Texas Surges in U.S. States’ Race to Put Public Funds Into Crypto

Several U.S. states are getting closer to putting public money into cryptocurrencies effort, spurred by President Donald Trump since he announced plans to do the same on a federal level. And Texas is now among the leading contenders.

On Thursday, the Texas state senate passed the so-called SB 21 bill which would allow the state to invest some of the public’s money into digital assets, specifically bitcoin (BTC).

Bitcoin, according to a statement from Texas Senator Charles Schwertner last week, “has proven itself through multiple boom and bust cycles,” making it a great reserve asset in times of a “devastating national deficit” along with “inflation and uncertainty,” as Schwertner described.

New Hampshire also passed a bill on Wednesday through a state house committee, the House Bill 302 by a 16-1 vote, that would allow the state to invest up to 5% of public funds into bitcoin as well as other precious metals. So, it’s moving forward, though it’s a few votes away from the finish line.

Almost a dozen states have made strong efforts to pass a bill that would allow similar allocations, while at least five states ran into setbacks or no votes that tanked their bills.

Utah has so far been the frontrunner in a variety of efforts and remains just one senate approval away from sending a bill to its governor’s desk. However, the legislative session expires this week, leaving little time to get the senate to join the state house in approving an investment of as much as 5% of certain public accounts in a digital asset with more than $500 billion in assets. (So far, that’s just bitcoin.)

If the Utah senate acts by Friday, the final word goes to its Republican governor, Spencer Cox, who has supported blockchain policy in the past. If not, Utah’s effort gets put off another year, and other states such as Arizona and Texas could take the spotlight.

The recent action comes after President Trump on Sunday again discussed his own plan for a strategic crypto reserve. Trump said that a U.S. strategic crypto reserve could hold XRP, Solana (SOL) and Cardano (ADA) as well as Bitcoin and Ethereum (ETH), though many details of the effort and how it would be executed remain uncertain.

Many industry leaders have criticized Trump’s decision to hold other cryptocurrencies beyond bitcoin, as it is the one that best fits the characteristics of other reserve assets such as gold. The president, however, hasn’t provided clear guidelines on how such a strategy would work — for example, how the government would source the tokens.