Just-In: Texas Passes Landmark Crypto Bill For Exchanges To Comply

On Thursday, April 20, the Texas House of Representatives passed a crucial bill considering crypto exchanges to provide Proof-of-Reserves for accountability and to deliver transparency for its users. The new legislation stipulates that the digital asset service provider must submit a report to the Texas Department of Banking no later than the 90th day after the end of each fiscal year.

Texas Passes New Crypto Bill

In accordance with the published bill, the report is required to include an attestation by the crypto service provider of outstanding liabilities to digital asset customers. This attestation must be established utilizing zero-knowledge encryption or another industry standard of a comparable nature.

Read More: Crypto Influencer “BitBoy Crypto” Defies Court Order To Appear In FTX Probe

In addition to this, there should be evidence of customer assets held by the person, documented using zero-knowledge encryption or a similar industry standard, as well as an attestation from an auditor stating that the information in the report is truthful and accurate.

Furthermore, the report recommends attaching a copy of the provider’s plan to enable auditors and customers to access the accounting of digital assets on a quarterly basis, as well as the customer’s digital assets at any time.

Good News For Crypto Legislation?

This recent move by the Texas House of Representatives has received positive feedback from the crypto sector. Instead of tightly regulating cryptocurrency exchanges or outright prohibiting them, it gives the green light to increase transparency for a variety of exchanges.

Market participants are of the opinion that this may eventually result in a bullish scenario for Bitcoin and other altcoins as it opens the doors for exchanges to operate freely. In minutes following the approval of the bill, the price of Bitcoin jumped marginally to 0.32% but gradually dropped to prior lower levels and currently trades at around $28,321 which represents a decline of 2.97% in the past 24 hours.

Also Read: zkSync Era Surges Ahead Of Polygon’s zkEVM As It Onboards Major DeFi Protocol