New Hampshire Senate halts cryptocurrency deregulation bill, hoping to return to it next year

Yahoo

15-05-2025

The New Hampshire Senate in session, Thursday, May 15, 2025. (Photo by Ethan DeWitt/New Hampshire Bulletin)
A bill aiming to deregulate cryptocurrency mining in New Hampshire and forbid local officials and state agencies from placing limits on the practice was set for a final vote Thursday before state senators sent it back to committee to give supporters time to work on it and whip up more votes.
'I think the bill's ready to go, but I understand we need more time to convince all of my colleagues,' Sen. Tim McGough, a Merrimack Republican and supporter of the bill, said on the Senate floor Thursday. 'And we'll take that time over the summer.'
If enacted, House Bill 639 would forbid New Hampshire state agencies and local officials from banning cryptocurrency mining in their city, town, or elsewhere in the state. Under this bill, they also couldn't regulate cryptocurrency mining based on sound, electric use, or as an investment vehicle. They'd also be unable to prevent or impair people from using cryptocurrency to buy or sell goods and services.
McGough likened the current moment with cryptocurrency to the 1990s, when the internet was in its infancy and people were trying to understand it. He said he was 'a little bit afraid' of some aspects of the internet, such as 'putting all your personal information online.' However, he's glad he listened to a friend who told him to adopt the internet.
'Can you imagine if we prohibited internet servers and data centers as we know them today,' he said. 'Running powerful computers to solve equations that end in blockchain currency wealth will not end the world, will not be bad for our economy.'
Cryptocurrency mining is how people generate digital assets like Bitcoin, Ethereum, or Dogecoin. Miners use high-energy supercomputers to attempt to solve a puzzle through trial and error and unlock the cryptocurrency from what is known as a blockchain. These virtual assets can be bought and sold for U.S. dollars or other currencies, making them lucrative. Proponents of crypto argue it could one day be used as a regular currency and some buyers and sellers have already adopted it in this way.
The bill was written using model legislation created by a crypto industry group called Satoshi Action Fund. Satoshi Action Fund also consulted with the Commission on Cryptocurrencies and Digital Assets, which provided lawmakers with policy recommendations. The group works to promote cryptocurrency nationwide and boasts on its website that its model legislation has been implemented in four states: Arkansas, Louisiana, Montana, and Oklahoma.
The bill's sponsor, Rep. Keith Ammon, a Goffstown Republican, has portrayed the bill as antidiscriminatory legislation, arguing cryptocurrency mining needed to be protected from moratoriums similar to those that have happened in other states. He's also dismissed environmental concerns about the practice as misinformation.
Environmentalists opposed to this bill, including the New Hampshire Sierra Club and the National Coalition Against Cryptomining, are concerned about the carbon emissions these supercomputers are responsible for producing and their impact on the state's electric grid. (The electrical energy consumption of one Bitcoin transaction is equivalent to what an average U.S. household over 45.60 days consumes, as of May 2025, according to one analysis done by a Dutch doctoral student.)
They're also concerned about the noise for neighbors of the facilities. Cryptocurrency mines in New York, Arkansas, and other states have generated uproar and noise complaints among their neighbors. Arkansas went so far as to repeal deregulatory legislation it passed that was very similar to this bill over these complaints, though that is now tied up in the courts. At least one New York community has put a moratorium on cryptocurrency mining.
Regulators, including with the state Bureau of Securities Regulation, are concerned that provisions in the bill to preclude cryptocurrency mining from being considered a security or investment contract are concerned it could hamper their ability to protect New Hampshire investors from bad actors falsely offering services.
If the Senate eventually passes the bill, Gov. Kelly Ayotte will decide whether to sign or veto the bill. She recently signed pro-cryptocurrency legislation into law when she approved House Bill 302, which allows the state treasurer to invest state funds in cryptocurrency and precious metals as an investment vehicle. She subsequently boasted on social media that New Hampshire was 'First in the Nation' to do so. Still, in this law, the state treasurer is limited to placing 5% of state assets in Bitcoin and gold, and she is not required to do so but simply allowed to.
However, speaking to reporters last week, Ayotte said she was in favor of the cryptocurrency industry operating in New Hampshire, but she didn't signal support for a completely self-regulated industry.
'Having opportunities for economic development with crypto, certainly we would welcome that,' she said. 'But you have to have, obviously, guardrails in place, because we have had examples. Because it's not regulated federally, there would have to be regulatory measures put in place to make sure that's done responsibly, like we would with any kind of issue like this.'