Nevada — Bitcoin and virtual-currency law

Bitcoin Research — Law, Regulation, Markets & Origins (2026)

Legislation

2026-10-09

Document text

Research, not advice. Part of the Bitcoin research archive (October 2026). Claims labelled unverified, contested or fringe are reported, not endorsed; statuses of bills and rules are as of the date checked. Government, court and patent records are public domain; the research notes are CC BY 4.0.

Nevada — Bitcoin and virtual-currency law

  • Jurisdiction: State of Nevada (US)
  • Date checked: 2026-10-09 (all statuses below were checked on this date unless another date is given)
  • Regulator: Nevada Financial Institutions Division (NFID / FID), Department of Business and Industry
  • Legislature: meets in odd years; 83rd session ended June 2025; no 2026 regular session; next session February 2027.
  • Saved primary sources: sources/states/nv/ (see sources/states/nv/INDEX.md)

At a glance

Topic Nevada position Key cite Status (checked 2026-10-09)
Money-transmitter licence for virtual currency Case-by-case "licensure determination"; FID licenses this industry as money transmitters when applicable and may treat digital custodians as trust companies (NRS 669) FID statement, 2019-08-19; NRS 671 In force [S1]
Model law MTMA adopted by AB 21 (2023), effective 2023-07-01; AB 430 (2025) exempts payroll processing, effective 2025-10-01; no virtual-currency title NRS 671.004 et seq. In force [S4][S5]
Blockchain and local government Counties and cities may not tax, license or otherwise restrict the use of a blockchain; blockchain records recognized under the Uniform Electronic Transactions Act SB 398 (2017); NRS 244.3535, 268.0979, ch. 719 In force [S2][S3]
Crypto ATMs / kiosks No kiosk statute — AARP Nevada (April 2026) says regulations "have not passed"; 447 kiosks in the state — None [N1]
Tax No personal income tax (general knowledge); no Nevada crypto tax guidance found (gap) — —
Enforcement FID put Prime Trust (Nevada retail trust company) into receivership (2023) and issued a cease-and-desist to Fortress Trust (2025) FID releases; news See section 5 [S6][N2]

1. Money-transmitter licensing of virtual currency

  • NFID statement on regulation of cryptocurrency in Nevada, 2019-08-19 (saved): businesses had asked whether a licence was needed; depending on the business model, a licence "may have been required for money transmission under NRS Chapter 671." FID paused determinations while SB 195 (2019) — a proposed new licence program — was pending; SB 195 did not pass, and FID "has resumed licensing this industry as money transmitters, when applicable." "If an entity proposes to serve as a digital custodian for any form of digital currency, then the business may be regulated as a trust company under NRS Chapter 669." Anyone who "facilitates the transmission of or holds fiat or digital currency by way of brick-and-mortar, kiosk, mobile, internet or any other means" should request a licensure determination. [S1]
  • NRS 671 (money transmitters): rewritten by AB 21 (2023), Chapter 23, Statutes of Nevada 2023 (approved 2023-05-24), as the CSBS Money Transmission Modernization Act, effective 2023-07-01; "monetary value" is "a medium of exchange, whether or not redeemable in money." AB 430 (2025) removed payroll-processing services from coverage effective 2025-10-01. CSBS lists Nevada as a full MTMA state with no virtual-currency title. [S4][S5][N3]
  • An earlier FID consumer/investor guidance on virtual currency (2014-04-25) warned that virtual-currency businesses may be subject to state and federal licensing (as summarized by a secondary source; not read directly). [N3]

2. Other virtual-currency-specific statutes

  • SB 398 (2017), Senator Kieckhefer (enrolled copy saved): recognizes blockchain records as electronic records under the Uniform Electronic Transactions Act (NRS ch. 719) and prohibits local governments from (1) imposing a tax or fee on the use of a blockchain, (2) requiring a certificate, licence or permit to use a blockchain, or (3) imposing any other requirement on its use — codified for counties at NRS 244.3535 and for cities at NRS 268.0979. [S2][S3][N4]
  • Trust companies (NRS 669): Nevada's retail trust-company charter has been used by crypto custodians (Prime Trust, Fortress Trust). [S1][S6][N2]
  • 2025 SB 258 (industrial insurance) includes virtual currency in the "total amount recovered"; enacted per NCSL — minor. [S7]
  • SB 195 (2019), a dedicated crypto licence, failed. [S1]

3. Crypto ATM / kiosk law

  • No Nevada kiosk statute. AARP Nevada said in April 2026 that "regulations specific to the industry have not passed the Nevada State Legislature"; it counted 447 kiosks (336 in Southern Nevada) and urged daily limits, scam warnings, refunds and fee caps. [N1]
  • Under the FID's 2019 statement, kiosk operators handling fiat should seek a licensure determination under NRS 671. [S1]
  • The Nevada Attorney General has warned the public about kiosk scams (news headline; not read). [N5]

4. Tax treatment

  • Nevada has no personal or corporate income tax (it has a gross-receipts "commerce tax" on large businesses) — general knowledge, not re-verified.
  • No Nevada Department of Taxation guidance on Bitcoin was found (gap). Local governments cannot tax the use of a blockchain (NRS 244.3535 / 268.0979). [S3][N4]

5. Notable enforcement

Date Target Action Source
2023-06-21 / 2023-06-26 Prime Trust LLC (Nevada retail trust company; crypto custody, subsidiary of Prime Core Technologies) FID cease-and-desist (6/21) for operating unsafely and being insolvent; FID petitioned the Eighth Judicial District Court (6/26) to appoint a receiver; press release 2023-06-27 (saved with the petition) [S6]
2025-10-22 Fortress Trust FID cease-and-desist; news reports said it owed about $8 million in fiat and $4 million in crypto but held under $200,000 cash and about $1 million in crypto; over 250,000 clients [N2]

Prime Trust later went through federal bankruptcy (widely reported; not re-verified here).

6. Pending and recently failed bills

  • Nevada has no 2026 session; nothing is pending. NCSL's 2025 list shows only SB 258 for Nevada. [S7]
  • No Nevada Bitcoin-reserve or kiosk bill reached enactment in 2025 (AARP says no kiosk rules passed). [N1][S7]

7. Contested and fringe claims (flagged, not endorsed)

  • "Nevada is a crypto-friendly haven." Often said because of the 2017 ban on local blockchain taxes and the trust-company route; the Prime Trust and Fortress Trust failures are cited by critics as the downside of light-touch trust supervision. Characterization, not a finding. [S3][S6][N2]
  • "Innovation zones." In 2021 the governor proposed letting a blockchain company (Blockchains LLC) form its own local government; it was not enacted (general knowledge; unverified in this check).
  • AARP's kiosk loss figures ($246.7 million national 2024 losses reported to the FBI; $107.2 million for people 60+) are advocacy citations of FBI data. [N1]

Sources

Saved full copies are in sources/states/nv/.

  • [S1] Nevada Financial Institutions Division, "Statement on regulation of cryptocurrency in Nevada," 2019-08-19. https://fid.nv.gov/uploadedFiles/fidnvgov/content/Home/features/FID%20Statement%20on%20Crypotcurrency.pdf — retrieved 2026-10-09 — saved nv-fid-statement-on-cryptocurrency-2019-08-19.pdf
  • [S2] Nevada Legislature, SB 398 (2017), enrolled. https://www.leg.state.nv.us/Session/79th2017/Bills/SB/SB398_EN.pdf — saved nv-2017-sb398-blockchain-enrolled.pdf
  • [S3] Nevada Legislature, NRS chapter 719 (electronic transactions, incl. blockchain). https://www.leg.state.nv.us/NRS/NRS-719.html — saved nv-nrs-719-electronic-transactions-blockchain.html
  • [S4] CSBS, MTMA State Enactments (PDF dated 2026-10-08). https://www.csbs.org/sites/default/files/external-link-files/10.8.26%20MTMA%20State%20Enactments.pdf
  • [S5] CSBS, MTMA legislative update (August 2026). https://www.csbs.org/mtma-legislative-update-august-2026
  • [S6] Nevada FID press release, 2023-06-27, "Nevada Financial Institutions Division files court petition to place Prime Trust LLC in receivership" (with petition). https://www.fid.nv.gov/uploadedFiles/fidnvgov/content/Resources/Nevada%20Financial%20Institutions%20Files%20Court%20Petition%20to%20Place%20Prime%20Trust,%20LLC%20in%20Receivership.pdf — saved nv-fid-press-release-2023-06-27-prime-trust-receivership-petition.pdf
  • [S7] NCSL, 2025 cryptocurrency legislation page. https://www.ncsl.org/financial-services/cryptocurrency-digital-or-virtual-currency-and-digital-assets-2025-legislation
  • [N1] Yahoo News (AARP Nevada story), "Nevada's unregulated 'crypto kiosks' are a paradise for scammers, AARP warns," 2026-04-03. https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/nevada-unregulated-crypto-kiosks-paradise-112912597.html — summary only
  • [N2] Yahoo Finance, "Nevada Shuts Down Fortress Trust Over Insolvency," 2025-10-24. https://finance.yahoo.com/news/nevada-shuts-down-fortress-trust-114729119.html — summary only
  • [N3] CryptoSlate, "Nevada Virtual Currency Money Transmission Regime" (last verified 2026-06-09). https://cryptoslate.com/crypto-laws/nevada-virtual-currency-money-transmission-regime — secondary summary; used only for AB 21 chapter/approval date and the 2014 FID guidance reference
  • [N4] Nevada.Public.Law, NRS 244.3535 text. https://nevada.public.law/statutes/nrs_244.3535 — read 2026-10-09
  • [N5] MSN, "Nevada attorney general warns of cryptocurrency kiosk scams" (headline only). https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/other/nevada-attorney-general-warns-of-cryptocurrency-kiosk-scams/ar-AA24X4n2