Pro-cryptocurrency interests got a boost Thursday when the chair of the Texas House’s select committee on emerging technologies introduced legislation to create a strategic bitcoin reserve, an idea President-elect Trump has also endorsed.
Rep. Giovanni Capriglione (R) formally introduced his bill during a live event on X hosted by Satoshi Action Fund, a two-and-a-half-year-old bitcoin advocacy organization that develops model legislation and is active in state legislatures.
Capriglione said he hopes other states and the federal government follow Texas’s lead.
“This is a historic moment,” Capriglione said after filing the bill. “What we’re saying today is that bitcoin is an integral part of what we see the future to be, not just for Texas but for the whole entire world.”
Capriglione’s bill is the second Satoshi Action-backed strategic reserve legislation introduced in a state legislature in recent weeks. Last month, Pennsylvania Rep. Mike Cabell (R) introduced a measure to allow the state treasurer to invest up to 10% of Pennsylvania’s public funds in bitcoin. Alabama State Auditor Andrew Sorrell voiced support for the concept this week.
Satoshi Action’s leaders, who describe bitcoin as a “financial shock absorber,” say they expect strategic reserve bills to be introduced in a total of 10 states for 2025, including a reintroduced version in Pennsylvania.
Texas represents the eighth-largest economy in the world and the second largest in the U.S. after California. It leads the U.S. in bitcoin mining.
The bill there would establish the Texas Strategic Bitcoin Reserve, operated by the state comptroller “as a hedge against inflation and economic volatility.” The proposed law would allow Texans to voluntarily donate or bequest bitcoin, the leading cryptocurrency, to the fund as a way “to promote a shared ownership and community investment in Texas’s financial future.” Unlike the Pennsylvania bill, the Texas measure would not allow the state to invest its own funds in bitcoin.
The reserve would exist outside of the state’s general fund and could only be sold or transferred after a waiting period of five years. The bill would also give the comptroller authority to adopt rules to allow Texans to pay taxes and fees in certain cryptocurrencies, which would then be converted into bitcoin and deposited into the reserve.
“Not only are we doing this to help improve our financial position … but it’s also to kind of prove the point … we’re going to have the biggest strategic bitcoin reserve in the United States,” Capriglione said.
He expressed confidence that the bill can gain bipartisan support and be passed in 2025. He previously led to passage pro-bitcoin mining and crypto trading laws, as well as 2015 legislation to create a state gold depository.
The cryptocurrency industry is enjoying a resurgence with the election of Trump, who as recently as this week vowed to “do something great with crypto” when he is in office. On the campaign trail in July, he embraced the idea of a federal strategic bitcoin reserve. Since Trump’s win, the price of bitcoin has climbed from $68,000 to more than $100,000, representing a dramatic turn around after its value tanked following the collapse of crypto exchange FTX in 2022.
“It’s almost like you were pushing this boulder up the hill, and now the boulder is going down the hill on the other side and we’re just chasing after it as fast as we can,” said Dennis Porter, Satoshi Action’s CEO and co-founder.
Mandy Gunasekara, who formerly served in the first Trump administration, is also a co-founder.
Satoshi Action wants to leverage the new bullishness on cryptocurrency to pass pro-industry laws in several more states next year. Besides the strategic reserve concept, it continues to push model legislation to enshrine bitcoin rights, including the right to mine bitcoin. Louisiana and Oklahoma lawmakers passed versions of Satoshi Action’s model legislation this year.
Previously, Arkansas and Montana enacted pro-bitcoin mining laws. Arkansas lawmakers this year revised their law in response to community backlash over a proliferation of crypto mines.
At the federal level, Satoshi Action is working with U.S. Sen. Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.) on federal bitcoin strategic reserve legislation.
But the idea of a federal bitcoin strategic reserve has drawn recent criticism from Bloomberg’s editorial board, which warned of bitcoin’s volatility and said the idea “looks like the biggest crypto rip-off yet.” Former U.S. Treasury Secretary Larry Summers called the idea “crazy” in an interview with Bloomberg TV.
“I understand why we need a national oil reserve, I understand why a century ago we accumulated gold in Fort Knox,” Summers said. “But of all the prices to support, why would the government choose to support by accumulating a sterile inventory [of] a bunch of bitcoin? There is no reason to do that other than to pander to generous special interest campaign contributors.”