Arizona Considers Making Bitcoin Legal Tender

A state senator in Arizona has introduced a bill to make bitcoin an official state currency

article-image

Arizona State Senator Wendy Rogers (R., District 6). Source: Wendy Rogers

share

key takeaways

  • An Arizona legislator is hoping to make bitcoin a transactional currency in the state
  • Federal law makes it difficult for states to legalize currencies other than the dollar

A state senator in Arizona has introduced a bill that would make bitcoin legal tender in the state — although federal law could complicate things. 

Arizona State Senator Wendy Rogers (R., District 6) introduced the bill, which seeks to add a statute to Arizona law making bitcoin a legal currency, on Tuesday. There was a second reading on the senate floor Wednesday. If and when a vote might take place has not yet been disclosed. 

The US Constitution might make passing the bill a challenge, though, cryptocurrency law experts say. 

“The Coinage Clause of the Constitution means that the power to determine what is and isn’t legal tender in the United States is the exclusive province of Congress,” said Preston Byrne, partner at law firm Anderson Kill. “If enacted, [the bill] would be largely symbolic.” 

In the 1800s, states tried to work around the Coinage Clause by issuing their own “state bank notes,” but they had little success. In the National Bank Acts of 1865 and 1866, Congress effectively put an end to the practice by placing a 10% tax on payments made in currency other than national bank notes. 

“Aside from the legality though, it begs the question of whether digital assets are actually ‘currencies’ or forms of ‘money,’” said Steve Gannon, attorney at Murphy and McGonigle. “In addition, for what purposes would Arizona be accepting digital assets as ‘legal tender?’ If it is simply another method of payment with respect to state contracts, that may be a limited use case that is worth an experiment.” 

Even if the bill becomes law in Arizona, it’s unlikely to have much impact on usage of bitcoin in the state, Byrne said. 

“Arizona could certainly pass a law like this and the state government could choose to accept bitcoin as payment for Arizona taxes, but this would not change the legal treatment of Bitcoin as property from a federal tax perspective,” said Byrne.

“I also don’t think such a law could obligate Arizonans to accept bitcoin in a constitutionally acceptable way.” 

The introduction of the bill follows Rogers’ promise to make Arizona a crypto-friendly state. In September 2021, she was appointed to the Blockchain and Cryptocurrency Study Committee, she announced on Twitter

The committee consists of members from the Arizona state House and Senate as well as digital asset industry members and advocates. The group seeks to “review data on the scope of blockchain and cryptocurrency throughout the country” and determine how the technology can play into Arizona’s existing financial infrastructure, according to government documents

Senator Rogers’ office did not immediately respond to Blockworks’ request for comment.


Get the news in your inbox. Explore Blockworks newsletters:

Tags

Upcoming Events

Old Billingsgate

Mon - Wed, October 13 - 15, 2025

Blockworks’ Digital Asset Summit (DAS) will feature conversations between the builders, allocators, and legislators who will shape the trajectory of the digital asset ecosystem in the US and abroad.

Industry City | Brooklyn, NY

TUES - THURS, JUNE 24 - 26, 2025

Permissionless IV serves as the definitive gathering for crypto’s technical founders, developers, and builders to come together and create the future.If you’re ready to shape the future of crypto, Permissionless IV is where it happens.

Brooklyn, NY

SUN - MON, JUN. 22 - 23, 2025

Blockworks and Cracked Labs are teaming up for the third installment of the Permissionless Hackathon, happening June 22–23, 2025 in Brooklyn, NY. This is a 36-hour IRL builder sprint where developers, designers, and creatives ship real projects solving real problems across […]

recent research

Research Report Templates.png

Research

Ethena Labs is leaping from its flagship synthetic dollar, USDe, to a full product suite—USDtb, iUSDe, and the Arbitrum-based Converge Chain—designed to marry crypto-native yields with TradFi-grade compliance. Our analysis shows how expanding into CME, ETF options, and tokenized Treasuries could lift protocol revenue from sub-$500 million in a bear case to several billion dollars if favorable regulation and institutional adoption align.

article-image

Bitcoin is still rising, 11 years after the documentary film The Rise and Rise of Bitcoin

article-image

Arch Labs CEO told Blockworks that the team plans to launch a native token, but declined to give details

article-image

CEO Mike Silagadze tells Blockworks that the US is “open for business” and why its DeFi bank offering is the first of many

article-image

Doing one thing well and leaving everything else out is often what disruptive technologies do best

article-image

Why an analyst is kicking off COIN coverage with “buy” rating