California moves forward bill on unclaimed crypto, merchant payments

The bill has seen contention online, but Satoshi Action Fund’s Eric Peterson says it updates the state’s unclaimed property laws so crypto doesn’t get liquidated.

California’s lower house has passed a sweeping crypto payments-regulating bill that would also allow the state to take idle crypto holdings from exchanges if an owner hasn’t accessed their account in three years.

The California State Assembly passed Assembly Bill (AB) 1052 in a 78-0 vote on June 3, which would make crypto subject to the state’s unclaimed property laws and allow California to take possession of crypto in a user’s exchange account if it hasn’t performed “an act of ownership interest” over three years. 

Such acts include making a transaction like buying or selling, depositing into or withdrawing from the account, accessing the account, or taking any “other action that reasonably demonstrates to the holder that the owner knows that the property exists.” 

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