South Carolina has enacted a new crypto law that creates a broad regulatory framework for digital assets. Governor Henry McMaster signed S. 163 on Tuesday, and the measure expands protections for users, businesses, and miners.
The law lets individuals and businesses accept digital assets as payment for goods and services. It also protects self-custody through self-hosted and hard wallets
S. 163 bars the state and local governments from adding new taxes, withholding, assessments, or charges on cryptocurrency used for payment. The law also stops any state agency, board, commission, department, or political subdivision from requiring payment in a central bank digital currency.
It also prevents those bodies from joining any Federal Reserve test of a similar currency. The law places direct limits on CBDC use across the state government.
The legislation adds formal definitions for key terms. These include blockchain, digital assets, crypto mining, staking, wallets, and nodes.
The law gives strong protection to crypto mining operations. Local governments cannot block mining in industrial zones or impose special sound limits beyond general noise rules already tied to those areas.
It also removes several crypto activities from money transmitter licensing requirements. These exemptions cover crypto mining, node operations, on-chain application development, staking-related infrastructure, and crypto-to-crypto trading.
That framework gives legal clarity to a wider set of blockchain activities. It also separates those activities from more heavily regulated payment services.
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The CBDC restrictions arrive as opposition to central bank digital currencies grows among Republican lawmakers in Congress. Earlier this month, Representative Mike Flood said House Republicans revised the Senate version of the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act.
He said the change removed what he called a “backdoor green light” for a CBDC. Representative Warren Davidson also argued that allowing a restriction to expire could open a path for a future U.S. digital dollar.
House Majority Whip Tom Emmer has continued to back his Anti-CBDC Surveillance State Act. The measure seeks to permanently block the Federal Reserve from issuing a CBDC.
Outside the U.S., the Atlantic Council says Nigeria, Jamaica, and the Bahamas have already launched CBDCs. It also says dozens of other countries remain in testing or research stages.
South Carolina’s move follows similar state action elsewhere. Kentucky passed House Bill 701 in March 2025, protecting self-hosted wallets and limiting discriminatory local rules against crypto mining.
South Carolina’s new crypto law creates clear protections for digital asset payments, self-custody wallets, mining, and blockchain activity. It also blocks state use of CBDCs and removes several crypto functions from licensing rules, giving the industry a more defined legal framework.