California Delays Efforts to Regulate Bitcoin Businesses

California's legislature has once again shelved a plan to regulate businesses in the digital currency industry.

Reintroduced after nearly a year of dormancy earlier this month, Assembly Bill 1326 has now been referred back to the state's Rules Committee and Banking and Finance Committee – effectively freezing its progress.

Word first emerged on Friday that the measure would be delayed, and a representative for the Banking and Finance Committee has since confirmed to CoinDesk it will not be heard in the legislature again this year.

She said:

"It's being delayed for this year."

The move will prolong the already long road for the bill, which was first introduced in 2015 and saw months of back-and-forth debate take place between industry representatives, state lawmakers and technology advocacy groups.

However, statements from representatives of the legislature suggest that the bill, at least in some form, will return during the legislative session next year.

Banking and Finance Committee spokesperson Mark Farouk told American Banker that the bill "is dead for this year", suggesting that significant change was in the works. Farouk reportedly indicated that work by the Uniform Law Commission on a template for digital currency regulation could also play a role.

"I think there's going to be a lot of things that are going to be modified," he told the publication.

The Banking and Finance Committee did not offer comment on whether the law would be revisited in 2017.

California state capitol image via Shutterstock