Bill Text: NJ A5747 | 2022-2023 | Regular Session | Introduced
Bill Title: Classifies all virtual currencies issued and sold to institutional investors as securities.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)
Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2023-11-30 - Introduced, Referred to Assembly Financial Institutions and Insurance Committee [A5747 Detail]
Download: New_Jersey-2022-A5747-Introduced.html
Sponsored by:
Assemblyman HERB CONAWAY, JR.
District 7 (Burlington)
SYNOPSIS
Classifies all virtual currencies issued and sold to institutional investors as securities.
CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT
As introduced.
An Act concerning the classification of virtual currencies and supplementing P.L.1967, c.93 (C.49:3-47 et seq.).
Be It Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:
1. As used in this act:
"Bureau" means the Bureau of Securities within the Division of Consumer Affairs in the Department of Law and Public Safety.
"Digital asset" means a representation of economic, proprietary, or access rights that is stored in a machine readable format, has a transaction history that is recorded in a distributed, digital ledger or digital data structure in which consensus is achieved through a mathematically verifiable process, and includes virtual currencies.
"Institutional investor" means a company or organization that invests money on behalf of other people, and includes, but is not limited to, banks, hedge funds, endowments, private equity firms, pension funds, and mutual funds. "Institutional investor" shall also include a "qualified institutional buyer" as defined in 17 C.F.R. s.230.144A.
"Virtual currency" means a digital asset that is:
(1) used as a medium of exchange, unit of account, or store of value; and
(2) not recognized as legal tender by the United States government.
"Virtual currency" shall include a digital asset that is determined by the bureau to be a stablecoin.
2. A virtual currency issued and sold directly to an institutional investor shall be classified as a security, as defined pursuant to section 2 of P.L.1967, c.93 (C.49:3-49), and shall be subject to the "Uniform Securities Law (1967)," P.L.1967, c.93 (C.49:3-47 et seq.).
3. The bureau shall adopt, pursuant to the "Administrative Procedure Act," P.L.1968, c.410 (C.52:14B-1 et seq.), rules and regulations to effectuate the purposes of this act.
4. This act shall take effect on the 90th day next following the date of enactment.
STATEMENT
This bill classifies all virtual currencies issued and sold to institutional investors as securities.
Under the bill, a virtual currency, issued and sold directly to an institutional investor, will be classified as a security and be subject to the State's "Uniform Securities Law" and any regulations promulgated by the Bureau of Securities in the Division of Consumer Affairs to effectuate the purposes of the bill. As used in the bill, "institutional investor" means a company or organization that invests money on behalf of other people, and includes, but is not limited to, banks, hedge funds, endowments, private equity firms, pension funds and mutual funds. "Institutional investor" also includes a "qualified institutional buyer" as defined pursuant to federal regulation.
