14th February 2025 > > CFTC, Texas, & Michigan.

tl;dr

The CFTC is going full-on crypto. It seems that Texas and Michigan are of a like mind.

Market Snap

Market Wrap

That’s four straight days of outflows from the spot BTC ETFs.

Curious Cryptos’ Commentary – CFTC

Yesterday the CCC reported that “Brian Quintenz, the head of policy at Andreessen Horowitz’s (a16z) crypto division, is being lined up to head up CFTC (Commodities and Futures Trading Commission).”

Brian has now been officially nominated by Trump to lead this agency that will likely be responsible for regulating BTC and ETH, which between them total approximately 80% of the entire market capitalisation of the crypto world.

Brian’s pro-crypto credentials are in no doubt, but he has burnished them with this comment on X following his official nomination (emphasis all mine):

“It is my great honor to be nominated by President @realDonaldTrump as the next Chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, where I had served as a Commissioner in his last administration. The @CFTC plays a critical role in maintaining robust hedging and price discovery markets that are the envy of the globe. The agency is also well poised to ensure the USA leads the world in blockchain technology and innovation. I look forward to working with President Trump’s incredible financial regulatory team.”

The US crypto regulatory revolution is well underway, to the benefit of all crypto investors. The rest of the world (with the probable exception of the UK, though I am hopeful that that may change under the new government, because it certainly wasn’t going to with the Conservatives in power) will soon be fast playing catch-up with all those juicy tax-dollars on offer for politicians to fritter away.

Curious Cryptos’ Commentary – Texas

Two days ago, Texas state Senator Charles Schwertner refiled an amended bill to create a strategic BTC reserve:

https://capitol.texas.gov/BillLookup/History.aspx?LegSess=89R&Bill=SB21

Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick has designated this bill “as one of the Senate’s top 40 priority bills” suggesting that rapid progress might be made on this new initiative, which is very exciting.

So, that’s 19 US states actively debating the prospect of creating a strategic BTC reserve. Oh no, wait, here comes another one.

Curious Cryptos’ Commentary – Michigan

Michigan’s state pension fund is already ahead of the game with investments in spot BTC and spot ETH ETFs. Now the state itself wants to get involved.

Yesterday, Bryan Posthumus (that is an unfortunate surname) and Ron Robinson introduced a bill to amend the state’s Management and Budget Act to establish a strategic Bitcoin reserve. Bryan explains:

“Michigan can and should join Texas in leading on crypto policy by signing into law my bill creating the Michigan Crypto Strategic Reserve.”

You can see the bill here:

https://legislature.mi.gov/Bills/Bill?ObjectName=2025-HB-4087

Twenty US states are now gearing up to buy BTC. How many more will join them?