Blockchain lobbyists will support a bill to create a BTC reserve in Florida

What’s new? Florida Blockchain Business Association (FBBA) President Samuel Armes has praised the state’s chances of creating a strategic BTC reserve during the upcoming legislative session, which begins in the first quarter of 2025. He noted that key local officials holding key positions are bitcoin supporters. They include Florida House Speaker and Senate President Danny Perez and Ben Albritton, who previously helped push a bill to ban the digital dollar in the state, as well as Governor Ron DeSantis.

Source: X.com

What else is known? Armes writes that authorities have several sources for funding bitcoin purchases. First, money from the state’s pension fund, which is the fourth largest in the United States and manages $185,7 billion, could be used. According to a lobbyist, the fund could allocate a small percentage of the money to invest in the first cryptocurrency as a hedge against inflation.

In addition, Florida has previously invested in bitcoin and cryptocurrency-related assets through a pension fund. For example, the pension fund allocates its money to hedge funds, and some of them have bought shares of crypto firms, including miners, leading US crypto exchange Coinbase (COIN) and analytics software company MicroStrategy (MSTR), which is the largest holder of BTC on its own balance sheet among public companies.

Armes emphasizes: if the fund allocates even 1% of the money, Florida could purchase $1,857 billion worth of bitcoins.

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Second, the budget surplus, which totaled $116,5 billion for the 2024-2025 fiscal year, can be used without cutting funding for essential state services.

The lobbyist said that despite top-notch financial management that allows the state to regularly record high budget surpluses, inflation could wipe them out.

In this regard, he also suggested that at least 1% of the budget should be allocated to invest another $1,165 billion in bitcoin.

Armes assured that FBBA will actively promote the bill to create a bitcoin reserve and other cryptocurrency initiatives in the upcoming legislative session.

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The idea of creating a national bitcoin reserve was introduced in July as part of a bill by Wyoming Republican Senator Cynthia Lummis. The document with the acronym BITCOIN is designed to reduce the US national debt by purchasing 1 million bitcoins over five years. Later, her party colleague Donald Trump supported this initiative as part of his election campaign.

After Trump’s victory, other countries, including South Korea, the UK, and Brazil, proposed to explore the possibility of investing in bitcoin.

Lummis also commented on Armes’ post on her X-account:

“States are the incubators of great ideas. It’s a race to the top and welcome the friendly competition.”

Source: X.com