STATE OF NEW YORK ________________________________________________________________________ 5621--B Cal. No. 764 2023-2024 Regular Sessions IN SENATE March 9, 2023 ___________ Introduced by Sen. MAY -- read twice and ordered printed, and when printed to be committed to the Committee on Ethics and Internal Gover- nance -- committee discharged, bill amended, ordered reprinted as amended and recommitted to said committee -- reported favorably from said committee, ordered to first and second report, ordered to a third reading, substituted by Assembly Bill No. 2873A, substitution recon- sidered, restored to third reading, amended and ordered reprinted, retaining its place in the order of third reading AN ACT to amend the public officers law, in relation to reporting of digital assets on the annual statement of financial disclosure The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem- bly, do enact as follows: 1 Section 1. Subdivision 3 of section 73-a of the public officers law is 2 amended by adding a new paragraph 16-a to read as follows: 3 16-a. List below the name and market value of digital assets held by 4 the reporting individual or such individual's spouse or domestic partner 5 in EXCESS of $1,000 at the close of the taxable year last occurring 6 prior to the date of filing. Whenever an interest in digital assets 7 exists through a beneficial interest in a trust, the digital assets held 8 in such trust shall be listed ONLY IF the reporting individual has know- 9 ledge thereof except where the reporting individual or the reporting 10 individual's spouse or domestic partner has transferred assets to such 11 trust for his or her benefit in which event such digital assets shall be 12 listed unless they are not ascertainable by the reporting individual 13 because the trustee is under an obligation or has been instructed in 14 writing not to disclose the contents of the trust to the reporting indi- 15 vidual. The digital assets of which the reporting individual or the 16 reporting individual's spouse or domestic partner is the owner of record 17 but in which such individual or the reporting individual's spouse or 18 domestic partner has no beneficial interest shall not be listed. Also 19 list digital assets owned for investment purposes by a corporation more EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets [] is old law to be omitted. LBD03465-07-3S. 5621--B 2 1 than fifty percent (50%) of the stock of which is owned or controlled by 2 the reporting individual or such individual's spouse or domestic part- 3 ner. For purposes of this subdivision, the following terms shall have 4 the following meanings: 5 (a) "Digital asset" shall mean an asset that is issued, transferred, 6 or both, using distributed ledger or blockchain technology, including, 7 but not limited to, digital currencies, digital coins, digital non-fun- 8 gible tokens or other similar assets. 9 (b) "Digital currency" shall mean any type of digital unit that is 10 used as a medium of exchange or a form of digitally stored value. Virtu- 11 al currency shall be broadly construed to include digital units of 12 exchange that: (i) have a centralized repository or administrator; (ii) 13 are decentralized and have no centralized repository or administrator; 14 or (iii) may be created or obtained by computing, manufacturing, or 15 other similar effort. 16 (c) "Distributed ledger or blockchain technology" shall mean a ledger 17 or database that stores shared state by maintaining it across a multi- 18 plicity of devices belonging to different entities and securing it 19 through a combination of cryptographic and consensus protocols, where 20 the shared state serves to authenticate, record, share, and/or synchro- 21 nize transactions involving digital assets or virtual currencies. 22 Category of 23 Market Value 24 as of the close 25 of the taxable 26 year last 27 occurring 28 prior to 29 Self/ Type of the filing of 30 Spouse or Digital Asset this statement 31 Domestic (In Table II) 32 Partner 33 _______________________________________________________________________ 34 _______________________________________________________________________ 35 _______________________________________________________________________ 36 _______________________________________________________________________ 37 _______________________________________________________________________ 38 § 2. This act shall take effect on the first of January next succeed- 39 ing the date upon which it shall have become a law.