Ohio Treasurer Suspends Predecessor’s Bitcoin Tax Payment Service

A website launched last year by the U.S. state of Ohio allowing businesses to pay a range of taxes with bitcoin has been taken offline.

Ohio Treasurer Robert Sprague announced the decision to immediately suspend OhioCrypto.com on Wednesday at a meeting of the State Board of Deposit, according to an official announcement.

The reason for pulling the service – perhaps temporarily – comes down to how Ohio’s third party crypto payments provider, BitPay, is defined under state law, Sprague said.

Sprague took on the mantle of state treasurer in January, since then his office has been “reviewing the creation and operation” of OhioCrypto.com. He now believes the payment method provided by BitPay constitutes a “financial transaction device” under Ohio law and has asked the state’s Attorney General for a formal opinion on the matter.

The definition, if confirmed to apply to BitPay, means that the firm’s services should have been chosen via a “competitive…