Texas Just Became the First U.S. State to Officially Stack Sats: $10M Strategic Bitcoin Reserve Launched with BlackRock IBIT

In a historic move, Texas has kicked off America’s first state-level Strategic Bitcoin Reserve by deploying the initial $5 million tranche into BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) on November 20, 2025. Authorized under Senate Bill 21 (the Texas Strategic Bitcoin Reserve Act), the Lone Star State is allocating a total of $10 million of public funds to Bitcoin as a long-term strategic asset. The purchase of IBIT shares serves as an immediate, regulated “placeholder” that gives the Texas Comptroller’s office clean exposure to Bitcoin’s price while the state finalizes its direct self-custody infrastructure.

State officials chose BlackRock’s spot Bitcoin ETF as the bridge solution because it operates fully within existing U.S. securities laws and public-fund investment guidelines, eliminating the regulatory and operational hurdles of holding actual BTC from day one. Once the ongoing request-for-proposal process selects a qualified on-chain custodian and the mandated security, auditing, and liquidity frameworks are in place, Texas plans to rotate the second $5 million tranche—and potentially the first—into direct, self-custodied Bitcoin, fulfilling the full spirit of SB 21.

This pioneering step positions Bitcoin alongside gold and other traditional reserve assets in a major U.S. state treasury, explicitly framing it as an inflation hedge and portfolio diversifier. By establishing a clear precedent, Texas’ action is already being watched by lawmakers in at least a dozen other states and could accelerate institutional and sovereign adoption worldwide—especially as IBIT continues to attract universities, pension funds, and now government entities seeking compliant Bitcoin exposure.