On June 30, Alaska enacted SB 86 (Ch. 48 SLA 26), a money transmission modernization law that replaces the state’s existing money transmission statutes to update licensure requirements, add standards for virtual currency activity, and modernize safety and soundness requirements. The law updates licensing procedures to allow registration and renewal through a nationwide multistate licensing system and requires a person to obtain a license before engaging in virtual currency business activity. It also imposes new disclosure obligations on licensees engaged in virtual currency business activity, including disclosures on fees, exchange rates, error resolution rights, and the timing of virtual currency transfers, and establishes property interest and entitlement protections requiring licensees to safeguard virtual currency held on behalf of customers. The act further revises permissible-investment requirements, including limits on the categories and combined value of investments a licensee may hold, and updates recordkeeping, reporting, and civil penalty provisions, including raising the maximum civil penalty to $10,000 a day for each day a violation continues.

Separately, on June 30, Alaska enacted SB 249 (Ch. 50 SLA 26), which requires virtual currency kiosk operators to hold a money transmission license, and to register for and obtain the department’s prior approval before locating a kiosk in the state. The law takes effect October 1, and requires kiosk operators to submit quarterly reports on each kiosk location and an annual report detailing gross revenue, refund requests, and suspicious transaction reports, as well as to maintain written anti-fraud and BSA/AML-consistent policies. The law caps daily transactions at $1,000 per user, limits transactions to $10,000 per user in a 30-day period, and caps transaction fees at 10% of the transaction value, while also mandating fraud warnings, bilingual disclosures, and dedicated law enforcement communication lines at kiosk locations.