Ohio — Bitcoin and virtual-currency law

• Jurisdiction: State of Ohio (US)
• Date checked: 2026-10-09 (all statuses below were checked on this date unless another date is given)
• Regulator: Ohio Department of Commerce, Division of Financial Institutions (DFI)
• Legislature: 136th General Assembly (2025–2026); full-time; bills die at the end of 2026.
• Saved primary sources: sources/states/oh/ (see sources/states/oh/INDEX.md)

At a glance

1. Money-transmitter licensing of virtual currency

DFI Interpretive Guidance 2022-01, "Licensing of Cryptocurrency Businesses Pursuant to the Ohio Money Transmitters Act" (supersedes Interpretive Guidance 2020-01; issued under Director Sheryl Maxfield). Saved in full. [S1]

• Under R.C. 1315.01(G), "transmit money" means receiving "money or its equivalent" and delivering or making it accessible to the same or another person at the same or another time or place. "For purposes of the OMTA, the Division considers cryptocurrencies, like Bitcoin, to be money or its equivalent."
• "In general a person engaged in the buying or selling of cryptocurrency as a business qualifies as a money transmitter … and must obtain an Ohio money transmitter license before the person provides services to Ohioans."
• Listed examples requiring a licence:
• Cryptocurrency kiosk / ATM operators — unless the operator can conclusively verify in every case that the user owns the receiving wallet; it does not matter whether the operator sells from its own inventory or routes through an exchange.
• Exchange platforms (crypto-to-crypto or crypto-to-fiat).
• Hosted wallets that receive, store and transmit virtual currency for others; software-only wallet makers and multisig co-signers holding one key are generally not money transmitters.
• Payment processors that let merchants accept virtual currency (the traditional payment-processor exclusion does not apply). [S1]
• CSBS lists Ohio as not having enacted the MTMA. [S3]

2. Virtual-currency-specific statutes

• No enacted Ohio statute specific to Bitcoin businesses was found. Pending bills in section 6. [S2][S4]
• History (not re-verified): in 2018 Ohio Treasurer Josh Mandel launched OhioCrypto.com to let businesses pay some state taxes in Bitcoin through a payment processor; his successor suspended it in 2019 after a legal review. (General knowledge — unverified in this check.)

3. Crypto ATM / kiosk law

• No kiosk statute. Under Guidance 2022-01, kiosk operators are money transmitters and need a DFI licence. [S1]
• HB 648 (2026) "Digital Asset Kiosks" — would set kiosk rules and require registration as money transmitters (NCSL summary). Introduced 2026-01-20; referred to House Financial Institutions 2026-02-04; no further action. [S2][S4]
• An "ELDER Act" announced by Reps. Kishman and Miller concerns elder financial exploitation and was surfaced in kiosk searches; its kiosk content was not read (unverified). [N1]
• Ohio is named among the regulators in the October 2026 Coinme multistate consent order (Coinme to shut down kiosks). [N2]

4. Tax treatment

• Ohio's income tax starts from federal AGI, so federal treatment of Bitcoin would flow through (general knowledge; unverified).
• HB 116 (pending) would amend R.C. 5747.01 (income tax) and municipal income-tax sections (718.01) — per its title — to address taxation of digital assets (details of the tax changes not read — gap). [S2]

5. Notable enforcement

• Coinme multistate consent order (2026-10-08) — Ohio participated per Washington DFI. [N2]
• No other Ohio DFI or Ohio Securities Division crypto action was located in this check (gap). A news item reports Ohio's BCI returned $15,300 to a kiosk-scam victim (2026) — a law-enforcement recovery, not a regulatory action (headline only). [N3]

6. Pending bills (136th General Assembly; die at end of 2026)

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

• Is Bitcoin "money or its equivalent"? Ohio DFI says yes for licensing purposes; Texas's banking department says the opposite (Bitcoin is not money under its statute). The split shows that state licensing turns on each regulator's reading of similar words. [S1] (compare us-state-tx.md) Interpretive dispute.
• Blockchain Basics bills are promoted nationally by Bitcoin advocacy groups as protecting the "right to mine"; opponents raise local noise and grid concerns (attribution of the national campaign unverified).

Sources

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

• [S1] Ohio Department of Commerce, Division of Financial Institutions, Interpretive Guidance 2022-01, "Licensing of Cryptocurrency Businesses Pursuant to the Ohio Money Transmitters Act." https://dam.assets.ohio.gov/image/upload/com.ohio.gov/FIIN/MT/fiin_InterpretiveGuidanceLicensingCryptocurrencyBusinesses6.22.pdf — retrieved 2026-10-09 — saved oh-dfi-interpretive-guidance-2022-01-licensing-cryptocurrency-businesses.pdf
• [S2] Ohio Legislature, bill status pages for HB 116, HB 648, SB 57, HB 18 (136th GA). https://www.legislature.ohio.gov/legislation/136/hb116/status (and /hb648/status, /sb57/status, /hb18/status) — read 2026-10-09
• [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-2026-legislation — read 2026-10-09
• [N1] Ohio House, "Reps. Kishman, Miller Announce ELDER Act" (title only). https://ohiohouse.gov/members/matt-huffman/news/reps-kishman-miller-announce-elder-act-141935
• [N2] Washington DFI press release, 2026-10-08, Coinme multistate consent order (lists Ohio among regulators). https://dfi.wa.gov/news/press/washington-state-dfi-enters-multi-state-consent-order-coinme-inc
• [N3] WHIO, "Ohio woman recovers $15,300 lost in cryptocurrency tech-support scam" (headline only). https://www.whio.com/news/local/ohio-woman-recovers-15300-lost-cryptocurrency-tech-support-scam/GPHIWUUNTVHI3DKGEHXCTR