- West Virginia State Senator Chris Rose has introduced the “Inflation Protection Act of 2025” to allow the state treasurer to hold digital assets and precious metals directly or through ETPs.
- The bill sets a strict market capitalisation requirement of US$750 billion for eligible assets, which currently makes Bitcoin the only qualifying cryptocurrency.
- This initiative aligns with similar movements across other US states while Senator Cynthia Lummis advocates for a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve at the federal level, emphasising Bitcoin’s transparent auditability.
West Virginia joins a growing number of US states that are discussing adding digital assets to their portfolio. State Senator Chris Rose introduced a bill last Friday, called the “Inflation Protection Act of 2025”, which could see digital assets and precious metals to be included in the state’s asset holdings.
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The bill defines digital assets not only as Bitcoin or crypto but also as “virtual currency, cryptocurrencies, natively electronic assets, including stablecoins and non-fungible tokens (NFTs), and other digital-only assets that confer economic, proprietary, or access rights or powers”.
Currently Only Bitcoin Passes Threshold of Minimum Holdings
Digital assets acquired by the state would be held directly by the state treasurer in secure custody, but could also include exchange-traded products (ETPs).
The bill further specifies that only assets with a market cap of US$750 billion (AU ($9.91)$1.18 trillion) or more will be included.
Currently, only Bitcoin with a market cap of US$1.9 trillion (AU$2.98 trillion) meets that standard, with Ethereum and XRP ($2.67) falling short of the threshold with US$321.3 billion (AU$505.3 billion) and US$158.2 billion (AU$248.8 billion) respectively.
Utah recently advanced a similar bill, which would need assets to have at least US$500 billion (AU$786 billion) in market cap. The bill named HB ($0.00) 230 still needs to pass the full house in Utah.
The West Virginia bill now needs to be reviewed by a committee before progressing further. A number of other US states are also making progress on their own version of similar initiatives.
Bitcoin Reserve Easily Auditable, Says Senator
On the federal level Senator Cynthia Lummis initiated a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve bill for the United States, while Trump has ordered the creation of a sovereign wealth fund.
Responding to concerns over whether US gold reserves in Fort Knox get audited annually, Lummis said “Bitcoin fixes this”, adding that it’s time for the US to update their reserve system.
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She also pointed to the ability to easily audit Bitcoin in a strategic reserve:
A bitcoin reserve could be audited any time 24/7 with a basic computer. It’s time to upgrade our reserves.
Senator Cynthia Lummis VanEck recently predicted state-level Bitcoin buying for reserves alone has the potential to reach 247,000 BTC ($96,075.67), worth US$23 billion (AU$36.1 billion) – and doesn’t even include pension funds or the federal government.
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