This week, Governor Kelly Ayotte signed House Bill 302 into law, enabling New Hampshire’s Treasury to allocate up to 5% of public funds to cryptocurrency and precious metals. This legislation stems from a proposal by the pro-Bitcoin nonprofit Satoshi Action Fund.
Announcing the decision on X, Governor Ayotte stated, “New Hampshire is once again First in the Nation! Just signed a new law allowing our state to invest in cryptocurrency and precious metals.”
According to reports from The Hill, the metals and assets involved must have a market cap exceeding $500 billion, with Bitcoin designated as the primary asset for the stockpile.
Earlier this year, U.S. President Trump signed an executive order establishing a government reserve of Bitcoin and a stockpile for other digital assets. However, the New Hampshire legislation differs from Trump’s order, which mandates the U.S. government to utilize Bitcoin previously seized by federal law enforcement in financial crime cases.
In a recent development, Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs vetoed a bill (Senate Bill 1025) that would have allowed the state to invest in Bitcoin using seized funds, despite the state House passing it by a narrow margin of 31–25. In a statement, Hobbs expressed concerns over experimenting with untested investments for the Arizona State Retirement System.
Florida has also pulled two crypto reserve bills from its legislative session, while similar legislation has been rejected in Oklahoma, South Dakota, Montana, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, and Wyoming.
This situation follows statements from the Trump administration indicating that these strategies would pose no additional costs to taxpayers. David Sacks, the administration’s artificial intelligence and crypto czar, mentioned that the U.S. government is estimated to hold around 200,000 Bitcoins, valued at over $17 billion, although a complete audit is needed to verify this figure.