Utah Senate passes Bitcoin Reserve bill after scraping off reserve provision

The Utah Senate passed a Bitcoin Bill after scrapping the Bitcoin Reserve Clause. The bill will be submitted to Utah Governor Spenser Cox for assent to become law. The new legislation will grant Utah citizens Bitcoin mining rights. 

The Senate of Utah, a state in the United States, passed a Bitcoin bill. Lawmakers scrapped a provision that would have made Utah the first US State to hold Bitcoin in its treasury. The bill is set to be tabled before the governor, Spenser Cox, to be signed into law. 

Utah Senate passes Bitcoin Bill without the reserve clause 

The Utah Senate passed HB230, the Blockchain and Digital Innovation Amendment Act, by a vote of 19-7-3. The scrapped reserve provision allowed the state’s treasury to invest 5% of its income in digital assets like Bitcoin. The provision specified that assets the treasury chose to invest in should have a market value of more than $500 billion. 

BREAKING: UTAH #BITCOIN RESERVE BILL PASSES HOUSE VOTE

IT COULD BE THE 1st STATE TO BUY BTC 🚀 pic.twitter.com/Jti5Cd9qf0

— The Bitcoin Historian (@pete_rizzo_) February 6, 2025

The provision was removed during the bill’s final reading. Utah would have been the first state to establish a Bitcoin reserve if passed. The amended bill affords citizens basic cryptocurrency rights such as Bitcoin custody, running nodes, and staking participation. 

The legislation also limits local governments from imposing noise and zoning regulations targeting mining businesses in industrial areas. On Friday night, the Utah House of Representatives agreed to the amended bill by a 52-19-4 vote.

According to Bitcoin law data, the Arizona and Texas Reserve bills are the closest state bills to being passed into law. The two bills already succeeded at their respective senate committee stages. They await the final vote in the Senate houses as the determining step before taking effect. 

On Thursday, Texas Senator Charles Schwertner said that Bitcoin’s scarcity and potential as a hedge against inflation made it a valuable asset for the financial future. He pointed out that dollar bills were not stacked in safes like in medieval times. The senator added that they currently have digital currency as an inflation hedge. 

The Arizona bill proposes that the state treasury invest up to 10% of its public funds in Bitcoin and other digital assets. The Arizona SB 1025 already passed the Senate Finance Committee stage third reading. 

Twenty-five Bitcoin and digital asset-related bills remain active in the United States. New Mexico, Oklahoma, Ohio, and North Dakota are some states whose bills have yet to finalize on all the legislative steps. Senate houses in Pennsylvania, North Dakota, and Montana have dismissed their Bills. 

The crypto market responds to Trump’s Bitcoin Reserve executive order 

The Utah Senate decision followed President Trump’s executive order, signed on March 6, establishing the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve. The executive order also established a U.S Digital Asset stockpile at the federal level. 

The president clarified that the government would maintain the seized Bitcoin in criminal and civil proceedings within the United States in the reserve. Trump directed the treasury to develop budget-neutral strategies to acquire more Bitcoin into the reserves. 

Despite the executive order, Bitcoin continued to experience volatility. CoinMarketCap data revealed that the digital asset registered a 4% decline in the past 24 hours. Matt Houghan, Chief Investment Officer at Bitwise, said the market was short-term disappointed. He added that the government did not clarify when it would start acquiring Bitcoin.

The Bitwise officer cited White House’s crypto AI Czar David Sacks’ comments on the Bitcoin Reserve. He pointed out that budget-neutral strategies would have no incremental costs for United States citizens. Hougan suggested that the executive order made Bitcoin more geopolitically important in the future. 

He added that the market would soon find its footing and realize that Trump’s executive order was bullish in the long term for Bitcoin and the crypto industry as a whole. 

Rachel Lin, CEO of the decentralized exchange SynFutures, said investors were disappointed by the government’s failure to clarify the budget-neutral strategies it would use to acquire more BTC for the reserve. She added that the uncertainty prevented a price rally unless a new catalyst emerged.

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