New Hampshire Bitcoin bill passes through House committee in a landslide

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A New Hampshire House committee passed the US state’s Bitcoin reserve bill in a 16-1 vote on March 5 — making it the latest US state to send a Bitcoin bill to the House for a full floor vote.

The House Commerce and Consumer Affairs Committee’s passing of House Bill 302 makes it one of seven live US state bills to have made it to the House, according to Bitcoin Laws.

If passed, the bill would allow New Hampshire’s treasurer — at their discretion — to invest 5% from the general fund, the revenue stabilization fund or any other funds authorized by the legislature. 

While Bitcoin (BTC) isn’t specifically mentioned in the bill, only digital assets that have averaged a $500 billion market cap over the last calendar year are eligible for inclusion, meaning Bitcoin is the only digital asset that currently meets this criteria.

Any digital asset acquired must be held by a qualified custodian or in the form of an exchange-traded product.

The bill would also authorize New Hampshire’s treasurer to invest in precious metals like gold, silver and platinum.

The New Hampshire bill was introduced by Republican Keith Ammon on Jan. 10. Ammon’s House Bill 302 was also co-sponsored by Democrats Chris McAleer and Carry Spier.

Source: Dennis Porter

In the March 5 House committee session, Ammon noted the bill was amended to remove stablecoins and the potential for staking. 

He also added that New Hampshire’s Treasurer Monica Mezzapelle has expressed an interest in investing in assets from the bill at some point, should it be passed.

The bill initially proposed that the treasurer could allocate up to 10% of these assets into the selected funds before it was amended to 5%.

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New Hampshire joins North Carolina, Oklahoma and Texas, as the states are now awaiting a full vote from their respective houses, while one Utah and two Arizona bills have already passed that stage.

Race to implement a strategic Bitcoin reserve at the US state level. Source: Bitcoin Laws

Regulatory progress at the state level comes as US President Donald Trump announced a Crypto Strategic Reserve on March 2 that would include Bitcoin, Ether (ETH), XRP (XRP), Solana (SOL) and Cardano (ADA).

However, it would likely be made up almost “entirely of Bitcoin,” Bitwise’s chief investment officer Matt Hougan said on March 5.

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