Texas lawmaker behind state’s crypto reserve bill: Ether may be next

This yr, the Texas Legislature handed a legislation to ascertain a strategic Bitcoin reserve within the state, opening the door for different cryptocurrencies sooner or later. In response to the invoice’s authentic sponsor, Ether could possibly be the subsequent reserve asset.

Talking to Cointelegraph on Thursday, Texas Senator Charles Schwertner mentioned the implementation of the Bitcoin (BTC) reserve legislation that was signed into legislation by Governor Greg Abbott in June. Though the textual content of the invoice permits Texas to carry different cryptocurrencies in a “particular fund outdoors the state treasury,” Bitcoin was the one one which met the necessities on the time of passage.

“I am very curious in regards to the velocity at which they set up the reserve and the way it works from a return perspective,” Schwertner mentioned. “If Ethereum maintains its market cap for twenty-four months, I feel it’s cheap and prudent to supply route that Ethereum will be added to the cryptocurrency [reserve].”

Supply: Charles Schwertner

In response to the legislation to ascertain and function a Texas Strategic Bitcoin Reserve, to qualify as a reserve, every cryptocurrency should have “a mean market capitalization of at the very least $500 billion over the newest 24-month interval.” Bitcoin, with a market cap of over $2 trillion, meets this threshold.

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By comparability, Ether (ETH) has solely maintained a market cap above $500 billion twice: for a few month in 2021 and sometimes from August to October this yr. On Friday, ETH’s value and its market capitalization fell sharply, with the latter reaching roughly $494 billion on the time of publication.

How does Texas legislation differ from different states?

Whereas many US states have rejected or in any other case did not introduce related payments establishing crypto reserves, Arizona and New Hampshire signed laws into legislation in 2025. Arizona’s fund contains crypto seized by way of prison forfeiture, whereas New Hampshire legislation permits the state’s treasury to make use of funds to put money into crypto with a market cap of greater than $500 billion.

“We’re the one state that truly put state cash, taxpayer cash, into the reserve,” Schwertner mentioned, including, “We took the complete hit. [establishing] each a reserve and the cash behind it.”

In response to the senator, the state comptroller is investigating the implementation of the legislation, together with custodians of the reservation’s property. Underneath the phrases of the legislation, every custodian have to be a “state or federally chartered monetary establishment” or different entity regulated in Texas.

The Texas legislation, in addition to others at the moment into account, adopted the federal authorities below US President Donald Trump establishing each a “Strategic Bitcoin Reserve” and a “Digital Asset Stockpile” in March. The manager order established a coverage to make use of confiscated cryptocurrency to fund the reserve, however officers later added that there have been “budget-neutral methods” to buy BTC.

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