowest population — about 580,000 residents since January 2020 — my home for the past few years.

Wyoming isn’t your average state. Since I moved to Wyoming three years ago, many times I’ve had to pull off the road and stop and wait for a group of herders and their dogs to steer cattle or sheep across the highway.

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Wyoming is the wild west, for sure. Its residents, who are very devoted to the state, have varying opinions on everything from gun laws and COVID-19 to TerraPower, which Bill Gates owns.

Gates chose Kemmerer, a frontier-era coal town in Wyoming, as the site where the company will build its nuclear power plant at a cost of about $4 billion. Half will come from TerraPower and half from the U.S. government, according to reports.

With no further increases in demand expected for coal between 2021 to 2025, Wyoming needs to find other options for growth.

Those who run the state of Wyoming want it to become the leader in digital assets, specifically cryptocurrency. This has been in the works for years.

Wyoming Senator Cynthia Lummis is working on a bill to help establish frameworks for cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, Stable Coin, and Central Bank Digital Currencies. The bill would rely on the same regulatory agencies as the Securities Exchange Commission and the Commodity Future’s Trading Commission.

Wyoming became the first state in the nation to recognize cryptocurrency as a new asset class. The Comprehensive Digital Asset Clarification and Regulation Bill is currently in draft and is expected to be finished by February.

Not all Wyoming-born residents are happy with the change.

Still, Wyoming passed legislation that would allow cryptocurrencies to be held in brick-and-mortar institutions, known as SPDIs — banking institutions authorized to take custody of digital assets, rather than apps and digital wallets.

Kraken and Avanti, both financial institutions, received their bank charters in the state, but have yet to receive approval from the Fed, writes Markets Insider.  

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