Wyoming and Massachusetts Join Growing List of States Considering Bitcoin Reserves

Wyoming and Massachusetts have joined the expanding number of U.S. states that may soon vote on establishing Bitcoin reserves, with representatives from both states submitting draft legislation supporting the initiative on Friday. 

In Wyoming, a group of five Republican legislators submitted a bill that would permit the state treasurer to invest public funds in Bitcoin, but no other digital assets.

In recent weeks, other states have put forth slightly more permissive bills, which would in some cases allow states to invest in stablecoins and other cryptocurrencies that surpassed $500 billion in market capitalization—though as of this writing, Bitcoin is the only asset that meets that requirement.

Wyoming’s bill is also more restrictive in another regard: It would only permit its treasurer to invest 3% of a given state fund in Bitcoin. Proposed legislation in other states, such as Pennsylvania and Oklahoma, would allow for investments in digital assets to make up 10% of similar public funds. 

Meanwhile, in deep blue Massachusetts, a lone Republican state senator proposed a bill on Friday proposing the establishment of a Bitcoin strategic reserve. That act, submitted by Peter Durant, is more permissive than Wyoming’s, and would allow for up to 10% of Massachusetts’ rainy day fund to be comprised of Bitcoin or any manner of digital asset.  

At this point, nearly one-fifth of all U.S. state legislatures are poised to soon formally weigh whether to invest public funds in Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. Every such proposal has been submitted in the aftermath of Donald Trump’s re-election in November, by Republicans.

Trump, long a crypto skeptic, abruptly changed tack on the campaign trail this year after being a noted Bitcoin critic in the past. In July, onstage at a Bitcoin conference in Nashville, he called for the federal government to establish its own Bitcoin stockpile. 

The chorus for such initiatives is rapidly gaining momentum. On Friday afternoon, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong publicly called for the creation of a U.S. Bitcoin strategic reserve for the first time. 

“The next global arms race will be in the digital economy, not space,” Armstrong said in a company blog post. “Bitcoin could be as foundational to the global economy as gold and will become central to national security in a world where holdings of Bitcoin can shift the balance of power among nation states.”

Edited by Andrew Hayward