Bitcoin-Backed Loans in Ohio

Nothing enacted yet, and that is the headline

Ohio has passed no crypto-specific statute. Every measure below is still moving, so the law that applies to an Ohio bitcoin holder today is the ordinary tax code and the ordinary money-transmission code, not any of this. That matters for a borrower: nothing pending here would change whether you can take a bitcoin-backed loan in Ohio, and nothing pending here changes how a sale is taxed until it is signed.

The docket

• Passed the House, pending in the SenateHB 116 (2025)

  Ohio Blockchain Basics Act

  Sponsored by Rep. Steve Demetriou, HB 116 passed the House on June 18, 2025 by 70 to 26 and went to the Senate Financial Institutions, Insurance and Technology Committee the following week. Its current version is still "As Passed by the House".

  The bill would enact new sections 1352.01 through 1352.04 of the Revised Code and amend six existing sections, including the income tax section 5747.01. In substance it protects self-custody and home mining, limits how far local governments can restrict digital-asset use, and creates a state income tax deduction for gains up to $200 per transaction.

  That $200 deduction is the part worth watching. It would be the first crypto-specific line in Ohio's tax code, and it is small enough that it changes nothing for anyone weighing a sale against a loan on a meaningful bitcoin position.

• In committee since January 2025SB 57 (2025)

  Ohio Bitcoin Reserve Act

  Sponsored by Sen. Sandra O'Brien and referred to the Financial Institutions, Insurance and Technology Committee on January 29, 2025, where it has sat since. Its current version is still "As Introduced".

  It would authorize the investment of state funds in bitcoin specifically, create an Ohio Bitcoin Reserve Fund, and require state entities that take payment in cryptocurrency to convert it to bitcoin and pass it to that fund, with the Treasurer reimbursing them in dollars.

• In committee since January 2025HB 18 (2025)

  Ohio Strategic Cryptocurrency Reserve Act

  Also sponsored by Rep. Steve Demetriou, and the quieter of the two reserve bills. It would let the Treasurer put certain interim funds into digital assets and would touch the state retirement systems' rules on exchange-traded products. Its current version is still "As Introduced".

  HB 18 and SB 57 both enact the same new section of the Revised Code, 135.146. Two chambers, two sponsors, one code section, and neither has moved out of committee in over a year: Ohio has more reserve proposals than reserve progress.

Tax: no crypto carve-out, and a flat rate either way

Ohio taxes capital gains as ordinary income with no preferential rate and no long-term versus short-term distinction, so a bitcoin sale is simply added to income. From January 1, 2026 that income is taxed at a flat 2.75 percent above roughly $26,050.

None of the pending bills changes that, with the single narrow exception of HB 116's $200-per-transaction deduction. A borrower's arithmetic is therefore unaffected by the docket: selling realizes a gain at 2.75 percent state plus federal, and pledging the same coin as collateral is not a sale. You can run the two side by side at your own numbers.

Lending and borrowing

Ohio has no crypto-specific consumer-lending regime, so a bitcoin-backed loan here is governed by each lender's own multistate licensing rather than by anything Ohio-specific. Businesses that buy, sell or custody crypto for Ohioans can fall under the Ohio Money Transmitters Act, Revised Code Chapter 1315, administered by the Department of Commerce, but that framework is aimed at custodial and exchange-type activity rather than at collateralized lending.

All seven lenders we track serve Ohio.