New York State lawmaker Phil Steck has introduced a proposal to impose a 0.2% excise tax on cryptocurrency transactions, estimating the measure could bring in roughly $158 million annually. The revenue would be earmarked for programs aimed at preventing and addressing substance abuse in upstate schools, a region that has been hit hard by the opioid crisis.
Steck, a Democrat who chairs the Assembly’s Committee on Alcoholism and Drug Abuse, oversees initiatives through the Office of Addiction Services and Supports, which reaches more than 730,000 New Yorkers each year. His bill, labelled A0966, casts a wide net, applying the tax to transactions involving Bitcoin, NFTs, stablecoins, and other digital assets, including those obtained through mining or staking.
Due to limited data from the state’s Department of Financial Services, Steck relied on research from Chainalysis, which estimated that $1 trillion in cryptocurrency was sent to the U.S. between mid-2022 and mid-2023. Adjusting for New York’s share of the national GDP, Steck projected $79 billion in annual transaction value within the state, which forms the basis of his revenue forecast.
The legislation comes amid growing debate over crypto regulation in the wake of high-profile collapses such as FTX and legal actions against firms like Gemini. Steck’s memo cites the sector’s history of fraud, scams, and environmental impacts from energy-intensive mining as further justification for the measure.
If adopted, the tax would make New York one of the few states directly targeting crypto transactions for public funding. It also arrives at a time when other states, such as Wyoming, are experimenting with crypto-related revenue streams — in Wyoming’s case, channelling stablecoin income into education.
