Bitcoin: The Proposed Law of Texas

Yesterday, the deputy of the Texas parliament, Giovanni Capriglione, presented a bill proposing that the State establish its own strategic reserve in Bitcoin.

The US state of Texas could soon be setting up its own Bitcoin strategic reserve, according to a bill filed by state representative Giovanni Capriglione on Monday.

The bill, titled the Texas Strategic Bitcoin Reserve Act, would see the state treasury authorized to hold Bitcoin in a fund dedicated to safeguarding the state’s BTC.

The fund would be barred from using the BTC for any purpose other than holding it in reserve, and the state would be required to hold any BTC acquired by the fund for a minimum of five years before selling or using it.

The bill does not specify an amount of BTC that the fund would be acquiring, nor does it detail how the state would be acquiring the BTC, though it does state that the fund may accept donations of BTC from Texans.

The bill also states that the state would be authorized to accept bids from third-party custodians to safeguard the state’s Bitcoin.

The move would follow similar bills filed in Alabama and Pennsylvania, though both of those states are significantly smaller than Texas — especially Alabama.

So far, no US state appears to have set up a strategic reserve in Bitcoin, or decided to create one. For now, they are still only proposals.

Further up the chain, however, the US government may be setting an example.

President-elect Donald Trump, who will be sworn into office on January 20, 2025, has already pledged to set up a government strategic reserve in BTC.

On the other hand, the US government already owns Bitcoin, thanks to seizures by the Department of Justice, with nearly 200,000 in its possession. Thus, setting up a strategic reserve in Bitcoin should be easy, in theory, for the new Trump administration, as it would only require an order that those BTC not be sold at auction, as usually happens, but instead be placed in a fund and kept there.

Moreover, it’s worth noting that there’s also a proposal by Senator Cynthia Lummis to add another 200,000 BTC per year to that hypothetical fund, for the entire four-year duration of the new Trump administration, in order to reach ownership of one million (just under one twentieth of all those موجود in the world).

The chances of success for Trump’s initiative seem to be good, as they are a matter of technicality, from a strictly administrative point of view, even if not guaranteed at all.

Strong doubts remain over the chances of success for the Lummis proposal, however.

Returning to the Capriglione bill, it’s worth noting that the state representative is a Republican in a state where the Republican Party holds the majority.

Thus, his bill HB 1598 appears to have been filed by a member of the majority in the Texas legislature, and could therefore also have a good chance of success.

The Republican Party, moreover, is the same party as Donald Trump, so the chances of Capriglione’s proposal being approved do indeed seem good.

It was later noted by the Texas Blockchain Council that taxpayer funds would not be used to purchase Bitcoin, and that the strategic fund would be fueled solely by donations or other already existing state sources.