Utah Passes Bitcoin Law, But Without Its Cornerstone: A Bitcoin Reserve

Utah's Bitcoin bill has passed the state Senate, but without its cornerstone, a clause that would have made it the first US state with its own Bitcoin reserve.

Utah's lawmakers have approved a bill that provides basic custody protections for cryptocurrency users and the right to mine, run a node and participate in staking.

The House Bill 230, titled "Blockchain and Digital Innovation Amendments," also creates a bitcoin reserve for the state, making it the first U.S. state to do so.

The bill passed the Senate with a vote of 19-7-3 on March 7 and is now headed to Governor Spencer Cox's desk to be signed into law.

The bill was originally going to include an amendment to create a bitcoin reserve, but that provision was scrapped in the third and final reading.

House members then concurred with the amendment in a vote of 52-19-4.

"There was a lot of concern with those provisions and the early adoption of these types of policies," said one of the bill's sponsors, Senator Kirk A. Cullimore (R-Centerville) in Utah's March 7 floor session.

"All of that has been stripped out of the bill."

Cullimore confirmed HB230's amendment to scrap the reserve clause. Source: Utah State Legislature

Up until March 7, Utah looked set to become the first U.S. state to adopt a bitcoin reserve, as the legislation passed two readings and only needed one more to be signed by the governor.

Two Arizona bitcoin reserve bills and a Texas bill are now the closest to being passed into law, according to Bitcoin Laws data. Each of those bills obtained a successful vote in their respective senate committees and is now awaiting a final floor vote in the senate.

Race to establish a bitcoin reserve at the U.S. state level. Source: Bitcoin Laws

Of the 31 bitcoin reserve state bills that were introduced, 25 are still live, including bills from Illinois, Iowa, Kentucky, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Dakota, Ohio and Oklahoma.

Those state legislatures will reconvene in the second half of 2023.

Earlier this year, several U.S. states, including Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Iowa, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Texas, Virginia and West Virginia, introduced bills to create bitcoin or cryptocurrency mining rigs.

Those bills aim to prevent local governments from imposing bans or moratoria on cryptocurrency mining.

Earlier this week, U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order establishing a federal Strategic Bitcoin Reserve.

The bitcoin reserve will be seeded with BTC obtained through forfeitures in criminal cases, while the Treasury and Commerce secretaries have been instructed to develop budget-neutral strategies to buy more bitcoin.