WICHITA FALLS, Texas (KAUZ) – Texas is known for cattle and oil, but it may soon add digital gold to that list.

On June 20, 2025, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott signed Texas State Senate Bill 21 into law. It establishes the Texas Strategic Bitcoin Reserve, a new agency at the state level.

The bill allows Texas, the eighth-largest economy in the world, to use dollars from its “rainy day fund” to set up that reserve. The state has a $500 million cap on investments in Bitcoin.

Sen. Brent Hagenbuch, District 30 State Senator, said the state Comptroller and a Crypto advisory board appointed by Gov. Abbot will manage the new reserve.

“They’ll be experts in the industry who will very carefully pick which Bitcoin to buy, when to sell, and those kinds of things. we’ll have as good advice on the trajectory of Bitcoin on when it’s a good time to buy and sell,” Sen. Hagenbuch said.

Sen. Hagenbuch voted yes on the bill; in his view, the bill helps his constituents by hedging against inflation and improving the state’s investment ranking.

Sen. Hagenbuch was one of 16 republicans who voted yes. The conservatives weren’t alone, as nine of eleven democrats in the Senate voted yes, too.

At a time when tribalism and partisan politics are the mainstream, Sen. Hagenbuch said the move was bipartisan, and no one made it political.

“I believe the senators that I know did, including some of the Democrats, just looked at it for its value, didn’t necessarily look at it as a political thing, but rather, is this a good asset for the state to invest in, for the people. The only reason I can see why it would be political is simply if someone, you know, there are some democrats or liberals who just, everything Donald Trump, President Trump, likes, they don’t like, just for that very reason. That may have been a reason. The only reason I can think of is that it would be a political thing, probably if it were a democrat,” Sen. Hagenbuch said.

Skeptics of the bill and cryptocurrency cite a lack of federal regulation surrounding crypto. As an advocate of the bill, Sen. Hagenbuch said he disagrees.

“There wasn’t anyone behind the scenes that I heard saying, ‘Well, we want to somehow help the crypto industry.’ That’s not it at all. We assessed that this is a wise thing to do for the people to put part of their investments into this at this point. I think it’s smart that the state of Texas takes its time. We didn’t want to be a leader jumping into Bitcoin necessarily. We wanted to do it at a time we thought was prudent. We thought this was good timing,” Sen. Hagenbuch.

Texas is the third state to install a cryptocurrency reserve, following New Hampshire and Arizona.

Sen. Hagenbuch said he isn’t sure what the future of cryptocurrency in Texas will be, but he will do his best to look out for the best interests of Texans.

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