Montana House of Representatives voted against the creation of a BTC reserve

What’s new? The Montana House of Representatives has not passed a bill to include bitcoin in reserve assets at the state level. Many lawmakers raised concerns that the document would have allowed the state’s investment board to speculate too heavily on taxpayer money.

Voting results

What else is known? The bill proposed to create a special account at the expense of budgetary funds for investing in precious metals, stablecoins, as well as cryptocurrencies, the market capitalization of which on average for the last calendar year was above the mark of $750 billion. Currently, only bitcoin meets this criterion.

59 representatives voted against the initiative, with 41 in favor of it. During the February 22 session, some officials bluntly stated that the bill encourages financial speculation with budget money.

“It’s still taxpayer money, and we’re responsible for it, and we need to protect it,” said State Representative Steven Kelly.

Bernstein predicts a new stage of bitcoin’s bull market

According to analysts, the strong inflow of funds into ETFs has become a powerful catalyst

Read more

In turn, his party colleague Lee Demming said the state needs to increase the return on funds collected from taxpayers, and the bill could do that.

Bill author and Republican Party member Curtis Schomer emphasized that Montana’s investment board would lose purchasing power by continuing to invest in bonds.

“The only thing that is risky is not passing this bill,” the author concluded.

Republican Steve Fitzpatrick said the Montana Investment Council “has a lot of money sitting in the bank” that could be used better by investing in precious metals and digital assets. The bill would increase the budget surplus and, as a result, lower taxes, he said.

Some lawmakers also saw potential in the bill but called for amendments.

Notably, last week, the Montana House Business and Labor Committee approved the bill by a vote of 12 to 8, with all Republicans voting in favor and all Democrats against.

However, the House’s overall vote has now canceled the bitcoin reserve bill, which was assigned the number 429. Any similar document will have to be reintroduced to a specialized committee.

Michael Saylor: the US should buy up to 20% of bitcoins as a strategic reserve

He stressed the urgency of such investments, warning against competing countries being the first to acquire BTC

Read more

To date, 24 US states have already introduced bills to create a BTC reserve, including Arizona, Illinois, Florida, Kentucky, Maryland, New Hampshire, West Virginia, New Mexico, Michigan, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, and Texas.

Utah has made the most progress, where the bill HB230, “Blockchain and Digital Innovation Amendments,” was approved by the Senate Revenue and Taxation Committee on February 20. It is now undergoing second and third readings before a final vote in the Senate.