New Hampshire became the first state in the country to establish a crypto reserve on Monday, giving the digital assets a win after several other states rejected similar legislation.
“New Hampshire is once again First in the Nation!” New Hampshire Gov. Kelly Ayotte wrote on X Tuesday. “Just signed a new law allowing our state to invest in cryptocurrency and precious metals.”
The law, titled HB 302, enables the state treasurer to invest up to 5 percent of New Hampshire’s state funds into precious metals and digital assets. The metals and assets must have a market cap of over $500 billion, and bitcoin will be the asset used to fill the stockpile.
New Hampshire House Republicans celebrated the bill’s passage, writing on X, “The Live Free or Die state is leading the way in forging the future of commerce and digital assets.”
Several other states have pursued similar legislation, though some have faced hurdles in recent weeks. In Arizona, Gov. Katie Hobbs (D) vetoed a state bill that would have allowed the state to use seized crypto funds for a crypto reserve.
Earlier this week, Florida pulled two crypto reserve bills from its legislative, session, while Oklahoma, South Dakota, Montana, North Dakota, Pennsylvania and Wyoming also rejected similar legislation.
The push for crypto reserves mirrors that on the federal level, where President Trump signed an executive order in March creating a government reserve of bitcoin and a stockpile for other digital assets.
Trump’s order differs slightly from New Hampshire in that it requires the U.S. government to use the bitcoin already seized by federal law enforcement while disrupting financial crimes to establish the reserve.
Still, his order empowered the Treasury and Commerce Departments to “develop budget-neutral strategies for acquiring additional bitcoin.”
The Trump administration maintains these strategies will not create extra costs for taxpayers.
Trump’s artificial intelligence (AI) and crypto czar, David Sacks, said earlier the year the U.S. government is estimated to own about 200,000 bitcoins — worth more than $17 billion — but a full audit needs to be completed to confirm the number.
Like Trump, some state leaders are increasingly warming up to crypto as the industry tries to distance itself from past scandals and cement its status as a legitimate financial pathway.
