After the establishment of the United States national reserve in Bitcoin by Donald Trump, several US states are making efforts to be the first to have it: one of these is Ohio.
As of today, there has not yet been anyone who has definitively approved a law in this sense, even though there are some where the bill has already successfully passed the initial stages and is about to be definitively approved.
The Bitcoin reserve of Ohio
Yesterday, the Ohio House representative Steve Demetriou stated that he is working hard in Columbus to create a State Bitcoin Reserve.
Columbus is the city where the state institutions of Ohio are located.
Ohio is one of the so-called “swing state“, meaning one of those US states where there is no clear historical majority of Republicans or Democrats. With its eleven million inhabitants, and as many as 17 electoral votes, it often proves decisive for the election of the President at the national level.
Its current governor is repubblicano, and to be honest, since 2016 the repubblicani have always won in Ohio. So it is not as crucial as neighboring Pennsylvania, but it is not historically repubblicano as much as, for example, Texas or neighboring Indiana.
However, having been predominantly Republican for almost a decade, it is not surprising that it is one of those racing to approve a Bitcoin reserve as soon as possible, like the one desired by Trump at the national level.
The States besides Ohio aiming to have a strategic reserve in Bitcoin
In Oklahoma, the bill to establish a reserve in Bitcoin is already nearing the finish line, as its House has approved it with 77 votes in favor and only 15 against. Now it only needs the approval of the Senate and the governor’s signature.
The situation is similar also in Texas.
The State where the process is most advanced is Arizona, as reported by the so-called “Reserve Race” of Bitcoin Laws.
In fact, if currently there are only three states where a bill to establish a reserve in Bitcoin has already obtained approval from the House (Oklahoma, Texas, and Arizona), only in Arizona has it also obtained approval from the Senate finance committee. Therefore, only in Arizona is there just one final step remaining, namely approval by the Senate, before the law is signed by the governor and comes into effect.
Instead, in Oklahoma, it still needs to obtain approval from the Senate finance committee after being approved by the House.
Ohio is among the vast array of States where the bill has only received approval from the House finance committee, and therefore still needs to be submitted to the vote of the House itself.
There is also a State, West Virginia, where the bill has yet to receive approval from the first committee, while there are five where it has already been rejected (Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wyoming, and Pennsylvania). However, in these five States, it is not certain that similar bills cannot be presented in the future.
To these are added another 15 States where no bill has yet been proposed in this sense.
The Timing
Regarding the bill that would establish a Bitcoin reserve in Arizona, although it is only one vote away, it is not certain that it can be put to a vote soon.
However, in the Chamber it took about a month to be approved, once it passed the committee vote, so it is reasonable to expect that it could be approved by the end of April.
In Oklahoma and in Texas, however, it still needs to be analyzed by the Senate finance committee, and it is not certain that this will happen soon.
However, in both cases, within less than two months, it was drafted, presented, and approved in the Chamber, so it is reasonable that it may take less than another two months for it to be approved in the Senate.
Note that even in Texas the House has approved by a large majority, and like Oklahoma, it is a bull State with a republican majority. Arizona, on the other hand, is bear led by democrats.
The effects on the price of BTC
It does not seem, however, that a potential final approval could have a significant impact on the price of Bitcoin.
In fact, it did not even have the approval of the national strategic reserve by the hand of Donald Trump.
What could really make a difference, however, is the potential news of a campagna di acquisti di BTC.
The national strategic reserve for now does not foresee any purchase of BTC, but only the inclusion in the reserve of the Bitcoin already in possession of the Department of Justice thanks to the judicial seizures carried out in recent years.
The reserves of the individual States, on the other hand, cannot draw on the seized BTC, because such seizures are carried out by the national Department of Justice. Therefore, once the reserve in Bitcoin is eventually established, they will have to say how they intend to proceed to put BTC in it.
The initial hypothesis is to collect them through donations or payments to the State, but it might really be too little. If any State were to eventually announce a significant bull campaign of BCT purchases, this could have positive effects on the price of Bitcoin.
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