Utah Advances Bitcoin Rights but Shifts State Treasury Investment Strategy
With the passing of a new Bitcoin bill, Utah has significantly moved toward adopting digital assets. But the law does not now contain a revolutionary clause allowing the government to make Bitcoin investments, therefore deviating from its initial objective.
Approved by the Utah Senate on March 7 under a 19-7-3 vote, the HB230 measure, “Blockchain and Digital Innovation Amendments,” Governor Spencer Cox’s signature is currently pending its adoption as law. The measure increases protections for Utah citizens involved in bitcoin activity, but it no longer contains language allowing Utah to be the first state in the union to store Bitcoin in its treasury.
What the bill provides for Utahans
The updated laws guarantee Utah residents their right to self-custody their digital assets, mine Bitcoin, run nodes, and engage in staking. These clauses seek to inspire creativity and give companies and people engaged in the crypto scene legal clarity. But the elimination of the Bitcoin reserve clause fundamentally changes the breadth of the measure.
What prompted the removal of the Bitcoin Reserve Clause?
Originally, the measure let the state treasurer invest up to 5% of cash from five state accounts in digital assets with a market valuation of more than $500 billion over the preceding year. Currently, only Bitcoin satisfies this criteria. Concerns about volatility, financial hazards, and the lack of precedent for state-held Bitcoin led the clause to be deleted during the third and last reading even though it passed the second.
During the March 7 floor session, Senator Kirk A. Cullimore, one of the bill’s sponsors, clarified that there was a lot of worry about those elements and the early implementation of these kinds of regulations. Now, the bill solely reflects the deletions. Later on, the Utah House agreed with the change in a 52-19-4 vote.
Utah and other states’ future
Utah was poised to become the first state to embrace a Bitcoin reserve prior to the elimination of the reserve clause; the move was expected by Dennis Porter, CEO of the Satoshi was Fund, in early February. Notwithstanding this setback, the more general push toward state-backed Bitcoin reserves keeps gathering steam all throughout the nation.
With their separate Bitcoin reserve legislation clearing legislative obstacles, Arizona and Texas are leading the pace currently. 31 states have proposed similar legislation, while 25 states are still in operation, according to data from Bitcoin Laws. Among states exploring such policies are Illinois, Iowa, Kentucky, Maryland, Massachusetts, and Ohio; initiatives in Pennsylvania, Montana, and North Dakota have stagnated.
The federal government enters the bitcoin arena.
As states consider their choices, the federal government has moved significantly toward adopting Bitcoin. President Donald Trump issued an executive order building a federal Strategic Bitcoin Reserve on March 7. Initially funded by Bitcoin confiscated from criminal forfeitures, the Treasury and Commerce Departments have been assigned to create budget-neutral plans to increase the government’s Bitcoin holdings.
This action marks a change in the way top levels of government view digital resources. Although Utah and other states might have been reluctant to spend public money on Bitcoin, federal government initiatives could open the path for later state-level acceptance.
