Governor Ron DeSantis has signed Florida HB999, which makes gold and silver legal tender under state law. There are some restrictions based upon purity.

One of the key elements to the bill is that business are not required to accept payment in gold or silver but, rather, can opt to. It also eliminates the sales tax on the metals that meet the purity content.

Does this mean that businesses are going to start accepting gold and silver as payment? Are people going to be rushing out to spend using these coins?

The answer is no.

To start, there is a purity component which the business accepting the metals must establish. There will not be scales at the checkout counter of Walmart.

Here we have the purity aspect from the bill:

Legal Tender; Revising the sales and use tax exemption for certain coin or currency; specifying that a person who claims the sales tax exemption bears the burden for determining whether the gold coin or silver coin meets a specified definition; providing a presumption regarding the purity requirements of gold coin and silver coin, etc

What we are seeing is something bigger.

Source

Florida: Gold and Silver Legal Tender And What It Means

One major change is that people will be able to get payouts from banks in gold or silver. An individual will be able to head to a bank to cash a check and get the money in metals. Since it is legal tender, there is no sales tax applied.

The law goes into effect on July 1, 2026.

Does this mean we are harkening back to an age where physical money backed by gold? No. In fact, the bill does allow for the state to accept gold and silver payments. These transactions, however, must be done electronically. The metals will be held in a depository during processing.

It does allow for PayPal and other money transmitters to offer this service.

So what is really going on here?

My view is we are seeing another example that favors crypto. It is all part of an ongoing process that will start in Europe (or Japan) and eventually affect the United States.

The national governments simply cannot be trusted. We have leaders who are intent on driving the countries into oblivion. The EU will likely be the first to implode with the US being the last of the developed countries.

Collapse in Confidence

What I am referring to is the collapse in confidence in government, especially at the higher levels.

In Europe, people are realizing the leaders of the EU are not interested in any particular country nor the people in it. These people are simply power hungry. They are unelected and wield the power like tyrants.

For the United States, we have state governments starting to step up as confidence in the Feds wanes. COVID caused a major rift, pushing many to begin the process of separation. This is not, naturally, a physical one such as succession. That might be coming in due time.

What we are seeing is people making adjustments. This law is another sign of a state protecting itself against the pending sovereign debt crisis that will sweep the globe. High interest on bonds could be a sign of a booming economy. Since that is not likely the case today, a more plausible answer is the fact that the lenders are asking for a higher return for what is viewed as additional risk.

Crypto as a Safe Haven?

Crypto is something that follows in the same line of thinking. The recent push by many entities into Bitcoin shows the thinking many have.

Gold is a lousy medium of exchange. It is simply impractical. That said, it is a symbolic store of value.

Bitcoin and some other crypto assets could be forming along the same lines. As confidence in government wanes, people get nervous about their holdings. Debt just keeps piling up as politicians spend like it is an endless party. The problem is they have no intention of paying the money back.

Eventually, the Keynesian model comes collapsing down.

Many want to point to the end, believing everything implodes. This simply is not the case. There are winners and losers. Capital always flows especially in times of war. This is often used as an excuse for default.

Crypto has the advantage in that it is not tied to any country. This operates outside the national governments. They are all in the process of trying to regulate them. However, anything that is operating at the base layer, without a centralized intermediary, is untouchable. Government power comes from obedience. When institutions follow the regulations, governments are effective.

In other words, they can do what they see fit with Coinbase. However, they are impotent against one digital wallet from transacting with another (if they are self custody).

My forecast is that, over time, "dark" stablecoins will operate as the medium of exchange in the digital world. These will grow in popularity, using the US dollar as the unit of denomination but not be associated with US dollar assets. This is in contrast to the stablecoins that are being regulated by governments, requiring asset backing.

Crypto-assets will continue to grow in value. This will be the way to get holdings outside the banking system, which ultimately has to succumb to national governments.

People are starting to turn away.