New York protects cash while the US, UK and EU push deeper into crypto regulation, exposing a widening policy divide in global payments.
New York State’s sweeping new requirement for retailers to accept cash has reopened an old debate in the US payments market at a moment when federal regulators are accelerating their push into crypto oversight and digital asset market structure.
The result is a paradox – while one arm of the country is legislating to preserve the role of physical money, another is investing heavily in the infrastructure for a crypto-driven financial future.
The law, signed by Governor Kathy Hochul and set to take effect around March 20,2026, forces “retail establishments” and “food stores” across New York to accept cash for in-person transactions and prohibits charging cash-paying customers more than those paying digitally. The measure mirrors existing rules in New York City but extends them statewide, creating one of the most comprehensive cash acceptance mandates in the country.
It arrives amid a national penny shortage which has highlighted the operational friction of cash, yet the policy direction suggests regulators see continued cash acceptance as essential to consumer inclusion. While reverse ATMs are permitted as a compliance route, New York has resisted adding the wide-ranging exemptions seen in other states, meaning everything from vending services to live event concessions may be pulled into scope.
The US now finds itself walking two diverging regulatory tracks: preserving cash as a consumer right while simultaneously pushing the digital asset ecosystem into federally regulated territory.
The crypto push: the CFTC opens a new chapter
Only days earlier, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) signalled a structural shift in the US’s digital asset regime. Acting Chair Caroline Pham confirmed that listed spot cryptocurrency products will begin trading on CFTC-registered exchanges, marking the first time spot crypto will appear in fully federally regulated US markets.
Pham positioned the move as part of the Administration’s plan to make the US the “crypto capital of the world”, stressing that failures on offshore exchanges demonstrated the need for a domestic, regulated venue with strong customer protections. While the federal government has not established comprehensive crypto legislation, agencies are increasingly acting within their existing mandates to build the plumbing for a regulated digital asset economy.
This trajectory stands in stark contrast with New York’s cash acceptance mandate, which fixes retailers firmly into physical settlement rails at a time when the digital asset conversation in Washington is focused on liquidity, transparency, and programmability.
Cash protection as a policy signal
New York’s approach reflects a broader trend across several US states and cities — including Delaware, Oregon, Philadelphia, San Francisco, and Washington D.C. — which have introduced measures to prevent “cash discrimination”. These rules stop businesses from charging cash users more, blocking “symmetrical rounding” practices that would round up totals where pennies are unavailable.
Retail groups have lobbied for relief, but Congress has shown little appetite to intervene. The “Common Cents Act”, once expected to resolve rounding inconsistencies nationally, has stalled. The result is a patchwork of local obligations that increase operational complexity for merchants already navigating rising acceptance costs on digital payments.
In many ways, the cash mandate is a response to concerns about financial exclusion. With digital payments increasingly embedded in the US economy, lawmakers remain acutely aware that millions of Americans still rely heavily on cash. To them, the retreat of cash acceptance is not a technological evolution but a public policy risk.
Two Americas emerging in payments
The tension between state-level cash protection and federal-level crypto expansion reflects deeper ideological divides in the US payments market.
- Digital asset advocates see crypto as an opportunity to rebuild market structure on transparent, programmable rails. The CFTC’s entry into spot markets is framed as consumer protection via market integrity — a step toward reducing illicit activity, improving supervision, and bringing liquidity onshore.
- Cash-protection advocates warn that rapid digitisation risks excluding older, low-income, and unbanked populations. Laws like New York’s treat cash acceptance not as optional but as a fundamental safeguard against discrimination.
For payment providers, processors, and merchants, the practical question is how to support both rails simultaneously given the US may be on a path toward dual infrastructure; one foot in a future of tokenised markets and regulated crypto products, the other in a legacy system which governments remain unwilling to retire.
An instructive contrast for Europe and the UK
While New York moves to legally protect cash, the UK and EU have taken a more uniform approach.
In the UK, policymakers have drawn a clear line between access to cash and use of cash. Under the Financial Services and Markets Act 2023, the Financial Conduct Authority now has a statutory responsibility to ensure there is “reasonable provision” of cash access services, including withdrawals and deposits for both consumers and SMEs.
This has translated into detailed expectations for banks, building societies and ATM operators around monitoring local gaps, intervening when the last branch or free ATM in a community is threatened, and using shared banking hubs as a backstop. Crucially, however, that duty stops short of the point of sale. There is no UK legal requirement for retailers to accept cash.
Running alongside this is a deliberate effort to bring crypto into the regulatory mainstream. The government has consulted on folding a broad range of cryptoasset activities into the existing Regulated Activities Order, so that exchanges, brokers and advisers operate under a familiar FSMA-style regime supervised by the FCA and Prudential Regulation Authority.
At the same time, new secondary legislation is being developed for sterling-backed stablecoins used as a means of payment, giving issuers and custodians a bespoke regime that sits between e-money and traditional banking. The Bank of England is also working on a prudential framework for systemic stablecoins and exploring a potential digital pound, explicitly describing a future “multi-money” ecosystem where cash, commercial bank deposits and regulated digital tokens co-exist.
Across the Channel, the EU has taken a firmer legal position on cash while moving faster on a single market rulebook for crypto. Euro banknotes and coins are treated as a legal-tender right. Guidance from the European Commission and ECB stresses that cash should remain widely available and generally accepted for everyday transactions, citing its role in financial inclusion, privacy and resilience when digital systems fail.
Expert group opinions on euro legal tender go further, indicating that merchants are normally expected to accept cash in face-to-face euro transactions between consumers and businesses, with only narrow exceptions for reasons such as security, very high denominations or specific pre-contractual agreements. Member states like Spain and others have introduced national laws reinforcing that position, effectively hard-wiring cash acceptance into certain sectors even as digital payments grow.
At the same time, Brussels has moved decisively to standardise digital and crypto rails. The Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA) is phasing in across the bloc, creating a harmonised authorisation, disclosure and conduct regime for most unregulated cryptoassets and for service providers such as trading platforms, custodians and wallet operators.
In parallel, the digital euro project is being developed explicitly as a complement to cash rather than a replacement, with policymakers repeatedly promising that banknotes will remain part of the payment mix.
