Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker has signed SB 3019 into law, which has been labeled as the most aggressive and punitive piece of crypto legislation enacted at the state level to date.
Industry leaders and legal experts are sounding the alarm over Article 3 of the bill, known as the "Digital Asset Privilege Tax Act."
The new law establishes a first-of-its-kind 0.2% transaction tax on everyday crypto. The tax framework contains no exemptions for standard non-commercial activities (yes, users will be taxed even for simply moving funds between personal wallets).
"Like taxing emails"
The Crypto Council for Innovation (CCI) has warned that the law would severely harm the local economy. "Illinois Governor Pritzker just signed the most punitive digital asset tax in the country into law. This will create an unprecedented tax regime that disproportionately burdens Illinois residents for simply using digital assets and will drive innovation and builders out of the state."
The CCI explicitly called out how the law unfairly targets everyday crypto users compared to participants in traditional finance. "The Act contains no meaningful exemptions for many common activities that digital asset users routinely undertake…" the letter added.
The novel tax regime, which has been compared to potentially taxing emails, would disproportionately burden residents for "simply using digital assets", according to the statement. "Taxing a transaction based on the medium through which it occurs is akin to taxing correspondence because it is delivered by email rather than by post," it said.
A "discriminatory" policy
Prominent crypto attorney and legal expert Miles Jennings described the legislation as a major threat to decentralized infrastructure.
"This is one of the most anti-crypto laws in the U.S. It taxes the exchange, transfer, or storage of digital assets—you buy BTC, you pay a tax; you hold your BTC on Coinbase, you pay a tax; and so on," he said.
Jennings has opined that the tax actively discriminates against digital assets in a way that likely violates broader federal laws. "There is effectively no comparable state financial transaction tax on stocks, bonds, or derivatives anywhere in the country. That means crypto is being singled out in violation of several federal laws."
U.Today Editorial Team
Dan Burgin
