The Vermont Statutes Online

Title 8 : Banking and Insurance

Chapter 079 : Money Services

Subchapter 010 : VIRTUAL CURRENCY

• § 2576. Additional requirements and clarifications for virtual-currency business activities

  (a) To ensure adequate consumer protection, the Commissioner may adopt by rule provisions that specify limitations to and the method by which a person licensed under subchapter 2 of this chapter to engage in virtual-currency business activity may include virtual currency and virtual currency-denominated assets in the calculation of its net worth pursuant to section 2540 of this chapter.

  (b) In addition to the records required to be maintained by sections 2119 and 2546 of this title and any other records the Commissioner requires pursuant to this chapter or rule, a person licensed under subchapter 2 of this chapter to engage in virtual-currency business activity shall maintain, for all virtual-currency business activity with or on behalf of a person, for at least five years after the date of the activity, a record of:

  (1) each transaction of the licensee with or on behalf of the person or for the licensee’s account in this state, including:

  (A) the identity of the person;

  (B) the form of the transaction;

  (C) the amount, date, and payment instructions given by the person; and

  (D) the account number, name, and U.S. Postal Service address of the person, and, to the extent feasible, other parties to the transaction;

  (2) the aggregate number of transactions and aggregate value of transactions by the licensee with or on behalf of the person and for the licensee’s account in this State, expressed in U.S. dollar equivalent of virtual currency for the previous 12 calendar months;

  (3) each transaction in which the licensee exchanges one form of virtual currency for money or another form of virtual currency with or on behalf of the person;

  (4) a general ledger posted at least monthly that lists all assets, liabilities, capital, income, and expenses of the licensee;

  (5) each business-call report the licensee is required to create or provide to the Department or NMLS;

  (6) bank statements and bank reconciliation records for the licensee and the name, account number, and U.S. Postal Service address of each bank the licensee uses in the conduct of its virtual-currency business activity with or on behalf of the person;

  (7) a report of any dispute with the person; and

  (8) a report of any virtual-currency business activity transaction with or on behalf of a person which the licensee was unable to complete.

  (c) It is unlawful for a person licensed under subchapter 2 of this chapter to engage in virtual-currency business activity, or any other person, in connection with the offer to sell, the offer to purchase, the sale, the purchase of a virtual currency, or in connection with any virtual-currency business activity or transaction in virtual currency, directly or indirectly:

  (1) to employ a device, scheme, or artifice to defraud;

  (2) to make an untrue statement of a material fact or to omit to state a material fact necessary in order to make the statements made, in light of the circumstances under which they were made, not misleading; or

  (3) to engage in an act, practice, or course of business that operates or would operate as a fraud or deceit upon another person.

  (d) Persons licensed under subchapter 2 of this chapter to engage in virtual-currency business activity shall comply at all times with all applicable federal and state laws, rules, and regulations, including the following laws, as may be amended: the Securities Act of 1933, 15 U.S.C. §§ 77a–77aa, the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, 15 U.S.C. §§ 78a–78oo, the Commodities Exchange Act of 1936, 7 U.S.C. §§ 1–27f, and the Vermont Securities Act, 9 V.S.A. chapter 150. (Added 2023, No. 110 (Adj. Sess.), § 48, eff. July 1, 2024.)