Senate Judiciary Committee adopts work draft H and reports out SB249 on virtual-currency kiosks

The Alaska Senate Judiciary Committee on April 24 adopted a committee substitute and reported out Senate Bill 249 (virtual currency kiosk regulation), approving "version H" as the working document and moving the bill from committee with no objection.

Senator Klayman asked the committee to adopt work draft H; Senator Kiel moved to adopt the committee substitute and to report the bill with individual recommendations and any attached fiscal notes. There were no objections and the measure moved from committee.

Brianna Kekaruk, staff to Senator Klayman, summarized the principal changes in the H draft: conforming renumbering and edits, deletion of a 72-hour refund timing in one subsection, adjustments to monetary thresholds (on one page replacing 500 with 1,500 and later 5,000 with 10,500, and another edit replacing 2 with 10), insertion of a new paragraph defining "virtual currency kiosk," the addition of a new paragraph defining fraud, and an effective date set to Oct. 1, 2026. Kekaruk noted the staff summary and corrected a typographical reference during remarks.

Senator Tilden and others expressed support for moving the bill forward, citing the need to protect Alaskans from kiosk-related scams and fraud. Chair Klayman asked those remaining after the meeting to stay to complete the paperwork.

Next steps: SB249 was moved from committee; staff and sponsors were asked to complete the required paperwork and attached fiscal-note procedures after the meeting.