West Virginia legislator introduces digital asset reserve bill

West Virginia State Senator Chris Rose has submitted a bill titled The Inflation Protection Act of 2025 to allow the state’s treasury to invest a portion of its holdings into digital assets or precious metals.The bill, submitted on Feb. 14, creates provisions for the West Virginia Treasury to invest in any digital asset with a market capitalization of over $750 billion, including stablecoins.At the time of writing, Bitcoin is the only digital asset that meets the market cap requirement outlined in the proposal.According to the bill, the treasury can only invest 10% of its total funds into digital assets and precious metals. Additionally, the state can hold the assets onchain or through exchange-traded funds (ETFs).Senator Rose’s bill is the latest in a torrent of legislative proposals at the state level to establish Bitcoin or digital asset strategic reserves as a hedge against currency inflation due to structural deficit spending.US states lead the way: Will they front-run the federal government?On Jan. 23, US President Donald Trump commissioned a working group to study the feasibility of a digital asset reserve for the US federal government.Since that time, several US states have introduced, advanced or rewritten legislation to establish digital asset reserves.A bill that would allow the Utah state treasury to invest a portion of its assets into Bitcoin, high-value altcoins and stablecoins passed in the Utah House of Representatives on Feb. 6.The bill has advanced to the Utah Senate, where it must also pass a vote before heading to the governor for final approval.On Feb. 6, Kentucky joined the growing list of US states where digital asset reserve bills have been introduced. The Kentucky bill allows up to 10% of state funds to be allocated to digital assets, including BTC.Michigan became the latest state with a strategic digital asset reserve proposal after Representatives Bryan Posthumus and Ron Robinson introduced the legislation on Feb. 13.Unlike the other bills, the Michigan proposal did not include specific restrictions on the type of digital assets to be included in the reserve.