{"id":70859,"date":"2025-05-05T17:23:07","date_gmt":"2025-05-05T21:23:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/statescoop.com\/?p=70859"},"modified":"2025-05-05T21:01:14","modified_gmt":"2025-05-06T01:01:14","slug":"arizona-katie-hobbs-bitcoin-reserve","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/statescoop.com\/arizona-katie-hobbs-bitcoin-reserve\/","title":{"rendered":"Arizona governor vetoes state bitcoin reserve"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs on Friday vetoed legislation that would have placed as much as 10% of the state\u2019s funds in cryptocurrency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In <a href=\"https:\/\/www.azleg.gov\/govlettr\/57leg\/1r\/sb1025.pdf\">a letter Friday<\/a> to Warren Petersen, the Republican president of the Arizona Senate, Hobbs dismissed the idea.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThe Arizona State Retirement System is one of the strongest in the nation because it makes sound and informed investments,\u201d wrote Hobbs, a Democrat. \u201cArizonans&#8217; retirement funds are not the place for the state to try untested investments like virtual currenc\u0443.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/legiscan.com\/AZ\/text\/SB1025\/id\/3120386\">The legislation<\/a>, sponsored by Sen. Wendy Rogers and Rep. Jeff Weninger, both Republicans, would have created the first state-run &#8220;strategic&#8221; bitcoin reserve. The idea has gained favor with some Republicans since President Donald Trump last March <a href=\"https:\/\/www.whitehouse.gov\/presidential-actions\/2025\/03\/establishment-of-the-strategic-bitcoin-reserve-and-united-states-digital-asset-stockpile\/\">ordered creation<\/a> of a federal Strategic Bitcoin Reserve.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>After the Arizona House\u2019s vote last week, Weninger said the legislation would not require creation of such a reserve, but give the state treasurer the option to invest in \u201cprobably mainly bitcoin, but other things, as well.\u201d He counted roughly 15 other states that are considering similar legislation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Hobbs\u2019 veto aligns with the reputation of most state governments to be conservative in their administration of public services and taxpayer funds. Bitcoin is roughly three times more volatile than the commodities asset class, and more than 10 times more volatile than the total bond market, according to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fidelitydigitalassets.com\/research-and-insights\/closer-look-bitcoins-volatility\">one analysis<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Some local governments, including New York and Miami, have experimented not with cryptocurrency reserves, but creating their own tokens as a means of generating supplementary income. The cryptocurrency exchange OKcoin in 2023 <a href=\"https:\/\/statescoop.com\/citycoins-suspended-trading-miamicoin-nyccoin\/\">suspended trading<\/a> of the so-called CityCoins, citing their \u201climited liquidity.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Some <a href=\"https:\/\/statescoop.com\/new-york-mayor-eric-adams-paycheck-cryptocurrency-bitcoin\/\">governors<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/statescoop.com\/miami-crypto-concierge-paycheck-bitcoin\/\">mayors<\/a> have also in recent years accepted their own paychecks in bitcoin \u2014 or immediately converted the U.S. dollars from their paychecks into cryptocurrency \u2014 usually a publicity stunt designed to court crypto companies that might settle in their states or cities.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs said Arizonans&#8217; retirement funds are &#8220;not the place for the state to try untested investments.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":205,"featured_media":70860,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"disable_grayscale_images":true,"grayscale_contrast":0,"sponsored_content":false,"display_author_bio":true,"story_type":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4677],"tags":[38,381,3973,25131,25557,25590,25591,25592,25593],"people":[],"special-report":[],"authors":[4696],"class_list":["post-70859","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-state","tag-governor","tag-arizona","tag-state-government","tag-technology-news","tag-crypto-news","tag-bitcoin-reserve","tag-state-bitcoin-reserve","tag-strategic-bitcoin-reserve","tag-katie-hobbs","author-colin-wood"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v24.5 (Yoast SEO v24.5) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Arizona governor vetoes state bitcoin reserve | StateScoop<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs said Arizonans&#039; retirement funds are &quot;not the place for the state to try untested investments.&quot;\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/statescoop.com\/arizona-katie-hobbs-bitcoin-reserve\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Arizona governor vetoes state bitcoin reserve | StateScoop\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs said Arizonans&#039; retirement funds are &quot;not the place for the state to try untested investments.&quot;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/statescoop.com\/arizona-katie-hobbs-bitcoin-reserve\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"StateScoop\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/StateScoop\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-05-05T21:23:07+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-05-06T01:01:14+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/statescoop.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2025\/05\/GettyImages-2182331759.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1300\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"878\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Colin Wood\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@State_Scoop\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@State_Scoop\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/statescoop.com\/arizona-katie-hobbs-bitcoin-reserve\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/statescoop.com\/arizona-katie-hobbs-bitcoin-reserve\/\",\"name\":\"Arizona governor vetoes state bitcoin reserve | StateScoop\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/statescoop.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/statescoop.com\/arizona-katie-hobbs-bitcoin-reserve\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/statescoop.com\/arizona-katie-hobbs-bitcoin-reserve\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/statescoop.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2025\/05\/GettyImages-2182331759.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-05-05T21:23:07+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-05-06T01:01:14+00:00\",\"description\":\"Arizona Gov. 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