Cryptocurrency trade groups are asking Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker (D) to pull a proposed transaction tax on digital asset trading from the upcoming state budget, calling the first-in-the nation levy “substantively unsound, procedurally deficient, and economically destructive.”

The Digital Chamber and Illinois Blockchain Association released a joint letter warning that the Digital Asset Privilege Tax Act would set off a mass exodus of digital innovators, emphasizing that no other state imposes a privilege tax on such trading.

The groups are urging Pritzker to strike the levy from SB 3019, an omnibus tax bill expected to generate more than $800 …