Michigan seeks to ban state-level CBDC advocacy in spate of new crypto-focused House bills

Lawmakers in the Michigan House of Representatives introduced four bills that regulate cryptocurrency's presence in the state's mining, income tax deductions, state treasury investments, and protections for accessing digital assets.

The spate of new bills adds to previous legislation not only in Michigan, which had proposed to allow state crypto investments in February, but other states under a more crypto-friendly federal government.

First on the list is HB 4510 . It amends the "Public employee retirement system investment act" and aims to let the state treasurer invest in cryptocurrencies with a market capitalization over $250 billion, adding that "any digital asset held by this state in any of the previously listed funds must be held in the form of an exchange-traded product issued by a registered investment company."

This adds to a prior house bill introduced in mid-February that would permit the state treasurer to assign up to 10% of its general and economic stabilization funds to cryptocurrency to not only diversify the state's portfolio but potentially increase yields, The Block previously reported.

Next up is HB 4511 , which would prevent Michigan from impeding someone from holding cryptocurrency, such as through bans or license requirements, as well as prohibit certain state government officials from supporting U.S. central bank digital currencies .

The other two bills relate to each other. HB 4512 seeks to create a bitcoin mining program from abandoned oil and gas well sites, so long as the operator performs any necessary restorations for the site, and HB 4513 amends Michigan's 1967 income tax act to income obtained from mining bitcoin from such sites in the state.

All four bills were introduced on Wednesday.

The State of Michigan Retirement Agency revealed that it held $6.6 million worth of the ARKB spot ETF in June 2024 and more than $10 million in Ethereum ETF shares in November 2024.

Beyond Michigan, New Hampshire and Arizona have passed laws establishing strategic bitcoin reserves this year, with Texas likely to follow suit. These moves come as United States President Donald Trump signed an executive order to establish a strategic bitcoin reserve in March.