Texas Makes Surprise Bitcoin Play With $10M Allocation

Texas has purchased $5 million worth of shares in BlackRock’s spot Bitcoin ETF (IBIT). It has also set aside another $5 million for a direct Bitcoin buy once its custody framework is ready. The move, made on Nov. 20, was shared by Lee Bratcher, head of the Texas Blockchain Council, on X.

Bratcher said the state plans to hold Bitcoin directly in the future. But because its storage process is still being built, the first half of the planned amount went into BlackRock’s IBIT fund. He added that $10 million has been approved from general revenue, though only half has been deployed so far.

Texas Steps Toward a Long-Term Bitcoin Reserve

Pierre Rochard, CEO of The Bitcoin Bond Company, pointed out how quickly attitudes around Bitcoin have shifted. He noted that fears of government crackdowns have faded, replaced by governments adding BTC to their balance sheets.

Texas had already laid out a blueprint for a long-term BTC reserve earlier this year. In June, Governor Greg Abbott approved a plan to create a state-run fund that would hold Bitcoin as part of Texas’s long-range financial pool. Under the bill, only assets with a market cap above $500 billion qualify, a threshold that Bitcoin clears.

BlackRock’s ETF does not meet that requirement. However, the purchase is still being viewed as an early move toward the state’s broader digital asset strategy. With the custody system still in progress, the ETF buy serves as a temporary bridge until the self-managed reserve is ready.

Other States and Institutions Have Moved First

Lawmakers in Texas have hinted that Bitcoin might not be the only asset under review. In October, state Senator Charles Schwertner said Ether could be added if its market cap rises above $500 billion and holds that level for two years. He argued that such a condition would give the state enough confidence to consider ETH for the reserve.

Despite posts online claiming Texas is the first to take this route, records show Wisconsin’s investment board bought nearly $100 million of IBIT shares in May 2024. The US state now joins Harvard and Abu Dhabi as recent buyers of BlackRock’s BTC fund, an unusual mix for an ETF that is not yet two years old.

IBIT is down roughly 10% for the year, even as federal officials move toward wider acceptance of Bitcoin in 2025.