Texas reportedly kicks off state bitcoin reserve with $5 million IBIT purchase: ‘More wild stuff’

Texas may have the first leg off the starting line in the race to put bitcoin on state balance sheets.

The state reportedly executed its first allocation to its Texas Strategic Bitcoin Reserve, according to posts from the Texas Blockchain Council indicating a roughly $5 million purchase of BlackRock’s IBIT last week.

The reported transaction appears to be the first deployment of funds authorized under SB 21, the law enacted by Governor Greg Abbott in June that created a state-managed bitcoin reserve operated by the Texas Treasury Safekeeping Trust Company.

Lawmakers backing SB 21 framed the reserve as a way for Texas to treat bitcoin alongside other long-term assets. Bill author Sen. Charles Schwertner said earlier this year that the state "should have the option of evaluating the best performing asset over the last 10 years," a reference to bitcoin's long-run returns even if the asset hasn't consistently held that title in more recent periods.

Texas Blockchain Council president Lee Bratcher tweeted that the purchase occurred on Nov. 20, describing it as both the reserve's first allocation and the first bitcoin buy by a U.S. state. State officials have not yet released documentation or statements confirming the transaction.

The Block has reached out to Texas Treasurer Kelly Hancock, who oversees the reserve, as well as Bratcher, but did not immediately receive a response.

As of its most recent Form 13F, the Texas Treasury Safekeeping Trust Company reported about $667 million in SPY and $34 million in a Janus Henderson fund. If Bratcher’s description holds, a $5 million IBIT purchase — part of a $10 million bitcoin allocation — would become the third line in that portfolio.

This month, an Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund added to its IBIT while Harvard reported holding nearly seven million shares of IBIT as of Sept. 30 — its largest declared U.S. holding.

"Pretty sure that's the only ETF to ever be owned by all three. More wild stuff for a not-yet-even-two-years-old fund," Bloomberg senior ETF analyst Eric Balchunas said Tuesday in a post on X.