Wyoming wants to become America’s crypto capital

IN 2021 Gary Gensler, the chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, told the Senate Banking Committee that cryptocurrency assets were “like the Wild West”. It perhaps makes sense, then, that one of the places most interested in fostering a crypto industry is Wyoming—the Cowboy State.

Wyoming has passed more than two dozen laws on digital assets since 2019, according to Bloomberg, more than any other state. Why does America’s least-populous state want to become a crypto capital? “Wyoming is heavily reliant on our mineral extractive industry,” says Chris Rothfuss, one of two Democrats in the state Senate and the chair of a committee on fintech. Crypto, he argues, could help diversify its economy.