Governor Greg Abbott on Saturday signed Senate Bill 21, a law that explicitly allows the state to buy and hold Bitcoin and other top-tier cryptocurrencies.
The measure passed the Texas House and Senate by wide margins, empowering the state comptroller to begin building the reserve immediately.
Backers of the Texas bill, including Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick and State Senator Charles Schwertner, frame it as a hedge against inflation and a way to cement Texas’s identity as a national leader in crypto.
Critically, the law gives the state authority to actively buy and manage Bitcoin, including holding it as an asset and potentially disposing it strategically.
The Trump administration’s executive order creating a federal “Strategic Bitcoin Reserve” sparks comparisons, but the two initiatives have little in common beyond the name.
Unlike Texas, the Federal Bitcoin Reserve does not have an independent advisory board or a mandate to generate returns on its holdings. Custody remains with the Treasury Department and U.S. Marshals Service, and oversight remains largely internal.
At current market prices, a 1% allocation (roughly $240-$285 million) could net the state around 2,400 to 2,800 BTC. A more aggressive 5% allocation would bring in up to 14,000 coins, making Texas one of the largest sovereign holders of Bitcoin globally.
For comparison, the federal government currently holds approximately 218,000 BTC, based on recent blockchain analytics, though all of it came from seizures rather than purchases.
With SB 21 now law, the Texas Comptroller’s office is expected to outline implementation procedures by the end of the fiscal year. Meanwhile, companion legislation (HB 4488) will protect the reserve from being swept into the state treasury for unrelated uses.
As Washington and Austin pursue divergent paths on handling Bitcoin, Texas may now become the first U.S. state to hold the cryptocurrency not because it had to, but because it chose to.
