Happy Friday, and welcome back to the Blockspace newsletter!

Six states have bills or proposals for a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve. In today’s newsletter, we give an overview of each and rank them according to their merits.

The state-level Strategic Bitcoin Reserve proposals on the table

While all of crypto is on the edge of their seats waiting to see if the new Trump administration will move forwards with a national Strategic Bitcoin Reserve (SBR), six U.S. states have put forward their own SBR bills. But not all of these bills are made equal – in fact, there’s significant differences between them regarding funding sources and methods of accumulation.

Let’s take a look at the differences between the state bills and demystify what they actually propose

Oklahoma Strategic Bitcoin Reserve bill

The Sooner State is the most recent to throw their hat in the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve ring. This week, Representative Cody Maynard introduced HB1203 with help of the Oklahoma Bitcoin Association, which would allow the state treasury to invest in bitcoin and digital assets with a market capitalization exceeding $500 billion (any digital asset that averaged a $500 billion market cap over the previous year would fit the bill).

Astute readers may observe that, while the bill is inclusive of all digital assets, only bitcoin passes the bill’s market capitalization requirement of $500 billion. A higher market cap requirement is a reasonable protection to prevent the state from acquiring bottom-of-the-barrel shitcoins, but $500 billion is also a clever level which precludes any other cryptocurrency but bitcoin.

The bill also includes clear language, definitions, and guidelines for staking, stablecoin compliance, and custody. It also limits stablecoins to 10% of the overall strategic reserve.

We give this Strategic Bitcoin Reserve bill an S-tier rank because of its crypto-neutral (but bitcoin-forward!) language and clarity on additional guidelines. Disclosure: an author of this article was involved in making this bill happen.

New Hampshire Bitcoin Strategic Reserve bill

“Live Free of Die” is the official motto of New Hampshire, so it’s unsurprising that the state is on the forefront of sovereign asset adoption. 

Introduced by Representative Keith Ammon, the bill goes beyond just digital assets to include precious metals like silver and gold. Notably, the bill does not actually mention bitcoin and just uses the term digital assets.

Similar to Oklahoma, New Hampshire also requires digital assets in the proposed reserve to have a market cap of at least $500 million, excluding all cryptoassets besides Bitcoin. Also included in the bill’s language are clear definitions and guidelines for staking, stablecoin compliance, and custody.

Lastly, the bill would prevent New Hampshire from investing over 10% of total public funds (total $3.6 billion), which would cap the total investable amount to $360 million.

We give this Strategic Bitcoin Reserve bill an S-tier rank because of its crypto-neutral language and clarity on additional guidelines.

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Texas Strategic Bitcoin Reserve bills

Everything’s bigger in Texas, so of course the state has two proposed bills for a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve.

The most recent proposal, a Senate bill drafted by Texas Senator Charles Schwertner, allows “the state to own and hold bitcoin as a financial asset “– which somehow isn’t already allowed? –  and also permits “persons, including residents of this state, to donate bitcoin to the state for deposit in the reserve to promote the shared ownership of and community investment in this state’s financial future.” The Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts would steward this fund.

This bill also allows the legislature to designate up to 1% of any leftovers from the state’s biennial budget for the comptroller to purchase bitcoin. 

The first proposal by Representative Giovanni Capriglione to the Texas House is a little less exciting, as it only allows for donations in bitcoin and not outright purchases.

“This fund allows the state to own Bitcoin as a financial asset and for Texans to voluntarily donate Bitcoin to promote a shared ownership and community investment in Texas’s financial future,” the legislation reads. “The comptroller may accept gifts, grants, and donations of Bitcoin from certain Texas residents or a governmental entity as defined by Section 2252.001, Government Code,” it continues. 

Texas’ comptroller of the treasury would be responsible for custody of the bitcoin in the fund, and they would have to hold any donated coins for at least five years before being sold, transferred, or converted to another cryptocurrency. 

We give the Texas Senate Strategic Bitcoin Reserve bill a B-tier rank, because it allows for up to 1% allocation of the state’s leftover budget; we give the Texas House Strategic Bitcoin Reserve bill a C-tier rank, since it only allows for donations in bitcoin and not outright allocation via state funds.

Read the rest of the article here.

Bitcoin news

Tether sues Swan Bitcoin in escalation of joint venture dispute

Tether took Swan Bitcoin to court this week, filing suit in the U.K. against the bitcoin financial services company this week. The action complicates a legal dispute over the companies’ bitcoin mining joint venture, 2040 Energy, which began last September when Swan sued former employees and contractors over alleged theft of proprietary information and software.

Is F2Pool censoring transactions from OFAC-sanctioned addresses again?

Bitcoin mining pool F2Pool might be filtering transactions originating from addresses on the OFAC sanctions list. Bitcoin developer and researcher B10C analyzed 9 blocks mined by F2Pool that excluded transactions from OFAC-sanctioned addresses, even though these transactions included attractive fees. After B10C conducted similar analysis last November for F2Pool blocks, the company’s founder confirmed that the pool has run a “[transaction] filtering patch,” claiming that F2Pool would disable it until the “community reaches a more comprehensive consensus on the topic.”

Phantom Wallet raises $150 million at $3 billion valuation

Solana’s most popular wallet, Phantom, just raised a whopping $150 million in a round led by Sequoia and Paradigm. The fundraise, which values the company at $3 billion dollars, is the largest ever for a crypto software wallet. 

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