The Texas state government has taken a notable step into Bitcoin, purchasing $5 million worth of shares in BlackRock’s spot Bitcoin ETF — with another $5 million slated for a direct, self-custodied Bitcoin buy.
The acquisition was executed on Nov. 20 and publicly flagged on Tuesday by Texas Blockchain Council president Lee Bratcher in a post on X.
According to Bratcher, Texas plans to eventually hold Bitcoin in self-custody. However, since that framework is still being finalized, the initial $5 million allocation was made through BlackRock’s IBIT ETF.
He added that while $10 million has been earmarked from general revenue for Bitcoin exposure, only half of that amount has been deployed so far.
Commenting on Texas’ purchase, Pierre Rochard, the CEO of The Bitcoin Bond Company, said the move signals a significant shift in attitude toward Bitcoin in just a short amount of time, noting:
“In five years we went from ‘governments will ban bitcoin’to ‘governments are only buying a small amount of bitcoin’. Hyperbitcoinization has happened, is happening, and will continue to happen.”
It’s not yet clear whether Texas’ latest Bitcoin purchase is directly tied to the state’s plan to establish a strategic Bitcoin reserve.
In June, Governor Greg Abbott approved the creation of a state-managed fund that will hold Bitcoin as part of Texas’ long-term financial assets, leveraging public funds to build a BTC treasury. Under the bill Abbott signed, only assets with a market capitalization above $500 billion can be included in the reserve — a criterion Bitcoin meets, but BlackRock’s IBIT ETF does not.
Even so, the move marks continued momentum in Texas’ broader Bitcoin adoption strategy. And the state may not stop at Bitcoin.
In October, Texas state senator Charles Schwertner — a co-author of the strategic Bitcoin reserve legislation — told Cointelegraph that Ether could be added next if its market cap surpasses and maintains the $500 billion threshold.
“If Ethereum maintains its market cap over 24 months, I think it’s reasonable and prudent to give direction that Ethereum could be added to the cryptocurrency reserve,” he said.
Texas is not the first state to gain exposure to BlackRock’s Bitcoin ETF. While some observers claimed Texas was breaking new ground, filings show that Wisconsin’s investment board purchased nearly $100 million worth of IBIT shares in May 2024.
Bloomberg senior ETF analyst Eric Balchunas also noted on Tuesday that Texas now joins “Harvard and Abu Dhabi” in recently buying IBIT. “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,” he wrote on X.
Despite the growing institutional and government interest — particularly under the Trump administration this year — IBIT is down roughly 10% year-to-date. At the time of writing, the ETF is priced at $49.56, up just 0.22% in after-hours trading.
