The Arizona State Legislature has advanced a bill to create a Digital Assets Strategic Reserve fund that would hold seized or surrendered cryptocurrencies including bitcoin, XRP and Digibyte.
The proposal, which passed the Senate Finance Committee in a 4–2 vote, would establish a reserve comprising digital assets confiscated or surrendered to the state and held through a qualified custodian or exchange-traded product structure.
“Virtual assets and cryptocurrency or native on-chain assets that meet the cryptocurrency fair value score of one percent of the digital gold standard benchmark, including bitcoin, Digibyte, XRP, stablecoins, non-fungible tokens, and any other digital-only assets that confer economic, proprietary, or access rights or powers,”
According to the SB 1649 factsheet.
Under the bill, the State Treasurer would have discretion to invest monies deposited into the fund and could loan out digital assets provided such transactions do not increase the state’s financial risk profile.
The legislation introduces selection metrics including market capitalisation, network activity, annual transaction value and a “network power source” measure designed to assess decentralisation and security, addressing prior concerns about volatility and risk.
The push follows a 2025 veto by Katie Hobbs of a separate measure that would have allowed up to 10% of state treasury and retirement funds to be invested in cryptocurrencies, which she described at the time as “untested.”
The bill now heads to the full Senate, though observers note a high veto risk if the executive branch views the strategic reserve as exceeding the more conservative unclaimed property framework adopted in 2025.
At the time of reporting, XRP price was $1.36.