While federal lawmakers continue to argue over the finer points of digital asset legislation, US states have quietly started putting real money into Bitcoin. Texas executed its first purchase of roughly $5 million in Bitcoin through the BlackRock iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) ETF in late November 2025, making it the first state to actually fund and buy Bitcoin for a strategic reserve.
The purchase came from a $10 million allocation approved under SB 21, which Governor Greg Abbott signed into law in June 2025. Texas acquired its Bitcoin at prices ranging between roughly $87,000 and $91,000 per coin. New Hampshire and Arizona both enacted their own strategic reserve laws months earlier, and over 30 additional states have introduced similar bills as of mid-2026.
The state-level Bitcoin land grab
New Hampshire got its law on the books first. HB 302, signed in May 2025, authorized investments in Bitcoin and qualifying digital assets up to certain portfolio limits. Arizona followed almost immediately with HB 2749, also signed in May 2025, which took a slightly different approach by leveraging unclaimed property and seized assets to build its digital holdings.
Texas’s approach of routing the purchase through BlackRock’s IBIT ETF is notable. Rather than setting up custodial infrastructure from scratch, Texas went with the most liquid and institutionally familiar wrapper available.
