Texas Rep. Ron Reynolds has filed a bill that would let each city and county invest up to $10 million in Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies, without importing the market-cap restriction used by the state’s Bitcoin reserve.
Summary
- $10 million would be the investment cap for each municipality or county under HB 815.
- School districts are outside the proposed authority, which would take effect Sept. 1, 2027.
- The bill borrows crypto definitions from Texas’ reserve law without its $500 billion eligibility threshold.
- Reynolds previously proposed a $250 million state investment alongside the same local-government allowance.
Texas Legislature Online’s introduced text shows that House Bill 815 would amend the Public Funds Investment Act by adding a section authorizing cryptocurrency investments. Reynolds, a Democrat representing Missouri City, filed the measure on Nov. 9, ahead of the 90th Legislature’s regular session.
The official filing record lists Reynolds as the author and shows no committee referral. The proposal has not become law, and its September 2027 start date depends on passage.
Texas Bitcoin bill sets a separate cap for each local government
The proposed section covers money belonging to a municipality or county, as well as money under its control. Each eligible government could invest up to the stated limit; the bill does not create a single $10 million pool shared across Texas.
Permission would be optional. HB 815 contains no requirement for a city or county to make a purchase, no minimum investment, and no allocation of state money to finance local acquisitions.
Its wording names municipalities and counties specifically. School districts and other public bodies are not included in the new investment authority, even though the Public Funds Investment Act covers public entities beyond city and county governments.
The two-section bill contains the proposed investment permission and its effective date. It does not establish a separate municipal reserve fund or designate particular cryptocurrencies for local portfolios.
State reserve’s $500 billion filter is absent
For its definitions, HB 815 points to Section 403.701 of the Government Code, enacted through Senate Bill 21 in 2025. Bitcoin is defined there as a decentralized cryptocurrency operating through a peer-to-peer network independently of a central authority or bank.
Cryptocurrency receives a more general definition covering virtual currencies secured by cryptography, with transactions recorded on a distributed ledger such as a blockchain.
The enacted reserve law places a separate condition on state reserve purchases: an asset must have averaged at least $500 billion in market capitalization over the preceding 24 months. HB 815 imports the definitions without referencing that eligibility condition.
Consequently, its proposed authorization is not limited to Bitcoin or to assets meeting the state reserve’s size requirement. The text contains no replacement market-cap floor or approved-token list.
Within the state reserve framework, the comptroller may contract with a qualified custodian using secure technologies, including cold storage, and may commission an independent audit. HB 815 contains no corresponding crypto-specific custody or audit provisions.
Reynolds previously sought $250 million from the rainy-day fund
In March 2025, Reynolds introduced HB 4258, which proposed allowing the comptroller to invest up to $250 million from the Economic Stabilization Fund in Bitcoin or another cryptocurrency.
As crypto.news previously reported, the earlier investment proposal included the same $10 million allowance for municipalities and counties. Its introduced version supplied its own crypto definitions and proposed a Sept. 1, 2025 effective date.
The 2025 proposal defined Bitcoin through its decentralized network and described cryptocurrency through cryptography and distributed ledgers. It placed the state investment authority and local investment authority in separate sections, with the $250 million and $10 million limits applying to different public bodies.
HB 815 leaves out the Economic Stabilization Fund provision. Its definition reference points instead to the subsequently enacted state reserve legislation, while retaining the local investment cap.
Texas has pursued custody arrangements for its own reserve
Texas’ state reserve has followed a separate operational process. In November 2025, the state bought BlackRock ETF shares worth $5 million as an interim allocation within its $10 million reserve initiative, according to reporting at the time.
By May 29, 2026, reporting put the reserve’s Bitcoin exposure through BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust at approximately $10 million. A search for custody services sought firms able to buy, hold, manage, and report qualifying assets for the state.
The procurement called for key management, operational controls, and secure storage in the state’s name. It set a planned transition from ETF exposure to directly custodied Bitcoin within 60 days of contract execution and required the selected provider to build a public website displaying reserve holdings and values.
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