South Carolina signs S. 163 into law — self-custody rights, CBDC ban, and mining protections all in one!

South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster signed S. 163 into law on Tuesday, establishing one of the most comprehensive state-level crypto frameworks in the US. The legislation guarantees that individuals and businesses cannot be prohibited from accepting digital assets as payment or from using self-hosted or hardware wallets to custody their own holdings — and crucially, crypto used for payment is exempt from any additional state or local tax, withholding, or assessment.

The anti-CBDC provisions are equally sweeping: no state agency, board, commission, or political subdivision may accept or require payment in a central bank digital currency, nor participate in any Federal Reserve CBDC pilot program. Crypto mining operations in industrial zones are also shielded from discriminatory local restrictions, with sound-level rules capped at the area's general noise ordinance rather than…