HOUSTON, Dec. 12 (Xinhua) -- The Texas House of Representatives on Thursday introduced a bill to establish a strategic bitcoin reserve, which would enable the second largest U.S. state to start building a strategic bitcoin reserve by accepting taxes, fees and donations in bitcoin, Republican state lawmaker Giovanni Capriglione said on social media platform X.
"I just filed the bill ... entitled 'An act relating to the establishment of a bitcoin reserve within the state treasury of Texas and the management of cryptocurrencies by governmental entities,'" he said.
"My goal is to make this bill as big and as broad as possible,"Capriglione said. "This initial step is to allow some optionality and flexibility on it, but if I am able to get support from other legislators, we will make it even stronger."
"Probably the biggest enemy of our investments is inflation," he said. "A strategic bitcoin reserve, investing in bitcoin, would be a win-win for the state."
The Texas bill could serve as a proving ground for the U.S. Treasury, said a CNBC report. The state has the highest concentration of bitcoin miners in the country.
The Texas bill, which currently does not include a direct bitcoin purchasing strategy, aims to provide a way to strengthen the state's fiscal stability and establish it as a leader in bitcoin innovation, said the report, citing the Satoshi Action Fund, a nonprofit bitcoin advocacy group that worked with Capriglione on the bill.
Pennsylvania was the first state where a strategic bitcoin reserve bill was introduced, in November, and discussions are underway in as many as 10 more states and four countries to introduce similar legislation in the coming months, according to Dennis Porter, the CEO of Satoshi Action Fund.
Bitcoin has climbed more than 45 percent since Donald Trump, who is crypto-friendly during his campaign, won the 2024 U.S. presidential election last month.
"It will be the policy of my administration to keep 100 percent of all bitcoin the U.S. government currently holds or acquires in the future ... as a core of the strategic national bitcoin stockpile," Trump told attendees at the Bitcoin 2024 conference in Nashville in July.
