The Bitcoin bill in Utah has been passed by the state Senate, but key provisions have been removed

The Bitcoin bill in Utah has been passed by the state Senate, but the core provision of the bill has been removed. This provision would have made Utah the first state in the United States to have its own Bitcoin reserve.

The "HB230 Blockchain and Digital Innovation Amendment" bill now only provides basic custodial protection to Utah citizens, granting them rights to mine Bitcoin, run nodes, and participate in staking. On March 7th, this bill was passed with 19 votes for, 7 against and 3 abstentions. It will next be sent to Utah Governor Spencer Cox for signing into law.

The reserve provision originally authorized the Treasurer of Utah to invest digital assets worth more than $500 billion (Bitcoin is currently the only digital asset that meets this standard) into five state accounts with an investment cap at 5% of this asset's market value.

This reserve clause was approved during a second review but was deleted during a third and final review. Subsequently, The House of Representatives in Utah agreed on this amendment with a vote result of 52 for it, 19 against it and four abstentions.