Arkansas UCC Central Bank Digital Currency Exclusion

Arkansas Act 50 of 2025, enacted from Senate Bill 133, amends the Arkansas Uniform Commercial Code to define “central bank digital currency” and exclude CBDCs from the UCC definitions of “money” and “deposit account.” The law applies within Arkansas and is treated as effective Aug. 5, 2025, based on the statewide effective-date rule for 2025 acts without an emergency clause or special effective date.

The measure is a targeted commercial-law amendment rather than a general digital-asset licensing regime. It does not create a broad consumer ban on digital assets, cryptocurrency, or payment technology. Instead, it changes how a covered central bank digital currency is classified for purposes of Arkansas UCC provisions that use the defined terms “money” and “deposit account.”

Key provisions of Arkansas Act 50

Act 50 modifies two parts of the Arkansas UCC. First, it amends Arkansas Code § 4-1-201(b)(24), the general UCC definition of “money.” The amended definition continues to describe money as a medium of exchange currently authorized or adopted by a domestic or foreign government, including certain intergovernmental monetary units. It then adds that “money” does not include a central bank digital currency.

Second, the act adds a UCC definition of “central bank digital currency.” The definition covers a digital currency, digital medium of exchange, or digital monetary unit of account issued by the Federal Reserve System, a federal agency, a foreign government, a foreign central bank, or a foreign reserve system when made directly available to a consumer by those entities. It also includes covered digital currency that is processed or validated directly by those entities.

Third, Act 50 amends Arkansas Code § 4-9-102(29), the secured-transactions definition of “deposit account.” Under the revised text, a deposit account remains a demand, time, savings, passbook, or similar account maintained with a bank, but the term does not include investment property, central bank digital currency, or accounts evidenced by an instrument.

How the UCC CBDC exclusion works

The practical effect is definitional. In Arkansas UCC transactions, a CBDC meeting the act’s definition is not treated as “money” merely because it may be issued by a governmental or central-bank authority. It also is not treated as a “deposit account” under Article 9’s secured-transactions terminology. Those distinctions can matter when commercial parties, lenders, secured creditors, courts, or lawyers classify collateral, payment rights, and perfection rules under the UCC.

The act should not be read as a comprehensive statement on federal CBDC authority or as a state-law answer to all payment-system questions. Its operative language is limited to Arkansas Code provisions concerning general UCC definitions and secured-transactions terminology. Other state or federal laws may use different definitions of money, deposit, digital currency, or central bank digital currency.

Status and legislative timeline

SB 133 was filed in the Arkansas Senate on Jan. 28, 2025. The Senate passed it on Feb. 3, 2025, and the House passed it on Feb. 6, 2025. The bill was delivered to the governor on Feb. 10, 2025, approved as Act 50 on Feb. 13, 2025, and the official bill history records a Feb. 17, 2025 notification that SB133 was Act 50.

Because the act text contains no express emergency clause or delayed effective-date section, this profile treats Act 50 as effective Aug. 5, 2025. That date follows Arkansas Attorney General Opinion No. 2025-032, which addressed acts from the 95th General Assembly’s 2025 regular session that lacked an emergency clause or other specified effective date.

Editorial context

For CryptoSlate readers, the law is most relevant to CBDC policy, payments classification, and state-level commercial-law treatment of digital value. It sits alongside a broader wave of U.S. state measures addressing digital assets, virtual currency kiosks, state reserves, and central bank digital currency policy. The Arkansas measure is narrower than those broader frameworks because it focuses on UCC terminology rather than creating a licensing, custody, consumer-protection, or tax regime.