Utah's strategic Bitcoin reserve bill, "H.B. 230" has now taken a step closer to approval. After being passed by the House last month with a vote of 8-1, the bill was sent to the Senate's Revenue and Taxation Committee on Tuesday.
The bill was passed in the Senate on February 7 for its first reading and was then sent to the Senate's standing committee yesterday.
Utah's HB 230 bill, proposed on January 21 by Jordan Teuscher, a Representative from Utah, allows for the allocation of 5% of state funds to digital assets.
Qualified digital assets will include stablecoins or cryptocurrencies with a market capitalization over $500 billion in the past year. For reference, Bitcoin's current market capitalization is $1.89 trillion.
Utah is leading a number of other states
The state of Utah has quickly pushed this bill. The Executive Director of Satoshi Action Fund, Dennis Porter, recently said in an interview, "We believe Utah will be the first state to introduce this law."
Regarding whether Utah could be the leader, Porter said, "No one else has a faster schedule, and no one has more political motivation and will to make it happen."
More than two dozen states in the U.S. are currently exploring the creation of legislation to establish a Bitcoin reserve fund. Matthew Sigel of VanEck estimates that if the bills are passed, these states could acquire up to 247,000 BTC ($23.7 billion) at current prices.
Illinois has moved its Bitcoin reserve bill to the Rules Committee with the goal of pushing for approval on January 29.
Recently, Michigan has become the latest state to introduce a strategic Bitcoin reserve bill. Michigan's HB 4087 bill was introduced by Representatives Rob Robinson and Bryan Posthumus.
Previously, on February 11, Oklahoma's HB 1203 bill passed the committee stage with a vote of 6-2 and moved to the full vote. Arizona's Bitcoin reserve bill is also just behind Utah at a similar stage.
Pennsylvania, on the other hand, has tried to authorize the state treasurer to invest in Bitcoin in November 2024. However, the bill did not pass despite attracting significant attention.
North Dakota has also presented Resolution 3001 earlier this month and proposed investing its funds in Bitcoin and other digital assets.