The US State of Arizona is one step closer to enacting the Bitcoin Mining Rights Bill, after it passed the Senate with a vote of 17 to 12.
On April 10, the state Senate officially approved the bill, HB 2342, that protects anyone running a node or mining digital assets from zoning or usage restrictions. The bill has been sent to Governor Katie Hobbs for signature.
Arizona’s Bitcoin Mining Rights Bill on the Verge of Approval
Arizona HB 2342 “prohibits cities, towns, and counties from banning or restricting individuals from using computational power or running blockchain nodes in their own homes,” the amended bill read.
The bill was introduced in January by state Rep. Teresa Martinez, defining computational power to include mining and running nodes. HB 2342 also targets artificial intelligence workloads, cloud computing and scientific research.
Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs turned down a legislation earlier that limited municipalities from taxing cryptocurrency mining operations.
Arizona’s Emerging Crypto Adoption
The state has been inching closer to building a state-level crypto reserve after two key bills cleared the House Rules Committee last month.
“The bills have now passed their assigned committees, meaning they should be headed for a full floor vote.” If enacted, Arizona could use seized crypto and invest up to 10% of the state treasury or retirement funds into Bitcoin.
Further, the legislation also permits lending the assets to generate returns, as long as financial risks are not heightened.
However, despite the bills’ favourable momentum in the legislature, may face a significant challenge at the executive level.
This is because Governor Katie Hobbs, a Democrat, has vetoed 22% of bills in 2024 so far (73 out of 330). This means that “roughly one in five of the bills that made it through both chambers reached her desk and were ultimately vetoed.”
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