Ohio’s House of Representatives has passed a bill that would give a raft of protections for crypto and exempt crypto transactions below $200 from capital gain taxes.
State House lawmakers voted 70-26 on Wednesday to pass House Bill 116, titled the Ohio Blockchain Basics Act, which will now head to the state’s Senate before it lands on Governor Mike DeWine’s desk.
The bill passed the state’s Technology and Innovation Committee with bipartisan support in a 13-0 vote earlier in the day.
The bill is primarily backed by Republican Representative Steve Demetriou, who said on Wednesday that its “two main focuses” are allowing for easier crypto payments and “protecting digital asset mining businesses from discriminatory government overreach.”
🇺🇸 JUST IN: Ohio’s ‘Bitcoin Rights’ bill HB 116 passes the House by a 68-26 vote, next heading to the Senate. pic.twitter.com/xRcTXC3KCI
— Cointelegraph (@Cointelegraph) June 19, 2025
Many US state lawmakers are considering passing crypto bills, with 40 out of 50 states in the US having introduced a total of over 160 crypto-related bills, according to the digital asset law tracking site Bitcoin Laws.
Bill to make $200 crypto payments tax-exempt
The bill would exempt all crypto transactions under $200 from capital gains taxes, a figure that would rise each year with inflation.
The $200 limit would apply in the first tax year when, or if, the bill is passed and would be raised in line with the Consumer Price Index, rounded up to the nearest $5.
The bill would also stop the state’s tax commissioner from decreasing the limit after it’s been raised and prohibit the state government and state agencies from implementing rules restricting residents from accepting crypto as a payment method.
Ohio wants to open up crypto mining
The bill would also allow anyone to mine crypto in an area zoned for residential use, so long as they comply with local ordinances and regulations around noise.
Crypto mining businesses that meet local regulations would also be allowed to “operate in any area of this state that is zoned for industrial use,” the bill states.
The bill also aims to protect crypto mining operations, and says the state should not enforce laws or rules specific to crypto mining business “that does not also apply to other similarly situated businesses.”
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It would also ban the state from rezoning land that would affect a crypto mining business “without going through the proper notice and comment process,” and aggrieved crypto miners can take any rezoning to court if they believe they’re being discriminated against.
Deregulating mining, staking, swaps, nodes and wallets
The Blockchain Basics Act also states that no money transmitter license is required for a host of actions that help run blockchains or don’t involve the use of fiat currencies.
The bill states no person needs a license “solely to engage” in crypto mining, staking, operating a blockchain node, exchanging one cryptocurrency for another, or developing or deploying software that allows for crypto swaps.
It also states that businesses providing crypto mining or staking services are “not considered to be offering a security or investment contract,” which federal regulators under the Biden administration argued was the case when taking dozens of crypto companies to court.
The bill also prohibits the government and its agencies from making rules that stop or inhibit Ohioans from taking custody of crypto using a hardware or self-hosted wallet.
Ohio is also set to consider a bill that would create an “Ohio Bitcoin Reserve Fund,” which was introduced in January and referred to the Financial Institutions, Insurance, and Technology Committee.
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