Florida Governor Reveals Plan to Permit Crypto Tax Payments

Speaking at a press conference, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis disclosed plans to roll out a cryptocurrency payment option for businesses remitting taxes, as reported by Bloomberg. 

DeSantis pointed out:

“I’ve told the state agencies to figure out ways, where if a business wants to pay tax in cryptocurrency to Florida, we should be willing to accept that. We’re working through that.”

The governor has been responded to the call that the state is one of the emerging hubs for cryptocurrency investment, given that leading crypto companies like Blockchain.com have set foot in Miami.

DeSantis also proposed to have businesses submit state fees in cryptocurrencies in December.

As a prospective 2024 Republican presidential candidate, DeSantis has showcased his crypto-friendly approaches. For instance, he highlighted his reservation for government-owned digital currencies based on the power they would render the controlling authority compared to decentralized cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin. 

DeSantis stated:

“There’s a difference between a decentralized digital cryptocurrency like Bitcoin and what some are talking about doing at the federal level to convert U.S. dollars into basically a digital currency.”

He added:

“I think there are a lot of hazards with that when it’s centrally controlled. I worry about the amount of power that would give someone in a central authority to basically be able to shut off access to purchasing certain goods. We’d be in uncharted territory.”

Miami has made Florida get the limelight, given that Mayor Francis Suarez has embraced cryptocurrencies in distinctive ways. 

In November last year, Suarez revealed he would accept his total salary in Bitcoin, Blockchain.News reported. The mayor promised to have part of his retirement package disbursed in the digital currency a month later.

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Miami Has Earned $5 Million Through Mining CityCoins

Key Takeaways

  • Miami mayor Francis Suarez announced today that the city has received its first payout from CityCoins.
  • The first payment amounted to $5.25 million of cryptocurrency; another $15.9 million remains in the city’s wallet.
  • New York is also participating in the CityCoins project. Its wallet currently has a balance of $20 million.




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Miami mayor Francis Suarez announced today that the city has received its first cryptocurrency payout from CityCoins.

Miami CityCoins Received

Suarez said that the city received $5.25 million in cryptocurrency from its mining efforts within the CityCoins project.

“This is a historic moment for our city to collaborate with an innovative project that creates resources for our city through innovation not taxation,” he wrote on Twitter.



The wallet sending the transactions also holds another $15.9 million of crypto. It is unclear whether those funds are for the city itself or for individual participants. Earlier statements suggest that funds will be split 30%-70% between Miami and its residents.

CityCoins Effort Began In August

Miami’s decision to participate in the CityCoins project was first announced in August 2021. Early reports suggested that its participation could generate as much as $60 million. The city also received $7.1 million from CityCoins as an initial donation.

CityCoins uses Proof-of-Work mining “recycled” from Bitcoin’s blockchain, meaning that the effort is ecologically sustainable. The project is built on the Stacks network, a development layer for Bitcoin.


CityCoins aims to extend its partnerships to other cities. New York, under the governance of mayor Eric Adams, notably expressed his intent to work with the project last November. New York’s CityCoins wallet currently has a balance of $20 million.

Both Adams and Suarez have also accepted certain paychecks in Bitcoin. Adams received his first Bitcoin paycheck on Jan. 21.

Disclosure: At the time of writing, the author of this piece owned BTC, ETH, and other cryptocurrencies.

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Brazilian mayor to reportedly invest 1% of city reserves in Bitcoin

Eduardo Paes, mayor of Brazilian city Rio de Janeiro, wants to allocate 1% of the city’s treasury into Bitcoin (BTC), Cointelegraph Brazil reported.

Paes reportedly announced plans for “Crypto Rio,” or turning the city into a cryptocurrency hub during Rio Innovation Week on Thursday, according to a report by local news agency O Globo.

The mayor spoke about Rio’s cryptocurrency-related ambitions in a panel with Miami mayor and Bitcoin bull Francis Suarez, who started accepting his paychecks in BTC in November 2021.

“We are going to launch Crypto Rio and invest 1% of the treasury in cryptocurrency. The government has a role to play,” Paes reportedly said, adding that the state is also planning to introduce tax exemptions for the industry.

The panel also included major Brazilian officials like city finance secretary Pedro Paulo, who noted that the administration is considering a 10% discount on property tax in Brazil on payments with Bitcoin. “Let’s study the legal framework to do this,” he said.

Related: ‘Mecca of mining’: Brazil considers zero tax on green Bitcoin mining

The news comes amid the Brazilian government increasingly warming its stance on Bitcoin and the cryptocurrency industry, with federal deputy Luizão Goulart proposing a bill to legalize crypto as a payment method for public and private sector workers in November. In December, MercadoPago, a major crypto payment firm in Brazil, enabled Brazilian residents to buy, sell and hold major cryptocurrencies like BTC and Ether (ETH).