Lawmakers in Utah approved a Bitcoin bill but revised it to exclude a provision that would have allowed the state treasurer to invest in Bitcoin.
Utah’s state Senate passed the Bitcoin bill but removed its most groundbreaking aspect—a plan to establish a state-controlled Bitcoin reserve.
The “Blockchain and Digital Innovation Amendments” bill, HB230, now primarily ensures that Utah residents have fundamental custody safeguards while allowing them to mine Bitcoin, run nodes, and stake.
The Senate advanced the bill with a 19-7-3 vote on March 7, sending it to Governor Spencer Cox for approval.
The original provision would have granted Utah’s treasurer the authority to invest up to 5% of five state accounts in digital assets, limiting investments to assets with a market capitalization exceeding $500 billion in the previous year—Bitcoin being the only asset that meets this requirement.
The provision initially advanced past the second reading, but lawmakers struck it down in the third and final review.
The Utah House approved the amendment with a 52-19-4 vote.
“There was a lot of concern with those provisions and the early adoption of these types of policies,” one of the bill’s sponsors, Senator Kirk A. Cullimore, said in Utah’s March 7 floor session.
“All of that has been stripped out of the bill.”
On February 2, Dennis Porter, CEO of Satoshi Action Fund, predicted that Utah would likely become the first U.S. state to adopt a Bitcoin reserve—a possibility that remained until March 7.
Lawmakers have introduced a total of 31 Bitcoin reserve bills across various states, with 25 still under consideration. These states include Illinois, Iowa, Kentucky, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Dakota, Ohio, and Oklahoma.
Legislators in Pennsylvania, Montana, Kentucky, and North Dakota failed to pass Bitcoin reserve legislation.
On March 7, President Donald Trump signed an executive order to establish a federal Strategic Bitcoin Reserve.
Officials will use Bitcoin obtained from criminal forfeitures to build the reserve, while Treasury and Commerce department officials must find budget-neutral ways to expand holdings.
