Cash News
Welcome to Detroit Crypto City.
Detroit announced Thursday that it will start accepting cryptocurrency through an intermediary as a payment option for taxes and city fees in mid-2025, making it the largest U.S. city to do so.
To be sure, the city itself will not be amassing bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies.
The payments would be handled by PayPal, which would accept the cryptocurrency, then convert it to regular U.S. dollars for the city. That approach would shield Detroit from the risk of wild fluctuations in the value of such digital currencies, city Treasurer Nikhil Patel said in a phone interview.
“So the market volatility risk will not be (borne), whatsoever, by the city. We will settle the payment in dollars,” Patel said. “So let’s say you get on the platform, you make a crypto payment. The city never touches the crypto; we just get the dollars.”
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Two states, Colorado and Louisiana, already accept cryptocurrency as payment for taxes, and Louisiana recently started allowing it for some state services, according to news reports.
While a small handful of cities allow cryptocurrency for city service payments, Detroit would be the largest city in the country so far to take the crypto plunge. (Miami in 2021 introduced its own cryptocurrency, the MiamiCoin, in a marketing push to make the Florida city a cryptocurrency capital, but the city doesn’t accept the digital coin for tax payments.)
Patel said the idea to embrace cryptocurrency as a way to pay Detroit taxes and fees originated with Mayor Mike Duggan.
“His conception was to send a signal to the rest of the world, frankly, that Detroit is the place where we want to invite technologists to build, to create, to develop,” Patel said. “And from my perspective as treasurer, my goal is to make it as easy as possible and as efficient as possible for people to make payments.”
The specific cryptocurrencies that would be accepted through the PayPal platform the city will use include bitcoin, Ethereum, Lightcoin and PayPal’s U.S. dollar-backed “stable coin,” Patel said.
Bitcoin, the most well-known cryptocurrency, has surged in value since Tuesday night — Election Day — when Donald Trump emerged as the likely winner of the presidential race. The value of 1 bitcoin was at an all-time high Thursday afternoon at over $76,500. Patel said that, aside from cryptocurrencies, Detroit is considering ways to expand tax and fee payment options for residents who may not have bank accounts, with more in-person payment locations and possibly accepting other digital options such as Venmo.
Contact JC Reindl: 313-378-5460 or [email protected]. Follow him on X @jcreindl