Governor Greg Abbott signs the bill establishing a strategic Bitcoin reserve financed with public funds.
Texas has become the first U.S. state to officially create a strategic Bitcoin reserve backed by public money. Governor Greg Abbott signed Senate Bill 21 (SB21), giving rise to the Texas Strategic Bitcoin Reserve, a state fund dedicated exclusively to holding cryptocurrencies as a long-term strategic asset.
The strategic reserve will operate independently from the state’s general treasury system. According to the bill, its primary objective is to strengthen Texas’s financial resilience, using Bitcoin as a potential hedge against inflation and economic fluctuations.
Only digital assets with an average market capitalization exceeding $500 billion over the past 12 months may be included in the reserve. At present, Bitcoin is the only asset that meets this requirement.
The fund will be administered by the Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts, with the support of an advisory committee made up of three professionals specialized in digital asset investments.
The reserve may grow through various means: in addition to direct purchases, it can benefit from forks, airdrops, investment gains, and public cryptocurrency donations. Transparency will be ensured through a public report published every two years, documenting the fund’s holdings and performance.
Alongside SB21, Governor Abbott also signed House Bill 4488, which protects the strategic Bitcoin reserve from being absorbed into the state’s general revenue fund. This measure isolates the reserve from shifts in budgetary priorities, safeguarding its operational and strategic independence. The bill also guarantees the reserve’s legal existence even if no Bitcoin has been purchased by next summer.
While Arizona and New Hampshire have passed similar bills for a Bitcoin reserve, Texas stands out as the first state to actually commit public funds and establish a separate structure for its Bitcoin holdings.
