New Hampshire Has Passed a Bill to Allow the State to Hold Bitcoin as an Official Reserve Asset

The U.S. state of New Hampshire has passed a bill for the first time in the U.S. that would allow the state to hold virtual currencies such as Bitcoin as official reserve assets.

The U.S. state of New Hampshire has passed a bill that would allow the state to hold virtual currencies such as Bitcoin as official reserve assets for the first time in the country's history.

As local news outlet NHUErgo reported on Friday (6/9), state governor Kelly Iyatt signed the Digital Asset Investment Bill, which passed the state legislature.

This makes New Hampshire the first state in the U.S. to be able to stockpile Bitcoin (BTC) as a strategic reserve. According to the bill, up to 5% of the total reserves can be invested in digital assets such as Bitcoin. The investment targets are virtual assets or precious metals with a market capitalization of more than $500 billion.

Among virtual currencies, only Bitcoin meets this standard. According to CoinMarketCap, Bitcoin's market capitalization is about $1.93 trillion, while Ethereum (ETH), the second-largest cryptocurrency, has a market capitalization of about $220 billion, less than $500 billion.

New Hampshire's policy to allow additional investment in Bitcoin is evaluated as a new biography. Several states, including Florida and Arizona, discussed similar bills, but Florida recently withdrew two related bills without a plenary vote, and Arizona was canceled due to the veto of the governor.

In the case of Florida, up to 10% of state funds were to be invested in Bitcoin. Attention is focused on the federal move and its impact on other states. President Donald Trump signed an executive order to "stock digital assets" in March, saying he would push for a policy to stockpile digital assets such as Bitcoin at the federal level.

However, the executive order only contained the information that it would not sell the seized bitcoin and did not include any additional bitcoin purchase plan. Some argue that Bitcoin reserves could be a solution to the U.S. debt problem, which has exceeded $36 trillion.

Sen. Cynthia Lummis (R-WY), a pro-virtual asset, recently reiterated that "the Bitcoin reserve could be the solution to the U.S. debt problem." The Bitcoin Act (BITCOIN Act), proposed by Lummis in July last year, reinforces strategic bitcoin reserves and digital asset stockpiling measures signed by U.S. President Donald Trump.

The bill aims for the U.S. government to secure 1 million Bitcoin over five years, or about 5% of the total supply of Bitcoin. On Wall Street, there was also a positive response to the Bitcoin stockpile. Investment bank Morgan Stanley assessed that Bitcoin's current market capitalization is at a level that can be considered as a reserve asset in the United States.

However, Morgan Stanley pointed out that high volatility compared to traditional assets is still a challenge to be solved.