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On Wednesday, the Alabama House Ways and Means General Fund Committee opted to put off votes on HB482 and HB484 until a future meeting.
Part of a package of three bills introduced by Rep. Mike Shaw, R-Hoover, earlier this month, both pieces of legislation would significantly increase Alabama’s financial and infrastructural ties to cryptocurrencies and the blockchain.
HB482, Shaw explained to the committee, “lets the state treasurer invest strategically—I hesitate to use the word invest—it lets them purchase strategically cryptocurrencies and crypto assets.”
Subject to some restrictions meant to ensure cryptocurrency is stored in a relatively safe manner, the bill would enable the treasurer to invest “any monies otherwise available to the State Treasurer for investment in digital assets,” up to a ten percent limit.
“This bill is very much modeled after Ohio,” Shaw said, noting that similar pieces of legislation are often called strategic reserve bills.
He was likely referring to a bill introduced in March by Republican Ohio state Rep. Steve Demetriou. According to reporting by the Ohio Capital Journal, Demetriou’s proposal also places a ten percent limit on investments in crypto and has similar restrictions on how digital assets would have to be safely stored.
Questioned by Rep. Brett Easterbrook, R-Fruitdale, what specific assets the bill covers, Shaw said it would allow investment in “Bitcoin, Ethereum, things like that, or the ETFs that trade in those currencies.”
“Isn’t that pretty risky for the state to be investing in?” asked Easterbrook.
Shaw responded by describing cryptocurrency as a useful hedge against a potential collapse in the dollar.
“We don’t know what’s going to happen with the dollar,” he told the other representative. “[HB482] puts the option in the treasurer’s hand if they see fit to invest and put money in some of these currencies as a hedge, or again as a strategic plan.”
Bitcoin and similar assets have frequently been lauded for their potential ability to protect investors from falls in the value of USD, but their prices are highly volatile and fluctuations are often closely connected to the price of tech stocks.
Rep. Andy Whitt, R-Harvest, argued that even Bitcoin, the highest market cap and most heavily traded cryptocurrency, is far too volatile for the state to significantly invest in.
“December the 31st, 2024, committee members, it was valued at $93,429,” Whitt stated. “January 23rd, 2025, it hit $103,000. On April 8th, it was back down to $77,371.”
“My problem is I think Treasurer Boozer, in the conversations I’ve had with him, is that he would not utilize this,” he told Shaw and his fellow committee members. “I think Treasurer Boozer is one of the most conservative state treasurers, and he’s an example for the nation in my opinion. My concern is what comes down the road ten years from now.”
A representative of the state treasurer’s office informed APR that Boozer does not have an official statement on HB482.
“I completely understand the ability that you’re wanting to diversify your portfolio to get the highest rate of return,” Whitt concluded. “But I don’t want to risk the state’s money.”
Where HB482 would increase the state’s financial ties to cryptocurrency, HB484 would increase the integration of Alabama’s financial infrastructure with crypto technologies by setting a deadline of 2030 for the Alabama Comptroller to begin publishing all public expenditures over $1,000 on a public blockchain.
“The value in this, without getting too geeked out about it, is it puts all the information out there in a readable way and then third parties can analyze it,” Shaw explained.
However, the Alabama Department of Finance already produces monthly and annual financial reports, as well as a “digital checkbook,” which are all made publicly available and easily searchable on the Comptroller’s Office website. It’s unclear what benefit publishing the same information on a blockchain would provide.
Shaw also described a state managed public blockchain as a way to replace traditional advertising requirements for public meetings and contracts.
“You can put meeting announcements, all of that, in a way you wouldn’t have to, I don’t want to upset some of our local press, but in a way that you wouldn’t have to advertise in newspapers,” he said. The state Senate is already considering unrelated legislation that would let local governments advertise on a traditional state managed website instead of in local papers.
Following the recommendations of Committee Chair Rep. Rex Reynolds, R-Huntsville, both HB482 and HB484 were carried over to a future meeting to allow for additional consideration and deliberation.
The third part of Shaw’s crypto-related legislative triad, HB483, was favorably reported by the committee yesterday. If signed into law, it would exempt “virtual currencies,” defined as “digital representation of value, other than a representation of the United States dollar or a foreign currency, that functions as a unit of account, a store of value, or a medium of exchange,” from property, or ad valorem, taxes.
“I think roughly 20 percent of Alabamians own crypto assets of some sort,” Shaw said. “This gives them some certainty about the future, also signals to the world that we’re looking at crypto and we’re implementing policy through legislation, not just rule-making.”
Before the bill was favorably reported, Reynolds noted that cryptocurrencies are currently viewed by Alabama as intangible personal property and as such are typically not subject to ad valorem taxation.
