Share this article
New York City Councilman Proposes Bitcoin Payments for Fines and Fees
New York City Council Member Mark Levine has announced he will introduce a bill that could find the city accepting bitcoin for fines and fees.
By Pete Rizzo
Updated Sep 11, 2021, 11:31 a.m. Published Feb 11, 2015, 9:15 p.m.
New York City Councilman Mark Levine has announced he will introduce a bill tomorrow that, if adopted, would move the municipality to accept bitcoin as payment for fines and fees.
STORY CONTINUES BELOW
Don't miss another story.Subscribe to the Crypto Daybook Americas Newsletter today. See all newsletters
The full bill would give New York City the ability to “enter into agreements” with financing agencies to allow it to accept bitcoin. Parking tickets and court fees would be among the items that would then be payable in bitcoin.
, a democrat representing the 7th District in Northern Manhattan, is particularly passionate about developments in the bitcoin community, citing its popularity among younger demographics in statements to The New York Post.
A spokesperson told CoinDesk:
“This is a really exciting bill. We really want to engage with the bitcoin community, which is growing by leaps and bounds.”
A Harvard graduate with a BA in physics, Levine is a member of the city's finance, education, housing and buildings, government operations, and rules committees.
The New York City Council is a 51-member group that serves as the city's main lawmaking body and is solely responsible for its budget.
Added fees may apply
Also present in the text is language that would enable New York City to collect “reasonable and uniform fees” for accepting bitcoin.
“Such fee shall not exceed the cost incurred by the agency or department in connection with such bitcoin transaction,” the bill reads.
The spokesperson was not able to provide further details of the steps the bill will need to go through to become law. However, the text notes that the bill would take effect 180 days after its enactment.
The introduction of the bill follows news that the city’s finance department was conducting research as to whether bitcoin should be accepted for parking violations.
New York City is not the first municipality to consider accepting bitcoin for government payments, following the city of Pittsburgh in its considerations.
City Hall image via CoinDesk
More For You
What to know:
- As of October 2025, GoPlus has generated $4.7M in total revenue across its product lines. The GoPlus App is the primary revenue driver, contributing $2.5M (approx. 53%), followed by the SafeToken Protocol at $1.7M.
- GoPlus Intelligence's Token Security API averaged 717 million monthly calls year-to-date in 2025 , with a peak of nearly 1 billion calls in February 2025. Total blockchain-level requests, including transaction simulations, averaged an additional 350 million per month.
- Since its January 2025 launch , the $GPS token has registered over $5B in total spot volume and $10B in derivatives volume in 2025. Monthly spot volume peaked in March 2025 at over $1.1B , while derivatives volume peaked the same month at over $4B.
More For You
LUNC Surges Over 160% in a Week as Do Kwon Sentencing and Token Burns Draw Traders
The rally is driven by speculation that a final verdict could bring clarity to the project, as well as technical factors like token burns.
What to know:
- Terra Classic (LUNC) surged 74% to $0.0000072, up 160% in the past week, on exploding trading volume, ahead of Terraform Labs founder Do Kwon's sentencing on Dec. 11.
- The rally is driven by speculation that a final verdict could bring clarity to the project, as well as technical factors like token burns, with 849 million LUNC destroyed in the past week.
- The token's momentum is also fueled by Binance's pause on LUNC withdrawals ahead of the Terra Chain's v2.18 upgrade, which aims to improve network stability, despite the token remaining volatile.
Top Stories
