Arkansas Passed the Law. Now Finish the Rule.

Act 810 and the case for opening Arkansas's gold and silver payment system

89–1 in the House. 33–0 in the Senate. Signed April 17, 2025. Still waiting on a rule.

Transactional Gold and Silver (TGS) allows ordinary Americans to own real gold and silver -- held in a secure vault within the United States, in their name -- and spend it anywhere using a debit card, while merchants receive ordinary U.S. dollars. Transactional Gold and Silver does not replace the dollar. It is not cryptocurrency. It is not a central bank digital currency. It is not a government mandate. It is “Just Another Way to Pay.”

The vote was not close

Most bills that clear a legislature do so with a few votes to spare. Arkansas House Bill 1918 cleared the House 89–1 on April 8, 2025 and the Senate 33–0 on April 14, 2025. Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders signed it on April 17, 2025, and it became Act 810. Rep. Mindy McAlindon and Sen. Jim Dotson sponsored it.

That margin matters for what comes next. Lawmakers did not hand the executive branch a tentative pilot. They gave a clear, lopsided instruction: build a way for Arkansans to hold physical gold and silver in a vault and spend it.

What Act 810 already authorizes

• Gold and silver as money. Specie can be used to pay private debts, and to pay taxes and fees where the government unit agrees to accept it.
• A bullion depository. The Chief Fiscal Officer may contract with a depository to hold bullion for account holders.
• A debit-card payment system. The Chief Fiscal Officer may authorize a precious metals-backed electronic payment system, so holdings in the vault can be spent wherever debit cards are accepted.
• A rulemaking mandate. The Chief Fiscal Officer must write the rules that make the depository and payment system real.
• Voluntary participation. No resident, business, or government unit can be forced to tender or accept gold or silver.

Where it stalled

The 2026 General Assembly met in a fiscal session, April 8 through April 29, and no new Transactional Gold and Silver bill was filed. The story in 2026 sits inside the executive branch instead.

In a report to the General Assembly dated around March 1, 2026, the Department of Finance and Administration said its draft rule for Act 810 was still circulating inside the department and had not been sent to the Governor's Office for review. That was roughly ten and a half months after the governor signed the bill. We have not found a public timeline for completion, and we cannot confirm whether the rule has moved since that report.

Why finishing the rule matters

A law that cannot be used is a promise, not a policy. Nearly every Arkansas lawmaker who voted on HB 1918 voted yes. Residents who want an inflation-resistant option for part of their savings, and businesses that want to accept it, cannot use Act 810 until the machinery exists.

Arkansas also has a chance to lead. Other states, including West Virginia, are still working to get a transactional framework out of committee. Arkansas already has the statute. Being first to run a working system would give the rest of the country a live example to point to, and an example is more persuasive than a model bill.

This is also a more winnable fight than most. The votes are already in the record. What remains is an administrative process, and administrative processes respond to public attention, clear deadlines, and good technical answers.

Answering the skeptics

Is this a government mandate?

No. Act 810 is opt-in at every level. Residents choose whether to open an account, businesses choose whether to accept it, and government units choose whether to accept metals for taxes and fees.

Isn't this crypto or a central bank digital currency?

No. The model is physical gold and silver held in a vault and redeemable, with a debit card as the spending tool. It is not a token, not a coin issued by the state, and not a replacement for the dollar. In commercial models such as GlintPay, merchants are settled in dollars.

What if the state ends up carrying the cost or the liquidity risk?

That is a fair question, and similar fiscal concerns have come up in other states. It is a design question for the rule, which is a reason to finish the rule with public input rather than leave it unwritten. Commercial gold-linked debit products such as GlintPay already settle at the spot price at the moment of purchase. Whether Arkansas's approved system uses that approach is for DFA to decide, but a working commercial model exists to learn from.

Wouldn't a rushed rule be worse than a slow one?

Possibly, which is why this article asks for a public timeline, not a shortcut. A careful rule is fine. An open-ended wait is the problem.

Does the legislature need to act again?

Not on the substance. If the rule stalls for a long time, lawmakers could consider adding a deadline in a future session. That is an option for advocates to weigh, not something currently filed.