COLUMBUS, September 22 — The Ohio Secretary of State’s office is now taking cryptocurrency. Frank LaRose’s office has begun accepting digital assets alongside credit cards and checks for every type of transaction it handles — filing for a new business, getting a trademark, applying for a minister’s license. According to the reporting, it is the only state office actively accepting crypto, though the Ohio Department of Natural Resources may soon follow.
LaRose framed the change as a matter of keeping government services current. “Ohioans expect government services to keep pace with the technology they use every day,” he said.
The secretary of state has led the charge in trying to make crypto more mainstream. At a 2025 press conference, he said “Ohioans have accepted this as a real form of currency, a form of exchange that they want to use.”
Critics question the volatility
Not everyone is sold. Michael McGovern, president of the progressive organization Innovation Ohio, questioned the volatility of digital assets. “You never really know with the volatility of what those prices are,” he said, adding, “I think that’s just really risky for something that needs to be stable.” McGovern warned that because crypto spikes and falls rapidly, payments could be hard to calculate and that the approach is not safe for the state’s finances.
LaRose countered that once submitted, crypto is immediately transferred into U.S. dollars. McGovern also argued there are more important policy priorities, pointing to what he described as the “really misplaced priorities of Frank LaRose and other leaders in our state.”
An ally in the treasurer’s office
Ohio Treasurer Robert Sprague, who has worked with LaRose to implement the program, defended it in a previous interview. “It’s really important because if we do dip into a recession, we want to be one of the states that is the most advanced,” he said. Two high-profile politicians are outspoken supporters.
Republican candidate for governor Vivek Ramaswamy and President Donald Trump are both invested in cryptocurrency and pushing for greater usage of digital assets. Ramaswamy, speaking at the Bitcoin Policy Institute in 2025, said, “Bitcoin and what it represents, more than as a financial asset, also helps fill that void, fill that hunger for a symbol, a reminder of what American greatness was all about.” As of 2025, LaRose had about $10,000 worth of Bitcoin, he said.
Eventually, many Republican leaders want Ohioans to be able to make all payments, including taxes, in crypto. House Speaker Matt Huffman, R-Lima, may be an obstacle. He said in 2025, “I think these kinds of risky things, we need to have a long, hard look at…
I’m still scratching my head over cryptocurrency.” The article was originally published on News5Cleveland.com and is published in the Ohio Capital Journal under a content-sharing agreement.
