States Embrace Bitcoin: 18 Bills Pending, Arizona and Utah Close to Approval

States are poised to adopt Bitcoin (BTC) reserves before the US federal government, according to Senator Cynthia Lummis, who spoke at the Bitcoin Investor Week conference in New York on Feb. 28. Lummis, a Wyoming Republican, proposed the Bitcoin Act in July 2024, which calls for the US Treasury Department to gradually accumulate 1 million BTC, ultimately acquiring a total stake of approximately 5% of the total Bitcoin supply, mirroring the size and scope of gold reserves held by the United States.

Progress toward a Bitcoin reserve has been made at the state level. In January, US President Donald Trump signed an executive order requiring federal officials to study the feasibility of a national Bitcoin stockpile. In February, Trump signed another order instructing the US government to create a sovereign wealth fund, which could potentially serve as a vehicle for buying BTC. Currently, 18 US states have crypto reserve bills pending Senate votes, while two — Arizona and Utah — are in the final stages of the approval process. Although some states run by Democrats might resist Trump’s crypto-friendly stance, others are expected to embrace crypto as a bipartisan issue.

Establishing a strategic Bitcoin reserve in the United States would accelerate Bitcoin’s adoption even more than 2024’s exchange-traded fund (ETF) launches, cryptocurrency researcher CoinShares said in January. Launched in January 2024, US-based Bitcoin ETFs hold upward of $100 billion worth of BTC.