Key Takeaways:
New Hampshire is the first US state to pass laws allowing its treasurer to invest public funds in a Bitcoin reserve.
Several states are racing to follow its example, with Texas, North Carolina, Wyoming and a few others looking most likely.
47 strategic Bitcoin reserve bills have been introduced in 26 states so far.
New Hampshire became the first U.S. state to pass laws allowing its treasurer to invest public funds in a Bitcoin reserve. Which states are likely to follow New Hampshire’s example and how quickly can they do so?
The New Hampshire bill, signed into law by Governor Kelly Ayotte on May 6, allows the state to invest up to 5% of public funds in a digital asset with at least $500 billion in market capitalization. Currently, only Bitcoin meets the criteria.
“New Hampshire is once again first in the Nation,” Ayotte posted on X, formerly Twitter, announcing the law. “Just signed a new law allowing our state to invest in cryptocurrency and precious metals.”
New Hampshire beat several other states that are racing to enact crypto reserve laws to align with President Donald Trump’s ambitious goal of creating a federal Strategic Bitcoin Reserve. Trump wants to build a stockpile using BTC seized from criminal activity.
States Likely Follow New Hampshire into Bitcoin
Until late April, Arizona seemed the most likely to set up a “digital assets reserve fund” ahead of other states. But Governor Katie Hobbs vetoed the bill on May 2, criticizing cryptocurrency assets as “untested investments.”
“Governors do not veto such bills because they are radical,” Yuriy Brisov, partner at tech law firm Digital & Analogue Partners, told Cryptonews. “It’s because they are unmanageable under current legal-financial regimes.”
Brisov said the setback in Arizona reveals less about “public hostility” and more about “institutional inertia.” He says most U.S. states “are not ready to hold Bitcoin as public wealth.”
“Few state treasurers know how to custody Bitcoin, let alone defend it against political or technical attack.”
The Arizona legislation, known as Senate Bill 1025, planned to invest up to 10% of public funds in BTC and create a crypto reserve managed by the state treasurer. The bill passed the state House in a narrow 31–25 vote.
However, Hobbs later signed House Bill 2749 into law, a narrower law that doesn’t permit the investment of public funds. Instead, it creates a reserve to hold crypto assets that remain unclaimed for three or more years.
In Florida, lawmakers pulled two bills proposing the creation of a strategic Bitcoin reserve in the state. The bills, both filed in February, would have allowed investment of public funds, like pension funds, in BTC.
According to the Florida Senate website, House Bill 487 and Senate Bill 550 were “indefinitely postponed and withdrawn from consideration” earlier in May.
According to Bitcoin Laws, Florida joins several other states, including Alabama, Montana, and North Carolina, that have seen proposed laws on Bitcoin investments remain stuck in the committee stage.
Brisov explained that while some states “perform readiness” for a Bitcoin reserve, the necessary legislation and approval will likely take longer.
He cited Texas, saying the state “has signaled interest through its gold-backed depository and friendly mining laws.” Wyoming has gone further, he says, “with a sophisticated legal infrastructure for DAOs and digital property rights.”
But neither “has yet dared to put public money-taxpayer money-into BTC reserves,” Brisov observed.
He believes smaller, “agile” states such as Utah and North Dakota could leapfrog their larger counterparts into passing BTC reserve laws funded with public money.
“They [smaller states] are less entangled in the machinery of federal compliance. Their motivations may vary: political branding, economic experimentation, or digital gold fever.”
How Quickly Can States Pass Bitcoin Reserve Laws?
It’s unclear how long a bill takes to go through the legislative process at the state level before it becomes law. In the case of New Hampshire (NH), it was many months. The bill takes effect 60 days after being signed into law.
Data from Bitcoin Laws, a website that tracks strategic Bitcoin reserve legislation in the U.S., shows that 47 different BTC bills have been introduced in 26 states. At least 37 of the bills are “live” in 20 states – meaning they’re at various stages of debate.
States often have multiple BTC-related bills active at the same time for many reasons. Some bills are meant to accompany others. For example, states introduce identical bills in both the House and Senate to increase chances of passage, the website says.
Bills pass through at least five stages of legislative rigor before they are signed into law or vetoed by the Governor:
Introduction
First Committee review
First Chamber reading/vote
Second Committee review
Second Chamber reading/vote
And, finally, Enactment (or veto) by the Governor
There are a few bills coming up for votes over the next few months. The Texas Bitcoin reserve bill looks the most likely to follow New Hampshire’s example if it can get enough votes in the Second Chamber reading and final vote.
According to Bitcoin Laws, the bill, which requires that the Bitcoin reserve be filled with funds appropriated by the Texas legislature, has passed the first four stages. But others, like Montana’s, have been voted down.
Terrence Yang, senior strategic advisor at crypto financial services firm Swan Bitcoin, says Texas and North Carolina are the most likely to follow NH’s lead, followed by Ohio, Alabama, and Wyoming, telling Cryptonews:
“The Texas and North Carolina pending bills largely mirror New Hampshire’s legal structure for direct Bitcoin investment using public funds. But similar efforts in other states [have] faced difficulties.”
Gerald Gallagher is the general counsel at Layer 1 (L1) blockchain Sei Labs. Speaking to Cryptonews, Gallagher said he expects the two bills that were taken off the table in Florida to “come back in some form.”
“Legislators are acutely aware that, given future pension needs and other liabilities, states would do well to get more meaningful exposure to assets with a return history like Bitcoin,” he said.
Gallagher sees Wyoming as primed to follow NH’s lead. That’s because the state has as a resident Senator Cynthia Lummis, a Bitcoin advocate who introduced legislation proposing the U.S. Treasury and Federal Reserve acquire 5% of the global BTC supply to hold as a strategic reserve.
He detailed:
“Wyoming has been at the forefront of digital asset legislation since passing the Wyoming DAO Bill back in 2021 and following with the DUNA Act last year. The state is also pushing for native stablecoin adoption and seems primed to jump into the reserve conversation.”
Custody, Compliance, and Political Risk
For all its symbolism, New Hampshire’s crypto reserve law faces practical hurdles. State treasurers must secure things like institutional-grade multi-signature wallets for storing BTC and dealing with the asset’s volatility. Other states face similar risks.
Analysts say Bitcoin’s price swings could expose states to public scrutiny if investments go south. Then there’s the SEC, whose crypto stance remains somewhat fluid. Future rulings at the federal level could also complicate state programs, they say.
“NH’s new law…diverges from the original vision of a Bitcoin sovereign reserve,” George Georgiades, general counsel at stablecoin platform Borderless.xyz, told Cryptonews. “Holdings appear to go beyond BTC [to] include non-fully decentralized assets.”
“This is a shift from a principled value-preservation framework in an asset pitched as a strategic national interest to a more capital appreciation/speculative investment thesis.”
As Brisov, the tech lawyer, points out, the true significance of NH’s Bitcoin reserve law is not in what it allows, but what it implies: “that U.S. states now see themselves as monetary actors, not mere fiscal administrators.”
He draws a historical parallel:
“In the 18th to early 19th century, American states minted their own currencies. Crypto is reviving the old federal question: who has the right to define, store, and deploy value?”
The post New Hampshire Passes Bitcoin Reserve Law: Which States Are Next? appeared first on Cryptonews.
