Texas lawmaker introduces bill for strategic bitcoin reserve, aligning with Trump’s crypto agenda

A bill was introduced on Thursday to create a strategic bitcoin reserve following President-elect Donald Trump's support for investing in bitcoin and as similar bills circulate. 

Texas Republican Rep. Giovanni Capriglione said he filed that bill, House Bill 1598, during an X space on Thursday hosted by the Satoshi Act Fund, a bitcoin mining advocacy group. 

"I just filed the bill," Capriglione said during the X spaces. "It’s a bill to be 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 filed in the state of Texas strategic bitcoin reserve."

Capriglione said the bill would create a reserve account through donations and will be held for a maximum of five years. Texas, notably, is the eighth-largest economy in the world. 

A strategic bitcoin reserve has been floated on the federal, including from the top. Ahead of elections in November, President-elect Donald Trump vowed to create a strategic bitcoin reserve. During an interview with CNBC, Trump  doubled down on Thursday, saying, "we're gonna do something great with crypto, 'cause we don't want China, or anybody else, not just China, others are embracing it, and we want to be the head."

Trump is not alone in his endeavors to create a bitcoin reserve — Republican Sen. Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming has a draft bill circulating that would direct the U.S. Treasury to buy one million bitcoin over a period of five years.

Other states have also introduced bills to invest in bitcoin. Pennsylvania Republican lawmakers introduced a bill in November that would allow Pennsylvania's state treasurer to invest in bitcoin, digital assets and crypto-based exchange-traded products.

The idea of a strategic bitcoin reserve has been met with some criticism . More recently, former Federal Reserve Bank of New York Bill Dudley said it would be a bad dea l for Americans in an opinion article published on Bloomberg last week. 

"What’s in it, though, for the government or for people who don’t hold Bitcoin? Nothing good," Dudley wrote. "There’s no exit strategy, so the purpose must be to push prices higher, not create value for the government — which would be stuck holding volatile tokens that produce no income."