TLDR;
- Texas Rep. Giovanni Capriglione filed House Bill 1598 to create a strategic Bitcoin reserve.
- The bill follows President-elect Trump’s support for bitcoin investments.
- Donations will fund the reserve for five years.
- Texas aims to lead in digital innovation.
- Trump and Wyoming Senator Cynthia Lummis support similar initiatives at the federal level.
- Pennsylvania lawmakers are also pursuing bitcoin investment legislation.
- Former Fed President Bill Dudley questioned the reserve’s value for non-bitcoin holders.
Texas Lawmaker Giovanni Capriglione proposed a bill this past Thursday that will set up a Bitcoin Reserve on the state level. This came after President-elect Donald Trump endorsed bitcoin investments and other similar legislative programs. Capriglione officially announced the filing of House Bill 1598 at an X space event which was hosted by the Satoshi Action Fund. Satoshi Action Fund is a notable organization advocating for Bitcoin mining.
Capriglione stated:
“I just filed the bill. It’s a bill to be entitled ‘an act relating to the establishment of a bitcoin reserve within the state treasury of Texas and the management of cryptocurrencies by governmental entities filed in the state of Texas strategic bitcoin reserve.”
The bill aims to make a reserve account funded through donations, which will be maintained for five years. The State of Texas is showing that it is a leader in digital innovation when it proposes bills like these.
Moreover, the concept of a Bitcoin reserve has gained traction at the federal level. In particular, it’s because of Donald Trump’s commitment to establishing such a reserve.
In fact, in a recent CNBC interview, Trump asserted:
“We’re gonna do something great with crypto, ’cause we don’t want China, or anybody else, not just China, others are embracing it, and we want to be the head.”
Giovanni Capriglione’s initiative is not the only one. There is also another one focusing on Bitcoin. The Republican Senator, Cynthia Lummis, from Wyoming, is also trying to get a bill passed that will direct the U.S. Treasury to acquire one million bitcoins over five years.
Moreover, other states are looking at other similar legislation; for example, Pennsylvania’s Republican lawmakers introduced a bill in November permitting the state treasurer to invest in Bitcoin and similar digital assets.
But, the concept of a strategic Bitcoin reserve is not without criticism. The former Federal Reserve Bank of New York President Bull Dudley voiced his concerns in a Bloomberg article, where he states,
“What’s in it, though, for the government or for people who don’t hold Bitcoin? Nothing good. There’s no exit strategy, so the purpose must be to push prices higher, not create value for the government — which would be stuck holding volatile tokens that produce no income.”
