Florida lawmakers are advancing a proposal that will enable the state to create a strategic cryptocurrency reserve, narrowing earlier efforts to a framework that will successfully restrict holdings to bitcoin.
In keeping with Florida’s legislative information, Senate Invoice (SB) 1038, sponsored by Republican Senator Joe Gruters, was filed on Dec. 30 and was referred to the Appropriations Committee on Agriculture, Setting, and Common Authorities on Wednesday, the place it should clear hearings and votes earlier than advancing to the Senate ground.
The invoice would set up a Florida Strategic Cryptocurrency Reserve, managed by the state’s chief monetary officer (CFO), which might enable the workplace to buy, maintain, handle, and liquidate cryptocurrency beneath a normal just like these governing public belief belongings.
Whereas the laws doesn’t explicitly title Bitcoin (BTC), it restricts eligible purchases to crypto that maintained a median market cap of a minimum of $500 billion within the final two years, a threshold that solely Bitcoin meets.
A Senate-led try after broader efforts stalled
The brand new Senate proposal follows and considerably diverges from Florida’s earlier makes an attempt to authorize state-level crypto investments.
On Oct. 17, 2025, Republican Social gathering Consultant Webster Barnaby filed Home Invoice (HB) 183, which sought to permit the state and sure public entities to take a position as much as 10% of their funds in a broad vary of digital belongings, together with Bitcoin, crypto exchange-traded merchandise (ETPs), crypto securities, non-fungible tokens (NFTs), and different blockchain-based merchandise.
HB 183 was a revised model of HB 487, which was withdrawn in June after failing to advance out of a Home operations subcommittee. Whereas Barnaby’s revised proposal added stricter custody, documentation, and fiduciary requirements, the broad asset scope and potential publicity of pension and belief funds confronted pushback from lawmakers.
In contrast, SB 1038 removes pension and retirement funds completely and locations oversight immediately beneath the CFO by means of a standalone reserve construction.
Its market-cap eligibility rule mirrors approaches adopted in states like New Hampshire and Texas, each of which have enacted extra narrowly outlined Bitcoin reserve frameworks in 2025.
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What’s subsequent within the legislative course of?
SB 1038 is contingent on a companion laws establishing the required trust-fund mechanics for the reserve. This implies it can’t take impact until associated payments are additionally enacted throughout the identical legislative session.
A Home companion measure, HB 1039, was additionally filed, signaling coordinated Senate and Home backing.
If the laws advances, the CFO could be mandated to submit studies to legislative leaders beginning in December 2026, detailing the reserve’s holdings, worth, and administration actions.
Whether or not the proposal advances will rely on whether or not lawmakers view the narrower, bitcoin-focused construction as sufficiently distinct from earlier efforts that failed to realize traction.
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