Oregon — Bitcoin and virtual-currency law

• Jurisdiction: State of Oregon (US)
• Date checked: 2026-10-09 (all statuses below were checked on this date unless another date is given)
• Regulators: Department of Consumer and Business Services, Division of Financial Regulation (DFR) — money transmitters and securities; Oregon Department of Justice / Attorney General Dan Rayfield (securities enforcement in court)
• Legislature: 83rd Legislative Assembly; 2026 short session ended March 2026; 2027 long session starts January 2027.
• Saved primary sources: sources/states/or/ (see sources/states/or/INDEX.md)

At a glance

1. Money-transmitter licensing of virtual currency

• ORS chapter 717 — Money Transmission (2025 edition; saved). Key definitions in ORS 717.200: [S1]
• (10) "Money" means a medium of exchange that "(a) The United States or a foreign government authorizes or adopts; or (b) Represents value that substitutes for currency but that does not benefit from government regulation requiring acceptance of the medium of exchange as legal tender."
• (11) "Money transmission" means "selling or issuing payment instruments or engaging in the business of receiving money for transmission, or transmitting money within the United States or to locations abroad by any and all means…"
• Read together, receiving Bitcoin (a non-legal-tender substitute for currency) for transmission appears to be licensable money transmission. This is an interpretation of the statute text; no DFR statement confirming it was found in this check. The amendment that added clause (b) is widely dated to 2015 (unverified).
• CSBS: Oregon has not enacted the MTMA. [S3]

2. Virtual-currency-specific statutes

3. Crypto ATM / kiosk law

• None. No Oregon kiosk statute or bill appeared in NCSL's 2025 or 2026 lists, and no DFR kiosk guidance was found on its site map. [S4][S5]
• Kiosk operators would need a money-transmitter licence under ORS 717 if they receive cash for transmission (interpretation — see section 1).
• In the October 2026 multistate Coinme kiosk settlement, Oregon is a participating state (Appendix A); its share of the $2.2M administrative penalty is $101,425.34 (Appendix B) Coinme consent order, App. A–B (completeness check, 2026-10-09). The order lists 34 agencies, not 35. [N5]

4. Tax treatment

• Oregon's personal income tax starts from federal taxable income, so federal property treatment of Bitcoin applies; Oregon has no general sales tax. (General knowledge — no Oregon Department of Revenue crypto publication was found; gap.)

5. Notable enforcement and litigation

State of Oregon v. Coinbase, Inc. and Coinbase Global, Inc.

• Filed 2025-04-18 by Attorney General Dan Rayfield, alleging Coinbase promoted and sold unregistered securities in violation of Oregon securities law; the press coverage singled out Internet Computer (ICP), which the complaint said fell from about $700 to $72 within a month of its Coinbase listing. Rayfield: "After building trust with Oregon consumers, Coinbase sold high-risk investments without them being properly vetted." Coinbase's chief legal officer Paul Grewal called it "meritless." The suit came two months after the SEC dropped its own Coinbase case (February 2025). [N1][N2]
• Removal: Coinbase removed the case to the US District Court for the District of Oregon (late May 2025), calling it "a regulatory land grab" conflicting with federal policy. [N3]
• Remand: by October 2025 a federal magistrate judge had issued findings and a recommendation that the case be remanded to state court ("no basis for federal jurisdiction exists"); Coinbase objected and Oregon defended the recommendation (Law360, 2025-10-14). The final district-court ruling and any appeal were not found (gap). [N4]
• Coinbase's counter-suit (2025-07-11): Coinbase sued Governor Tina Kotek's office in Marion County Circuit Court over public-records requests, alleging Oregon reversed its long-held position that digital assets are "not regulated" without public process and that the Governor's office claimed compliance would cost $2.4 million and take 31 years. [N6]

6. Pending and recently failed bills

• No crypto bills are pending: the 2026 short session has ended and none of its measures in NCSL's 2026 list concern Oregon crypto. [S4]
• Failed: HB 2071 (2025, blockchain protections), SB 146 (2025). [S4]

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

• "Regulatory land grab." Coinbase's characterization of the AG suit; the AG frames it as consumer protection filling a federal gap. [N1][N3] Legal and political dispute; no court has ruled on the merits.
• "Oregon secretly reversed its position." Coinbase's public-records suit alleges a closed-door policy change engineered with outside counsel; the state's response to that claim was not read (unverified). [N6]
• State AGs vs. federal deregulation. Commentary (e.g., Gizmodo: "Oregon Revives Lawsuit Against Coinbase That Trump's DOJ Killed") frames Oregon's suit as resistance to federal retreat; others see a patchwork risk. [N7] Characterization. (Note: the federal case was brought by the SEC, not DOJ.)

Sources

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

• [S1] Oregon Legislature, ORS chapter 717 (Money Transmission), 2025 edition. https://www.oregonlegislature.gov/bills_laws/ors/ors717.html — retrieved 2026-10-09 — saved or-ors-717-money-transmitters.html
• [S2] Oregon Legislature, SB 167 (2025 Regular Session), enrolled; OLIS overview shows Chapter 33. https://olis.oregonlegislature.gov/liz/2025R1/Downloads/MeasureDocument/SB167/Enrolled ; https://olis.oregonlegislature.gov/liz/2025R1/Measures/Overview/SB167 — saved or-2025-sb167-ucc-controllable-electronic-records-enrolled.pdf
• [S3] 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
• [S4] NCSL, 2025 and 2026 cryptocurrency legislation pages. https://www.ncsl.org/financial-services/cryptocurrency-digital-or-virtual-currency-and-digital-assets-2025-legislation — read 2026-10-09
• [S5] Oregon DFR site map (no crypto pages listed). https://dfr.oregon.gov/pages/site-map.aspx — read 2026-10-09
• [N1] Yahoo Finance, "Oregon Attorney General Rayfield sues Coinbase over 'devastating' high-risk…," 2025-04-18. https://finance.yahoo.com/news/oregon-attorney-general-rayfield-sues-214232914.html — summary only
• [N2] Law360, "Ore. Coinbase Case Charts New Path For State Crypto Suits" (preview only). https://www.law360.com/articles/2347437/ore-coinbase-case-charts-new-path-for-state-crypto-suits
• [N3] Yahoo Finance, "Coinbase Moves to Bring Oregon Securities Suit to Federal Jurisdiction," 2025-06-02. https://finance.yahoo.com/news/coinbase-moves-bring-oregon-securities-061451305.html — summary only
• [N4] Law360, "Oregon Says Judge Was Right To Remand Coinbase Suit," 2025-10-14 (preview only). https://www.law360.com/articles/2398762/oregon-says-judge-was-right-to-remand-coinbase-suit
• [N5] Washington DFI press release, 2026-10-08, Coinme multistate consent order. https://dfi.wa.gov/news/press/washington-state-dfi-enters-multi-state-consent-order-coinme-inc
• [N6] Yahoo Finance, "Crypto company challenges Oregon's 'dubious' lawsuit over high-risk investments," 2025-07-14. https://finance.yahoo.com/news/crypto-company-challenges-oregon-dubious-223735854.html — summary only
• [N7] Gizmodo, "Oregon Revives Lawsuit Against Coinbase That Trump's DOJ Killed" (headline only). https://gizmodo.com/oregon-revives-lawsuit-against-coinbase-that-trumps-doj-killed-2000591583