North Carolina’s House of Representatives passed a crypto investment bill that would allow the state treasurer to invest 5% of state investments into approved cryptocurrencies.
According to the official site, the House passed North Carolina’s Digital Assets Investment Act, or House Bill 92 on its third reading on April 30 with a vote of 71 to 44. The crypto investment bill is now headed towards the Senate for approval or rejection before it can be passed into legislation.
HB 92 was first introduced in February this year by Republican House Speaker Destin Hall. The crypto investment bill would allow the state treasure to invest government funds into digital assets that fulfill certain requirements.
First, the digital asset must be in the form of an exchange-traded product or ETP. Second, the average market cap for the crypto asset must be at least $750 billion within the span of a year, as determined by the state treasurer using commercially reasonable methods.
Additionally, the crypto investment bill stipulates the state treasurer can only invest in digital assets after obtaining an independent third-party assessment confirming that the crypto holdings are maintained under a secure custody solution.
The crypto asset should also abide by regulatory compliance standards and risk oversight.
Amendments made to the crypto investment bill’s draft have also ensured that the treasurer may be allowed to assess the feasibility of letting members of retirement and deferred compensation plans to elect to invest in digital assets in the form of exchange-traded products.
Earlier in April, North Carolina representatives introduced another bill that would allow the use of crypto assets for tax payments as well as other economic transactions. Similar to its predecessor, HB 92, the draft lists down a series of requirements that chosen crypto assets have to fulfill in order to be eligible for tax payments and other economic transactions.
So far, Arizona has become the first state to come close to passing crypto draft bills into law. Though, North Carolina seems to be running second in the race.
On April 28, Arizona’s House approved two legislation, SB 1025 and SB 1373, which propose different methods for establishing a Strategic Bitcoin (BTC) Reserve. However, the fate of both bills are yet to be decided by Governor Katie Hobbs.
