Florida bill allows up to 10% in crypto & ETFs
Florida is rebooting its crypto reserve plan. A new Florida House bill allows up to 10% of state and pension funds to hold digital assets and exchange‑traded products, while a companion measure lays out rules for recognized payment stablecoin issuers.
HB 183 expands the earlier, failed attempt by adding stricter custody, documentation and fiduciary standards, and by widening eligible assets beyond Bitcoin to include tokenized securities, ETFs and NFTs. It also authorizes certain taxes and fees to be paid in digital assets, with conversions to dollars on receipt. The effective date in both bills is July 1, 2026.
A parallel bill, HB 175, sets clarified that recognized payment stablecoin issuers with 1:1 reserves in cash or U.S. Treasuries and monthly public reserve attestations need no duplicative state licensing. The pair is designed as rails for both investment demand (reserves, pensions) and routine payments (stablecoins).
Florida joins a growing wave of U.S. states exploring crypto reserves. Three jurisdictions have already moved: New Hampshire permits up to 5% of public funds in large‑cap digital assets; Texas created a Bitcoin‑only reserve; Arizona allows a reserve sourced from unclaimed property. California, meanwhile, just updated how it treats unclaimed crypto to preserve assets in‑kind instead of liquidating first. Florida goes farther by covering pensions, tax payments, and a wider asset base.
Against the federal backdrop, the White House’s “Strategic Bitcoin Reserve” talk has narrowed to seized coins rather than new purchases, but it gave political cover for states to explore reserve frameworks. What will matter now is implementation detail: who the qualified custodians are, how lending/collateral is handled, and how risk controls are enforced for public money.
For markets, passage would add a slow‑but‑steady bid from state treasuries and the pension board into spot Bitcoin, SEC‑registered crypto ETPs and, where policy allows, tokenized securities. A tax‑payment channel introduces incremental flow that cycles through conversion providers and custodians.
Risks are textbook public‑funds issues: meeting fiduciary duty amid volatility, ensuring segregation and control at custodians, avoiding thin‑liquidity instruments, and keeping definitions of “recognized” stablecoins interoperable with other states’ rules. Mismatched regimes could fragment liquidity if Florida’s whitelist diverges from MiCA‑style or other U.S. frameworks.
Near‑term path is procedural. HB 183 awaits committee assignment, then House and Senate votes before the governor’s desk. If it advances largely intact, expect Florida’s State Board of Administration and CFO teams to start vendor RFPs for custody, execution and reporting, and to pilot small allocations via ETFs first. If the bill stalls, momentum may shift back to states already alive, while Florida revises language again next session.
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