Florida Steps Down from the Race for State-owned Bitcoin Reserves

Florida's bid to become a State-owned Bitcoin juggernaut has officially fizzled out.

Yesterday, the Florida House filed a bill that effectively cancels previous efforts to integrate BTC into the state's financial holdings.

Both House Bill 487—which proposed allocating up to 10% of Florida’s public funds into Bitcoin—and Senate Bill 550, which sought to direct state funds into digital assets, were rejected.

Despite the Republican supermajority in the House—owning 86 seats against the Democrats’ only 33 seats—lawmakers voted against the measures, signaling an unwillingness to take the plunge. signalling an apprehension to take the plunge.

Wyoming, Pennsylvania, Montana, Oklahoma, and South Dakota are the other U.S. states that have also dropped their Bitcoin bills.

As of today, the most likely Bitcoin bill to pass at the state level is in Arizona. Unlike other bills we've seen that would simply allocate public funds to a digital asset reserve, Arizona's HB 2749—written by State Representative Jeff Weninger—offers to allocate profits from unclaimed property funds, potentially leading House voters to become less "risk-averse" when voting on the bill.

The HB 2749 bill would enable crypto exchanges like Coinbase to transfer unclaimed digital assets directly to the State, bypassing the traditional liquidation process.