Committee approves substitute to let Virginia Treasury accept and, in certain cases, liquidate unclaimed digital assets

The House Committee on Communications, Technology and Innovation on Feb. 2 accepted a substitute for House Bill 798 addressing unclaimed digital financial assets and voted to report the measure with the substitute.

Bradley Earl, director of unclaimed property for the Virginia Treasury, told the committee that states have struggled with how to handle unclaimed cryptocurrency and other digital assets. "This has been a growing industry in unclaimed property for about 10 years," Earl said. He explained the substitute creates a vehicle for companies to transfer unclaimed digital assets to the state and authorizes processes — including holding assets in cold storage for a defined period — and, in specified circumstances, liquidation so the Treasury can return value to rightful owners.

Why it matters: state unclaimed-property programs generally receive assets after a dormancy period; the substitute would allow the Treasury to accept digital assets in native form and, after a defined holding period or under specified conditions, liquidate them to cash to make return possible. Committee members asked how much cryptocurrency the state currently holds; Earl said the Treasury did not currently hold such assets and that companies have approached the Treasury about transferring them but are reluctant to do so without enabling legislation.

Committee action: the committee accepted the substitute and recorded a roll-call vote reported in the transcript as 21–1 in favor of reporting the bill with the substitute. The bill will proceed according to committee procedure and any further fiscal details will be reviewed by the appropriate committee.