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West Virginia State Senator Chris Rose has proposed legislation amending the state’s code to allow the treasury to invest in precious metals, certain digital assets and stablecoins.
In a bill introduced to the West Virginia legislature on Wednesday, Rose <a href="https://www.wvlegislature.gov/Bill_Status/bills_text.cfm?billdoc=sb143%20intr.htm&amp;yr=2026&amp;sesstype=RS&amp;i=143" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">proposed</a> that the state’s Board of Treasury be allowed to invest in precious metals, digital assets with a market capitalization of more than $750 billion from the previous calendar year and stablecoins. The bill, called the Inflation Protection Act, if passed and signed into law, could give the state’s treasury exposure to Bitcoin (<a href="https://cointelegraph.com/bitcoin-price" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">BTC</a>), the only cryptocurrency to meet the market cap requirement as of January.
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 Source: <a href="https://www.wvlegislature.gov/Bill_Text_HTML/2026_SESSIONS/RS/bills/sb143%20intr.pdf" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">West Virginia legislature</a>
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According to the text of the bill, any digital asset acquired by the state’s treasury could be held by a qualified custodian, in an exchange-traded product or through a secure custody solution. Any stablecoins acquired would need to have received regulatory approval from the US government or individual state governments.
Several US states have proposed similar bills allowing the government to invest in Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies. Although many lawmakers introduced legislation in 2025, only Texas, Arizona and New Hampshire passed laws allowing state-level crypto reserves.
Related: <a href="https://cointelegraph.com/news/bank-of-america-interest-bearing-stablecoins-us-banks" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Bank of America CEO warns interest-bearing stablecoins could pull $6T from US banks</a>
It’s unclear as of Thursday whether Rose’s bill will have enough support to pass the West Virginia legislature. Lawmakers referred the bill to the Committee on Banking and Insurance.
<h2 id="strong-us-senate-delays-market-structure-bill-strong">US Senate delays market structure bill</h2>
The West Virginia bill was introduced as lawmakers in the US Senate postponed a markup for legislation to establish digital asset market structure in the United States.
The legislation, called the CLARITY Act, has <a href="https://cointelegraph.com/news/coinbase-ceo-crypto-market-structure-bill-markup" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">received criticism from many industry figures</a> over provisions on decentralized finance, stablecoin rewards, and the role US financial regulators would have in overseeing digital assets.
Magazine: <a href="https://cointelegraph.com/magazine/how-crypto-laws-changed-2025-further-2026/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">How crypto laws changed in 2025 — and how they’ll change in 2026</a>

West Virginia lawmaker introduces bill to allow state crypto investments

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