OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla. — The State of Oklahoma may soon be allowed to invest in the digital cryptocurrency Bitcoin and have its own stockpile.
A bill allowing the state to have Bitcoin cleared its first legislative hurdle Tuesday, but opponents did have concerns of their own.
“House Bill 1203 will allow our state to invest in Bitcoin which is the best performing asset of the last decade,” said Representative Cody Maynard (R).
House Bill 1203 by Durant Republican Cody Maynard allows for the State Treasurer’s Office and financial managers to invest in Bitcoin, both when it comes to state savings accounts and pension funds.
There is a cap on how much the state can spend on Bitcoin and Bitcoin Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs), making it impossible for the state to throw every dollar into cryptocurrency and gamble with it.
“This does not require an investment,” said Maynard. “It merely allows it at the discretion of our fund managers and makes sure they cannot allocate more than ten percent.”
Oklahoma is one of five states currently looking to own and do business with Bitcoin while the Trump Administration looks to write new regulations and allow for Americans to use it as an alternative form of money to the U.S. dollar.
“If they are investing ten percent, and we’re not seeing the returns we believe we should be getting, or we are losing, do we have safeguards as a legislature to pull that back?” asked Representative Jared Deck (D).
Democrats in committee who voted against the bill are concerned that Bitcoin’s value is too volatile and all over the place.
Sometimes gaining and losing thousands of dollars in just a matter of days or hours.
They’reworried the state, and its fund managers will invest in something and then its value will drop, leading to a loss to taxpayers and people on state retirement plans.
“Bitcoin is doing well now, but if you look back over the last five years, it is still very volatile,” said Representative Suzanne Schreiber (D).
Maynard said to not look at the short term chart but to look at the long term growth in value to see that Bitcoin is a real asset with real value and it is predicted to grow more.
“Where we are at today is that Bitcoin is a two trillion-dollar asset,” said Maynard. “To give you a gauge, that is more than the [amount of] silver in the world.”
Because of the new way the Oklahoma House passes bills, House Bill 1203 now goes to another committee for review by a different group of lawmakers because it goes to the full house for a vote.
The bill does have a State Senate sponsor who will carry it there if it makes it to the senate.