Arizona, Cryptocurrency reserve bill passes full House committee

Ahead of the House plenary session on the Bitcoin Reserve Bill in Arizona, USA (Source: @Bitcoin_Law, X)

In Arizona, USA, legislation for cryptocurrency reserves is gaining momentum. The 'Strategic Digital Asset Reserve Bill (SB 1373)', which passed the House Committee of the Whole on the 17th (local time), now only has the final vote in the plenary session remaining. If passed, the bill will be formally enacted through the governor's signature process.

This bill aims to create a strategic asset reserve fund at the state level using confiscated cryptocurrencies from criminal proceeds, and to have the Arizona Treasury Department manage it. The Treasury Department may invest up to 10% of this fund in digital assets each fiscal year, and loans to increase profits are also permitted. However, it is only possible within the scope of not incurring additional financial risk.

However, the final passage of the bill remains uncertain. Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs recently declared, "I will veto all legislative bills until the Disabled Support Budget Bill passes the legislature," and indeed exercised veto power on 15 bills within the past week. This raises the possibility that the cryptocurrency bill may also be stalled in the signing stage.

In addition to SB 1373, a separate bill centered around Bitcoin (SB 1025) is also being pursued in Arizona. This bill allows for the investment of up to 10% of the state's financial assets and state pension assets in Bitcoin, and passed the House Committee of the Whole on April 1st, awaiting the plenary vote.

This move is being noted as the most proactive case of Arizona institutionalizing state-level Bitcoin and cryptocurrency holdings. Utah passed a similar bill on March 7th but retreated after core provisions were deleted in the final plenary session. Similar legislation is being pushed in Texas and New Hampshire, but progress as rapid as Arizona is rare.

Bitcoin legal analyst and Apollo CEO Julian Parler projected that "SB 1373 is likely to pass smoothly in the House," while also predicting "the possibility that the bill may be merged with other cryptocurrency bills." He simultaneously mentioned the case of Texas, adding that Texas still has the least obstacles to passing the bill.

As discussions on state-level cryptocurrency holdings become more active in the USA, it remains to be seen whether Arizona will take the lead in this trend.