Share this article
US State Moves to Exempt Some Blockchain Tokens from Securities Rules
Rhode Island lawmakers have introduced a bipartisan bill to exempt blockchain tokens with a "consumptive purpose" from securities laws.
Updated Sep 13, 2021, 8:56 a.m. Published Mar 1, 2019, 1:30 p.m.
Lawmakers in the U.S. state of Rhode Island are seeking to exempt blockchain tokens from securities laws for some use cases.
Five Democratic and Republican senators jointly filed house bill 5595 on Wednesday, proposing that the Rhode Island Uniform Securities Act should be amended to state that developers or sellers of “open blockchain tokens” are not deemed as issuers of securities and are exempt from the act.
STORY CONTINUES BELOW
Don't miss another story.Subscribe to the Crypto Daybook Americas Newsletter today. See all newsletters
The exemption, however, should be provided under certain conditions, the lawmakers said. First, the purpose of a token should be for a "consumptive purpose" and “only be exchangeable for, or provided for the receipt of, goods, services or content, including rights of access to goods, services or content.”
Secondly, developers or sellers of a token should not sell it to the initial buyer as a financial investment, they said, adding:
“If the token does not have a consumptive purpose available at the time of sale, the initial buyer of the token is prevented from reselling the token until the token is available for use for a consumptive purpose.”
Further, the proposed legislation says that individuals who facilitate the exchange of open blockchain tokens should not be treated as brokers-dealers or those who deal in securities, provided they “electronically file a notice of intent with the secretary of state” in advance.
The bill defines open blockchain token as a digital unit which is created, recorded in a digital ledger, and is "capable of being traded or transferred between persons without an intermediary or custodian of value."
Over in Colorado, a similar bill was passed by state senators on Wednesday and is now awaiting a signature from the state governor before it becomes law.
Senate bill 23 – dubbed the “Colorado Digital Token Act” – was filed last month, proposing that digital tokens with a “primarily consumptive” purpose should be exempted from securities laws provided they are not marketed for “speculative or investment” purposes.
Rhode Island Capitol image via Shutterstock
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
Bitcoin Treads Water Near $90K as Bitfinex Warns of 'Fragile Setup' to Shocks
BTC's relative weakness compared to stocks points to tepid spot demand, making the largest crypto vulnerable to macro volatility, Bitfinex analysts said.
What to know:
- Bitcoin erased very modest overnight gains early Monday and spent the rest of the U.S. session in a tight range around the $90,000 level.
- Rising long bond yields and a small U.S. equities pulling back weighed on risk appetite as traders eye this week's Federal Reserve meeting.
- Bitfinex analysts pointed out bitcoin's relative weakness against U.S. stocks amid modest spot demand and structural softness.
Top Stories
