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A bill that would create a Bitcoin (BTC) strategic reserve in the United States members state of Utah just progressed to a Senate standing committee.
The bill in question — H.B. 230 — passed the house with eight votes in favor and one against last month and moved to the Senate on Feb. 7 . On Tuesday, the bill was referred to the Senate Revenue and Taxation Committee.
The details
Utah Representative Jordan Teuscher proposed the discussed bill in late January and aims to authorize the state Treasury to allocate up to 5% of public funds to Bitcoin. Also, other cryptocurrencies with a market cap exceeding an average market cap of $500 billion over the previous 12 months and stablecoins will be eligible for investment. Teuscher wrote in a recent X post:
“While Utah is the 11th state to introduce similar legislation, we will be the first to pass it.”
The news follows Satoshi Action Fund CEO Dennis Porter highlighting that there is a high likelihood that Utah will become the first U.S. state with a Bitcoin reserve. He said earlier this month:
“It’s either sink or swim in 45 days. No one else has a faster calendar, and no one else has more political momentum and willpower to get it done.”
The news follows a new bill introduced in Missouri proposing the creation of a Bitcoin strategic reserve fund to diversify the state’s financial portfolio composition. Missouri Representative Ben Keathley introduced the bill, explaining that it would “authorize Missouri to hold and accept Bitcoin for state payments.” He claimed that this would protect the state against inflation:
“This will help diversify our state’s portfolio while hedging against inflation.”
At the time of writing, Bitcoin is trading just over $96,000 after gaining about 1.33% of its value over the last 24 hours. The price of the world’s first cryptocurrency is also 0.35% higher than where its price stood seven days ago.
