Several US states are getting closer to putting public money into Cryptocurrencies efforts, spurred by President Donald Trump since announcing plans to do the same at the federal level. And Texas is now among the leading challengers.
On Thursday, Texas State Senate adopted the so-called SB 21 Bill, which would allow the state to invest some of the public’s money in digital assets, specifically Bitcoin (BTC).
Bitcoin, according to a statement from Texas Senator Charles Schwertner last week, “has proven through several boom and bust cycles,” make it a major reserve assay 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, House Bill 302 with a 16-1 vote that would allow the state to invest up to 5% of public funds in Bitcoin as well as other precious metals. So it goes on, even if it’s a few voices away from the finish line.
Almost a dozen states have made a strong effort to adopt a bill that would provide similar awards, while at least five states ran into setbacks or no votes that prompted their bills.
Utah has so far been the front runner in a number of efforts and is still only one Senate’s approval away from sending a bill to his governor’s desk. However, the legislative meeting expires this week, leaving little time to get the Senate to join the State House in approval of an investment of up to 5% of certain public accounts in a digital asset with more than $ 500 billion in assets. (So far it’s just Bitcoin.)
If the Utah senate acts before Friday, the last word goes to his Republican Governor, Spencer Cox, who has supported blockchain policy in the past. If not, Utah’s efforts will be exposed to another year and other states such as Arizona and Texas could take the limelight.
The recent act comes after President Trump again discussed his own plan for a strategic cryptor reserve on Sunday. Trump said an American strategic cryptor reserve could contain XRP, Solana (Sol) and Cardano (ADA) as well as Bitcoin and Ethereum (ETH), although many details of the effort and how it would be performed remain uncertain.
Many industrial leaders have criticized Trump’s decision to keep other cryptocurrencies beyond Bitcoin, as it is the one that best fits the properties of other reserve assets such as gold. However, the president has not provided clear guidelines on how such a strategy would work – for example, how the government would buy tokens.
Read more: Utah One Stem Away, but some states don’t go through on Crypto Stakes
