Arizona Creates Bitcoin and Digital Assets Reserve Fund
Date: 2025-05-08 Author: Oliver Abernathy Categories: IN WORLD
Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs has signed a bill aimed at creating a new approach to digital assets left without an owner. We are talking about House Bill 2749, which received bipartisan support in the Legislature and was signed into law on May 7, according to a statement on the governor’s official website.
The law amends the rules regarding unclaimed property, expanding them to digital assets such as cryptocurrency. The document provides for the creation of the Bitcoin and Digital Assets Reserve Fund - a reserve fund that will be used only with legislative approval.
The authors of the initiative were House Commerce Committee Chairman Jeff Weninger and his colleagues. According to him, digital assets have already become part of the modern economy, and the state is obliged to take this into account. The new law, according to Weninger, ensures property rights are protected and creates a mechanism for the state to account for virtual assets.
Under the new procedure, a digital asset is considered abandoned if the owner does not respond to communication attempts within three years. After that, it must be transferred to the Arizona Department of Revenue in an unchanged digital form. Authorized state custodians can participate in staking these assets and accept airdrops - any income received in this way will be sent to the reserve fund.
It is important to note that the fund will not be replenished at the expense of taxes or the state budget. All funding will come from profits from staking or airdrops. The fund will be managed by the Arizona Treasurer under the control of the Legislature.
This legislative initiative appeared just a few days after Governor Hobbs vetoed another bill - Senate Bill 1025, which proposed investing seized funds in Bitcoin. At the time, she pointed out the risks associated with using public funds to invest in “unproven assets.” However, the new law avoids such risks, as it only applies to abandoned assets, not active investing.
Similar steps are being taken in other states: for example, New Hampshire recently passed a law allowing investment in cryptocurrencies with a capitalization of more than $500 billion — to date, only Bitcoin meets this criterion.
