Not too long ago bitcoin and crypto were the targets of hostile attacks by the US government at different levels. Remember SEC under Gary Gensler's leadership? Remember operations chock point 2.0? Remember exchanges shutting down business in the US and moving overseas? It may seem this all happened ages ago. Yet all these shenanigans are very recent. Time has passed, and thing are different, and the future for bitcoin and crypto seems to be promising once again. The beauty of bitcoin and decentralize systems is that the success was inevitable, however gradual it may be. Resistance would only slow things down, acceptance and clarity would only accelerate the transformation.
Today not only we see hostility towards bitcoin and crypto decreased, we witness interest by the government entities to take action and be part of this journey. At the federal level, president Donald Trump signed an executive order establishing strategic bitcoin reserve. It may not involve buying more bitcoins by the government yet, but it guarantees that bitcoins the US government already has will be in this fund, and potentially used to pay off portions of the government debt in the future. This was a significant move that made perfect sense. It didn't require any extra actions, nor did it require spending any money. This also sent a signal to other governments around the world, and to the states within the country.
We knew many lawmakers in dozens of states were interested in introducing bitcoin friendly legislature, and potentially creating strategic bitcoin reserves at the state levels. This is already happening. Earlier this month, New Hampshire passed a bitcoin bill that will allow the state to invest up to 5% of public funds in bitcoin and precious metals. This law doesn't limit investing public funds only to bitcoin. It also allows the state to invest in other crypto assets with a market cap of higher than $500 billion. Currently, only bitcoin would qualify. But in the future other major coins may become options to invest as well. The law has already been signed and will go into effect in July, 2025.
New Hampshire may be the leading the way in implementing a strategy of investing in bitcoin. However, it is not the only one that will end up with bitcoin in their funds. Arizona has approved a similar bill next day after New Hampshire did. Arizona's law is slightly different. Its bitcoin and digital assets reserve fund will allow the state to manage unclaimed crypto assets, but it doesn't allow use of public funds to acquire additional bitcoins or other coins. It may not be the greatest bitcoin law, but things are moving in the right direction, and over time we may see interest in investing in bitcoin and crypto as well.
There are many other states that are working bitcoin strategic reserve bills. Among them are Texas, Utah, Michigan, Kentucky, Florida, Illinois, Ohio, Oklahoma, and West Virginia. The progress in each state is at different levels. But the discussions are happening, more and more lawmakers starting to see the benefits of having bitcoin as a strategic reserve, and/or opening up the funds to invest in such assets. There are also states that have rejected similar bills for now. They are North Dakota, Montana, and Wyoming. Not all bills pass through the state legislature at the first try. Sometimes, bills go through of reprocessing, renegotiating and may be introduced in the future again. The fact that bitcoin is being seriously considered at these levels is already a win.
I strongly believe many pension funds could benefit from investing in bitcoin. Among the biggest pension funds are the ones for government employees. If states allow the public pension funds to invest in bitcoin, this will lead for private pension funds to consider taking similar steps as well. Usually pension funds invest in stocks and bonds. Perhaps bonds are more favored among pension funds because they take more conservative approach to investment. This also results in modest returns as well. Successful pension funds may be a solid solution for failing social security system. If public and private pension funds become the best investments of workers, they may be no need to rely on payments from social security. Bitcoin seems to be an obvious option. At the very least allocating 5-10% of funds into bitcoin, may have significant impact in the growth of the funds and preservation of value for stakeholders.
Every action towards bitcoin friendly future by governments at various levels leads to more interest in the asset, and may result in a self-fulfilling prophecy of appreciating in value due to the scarcity of the bitcoin. We are slowly approaching to a moment when there will only be one million bitcoins left to be mined. Considering how many funds exist in the US, and around the world, there isn't enough bitcoins for all pension funds. This is not even considering the corporate interest in the asset. While we already have some interest by companies to invest in bitcoin, public funds investments will probably have bigger impact, and really accelerate adoption of similar strategies by companies.
There are several companies that are trying to copy Strategy's blueprint. Some are implementing the exact same strategy, other trying create altered strategies with the same goal. Competition is alway healthy for the markets, and it will only be positive for bitcoin. Success of bitcoin will result in bright future for other decentralized solutions and their coins as well. This year will probably mark a beginning of a new era in bitcoin and crypto's history. In the meantime we will continue monitoring the charts and predicting the candle moves.
Isn't it amazing how $100k for a bitcoin is a norm now? It has become a norm for May, it has become a norm for this year. Only few years ago many were in disbelief when bitcoiners were predicting this price point. How long will it take for $1 million for a bitcoin to become a norm? Same bitcoin have been telling us about $1 million bitcoin for a while now. There are those who won't hesitate to say that bitcoin will be valued in tens of millions of dollars. It may just be a matter of time. Utilizing bitcoin as a store of value seems to be the way to go for now. I am sure we will see other use cases as well globally and daily.