Two strategic digital asset reserve bills in Arizona cleared Arizona’s House Rules Committee on March 24 and are now headed to the House floor for a full vote.
The bills together, if passed into law, would clear the way for Arizona to establish strategic digital assets reserves composed of existing assets confiscated through criminal proceedings in addition to newly invested public funds.
The Republicans hold a 33-27 majority in Arizona’s House of Representatives, giving both bills a decent chance of passing.
However, according to Bitcoin Laws, the final hurdle could be the state’s Democratic governor, Katie Hobbs. Hobbs has a history of vetoing bills before the House, having blocked 22% of bills in 2024 — the highest rate of any state governor.
Arizona’s two crypto bills explained
The two bills recently approved by Arizona’s House Rules Committee are the Strategic Digital Assets Reserve Bill (SB 1373) and the Arizona Strategic Bitcoin Reserve Act (SB 1025).
The Strategic Digital Assets Reserve Bill (SB 1373) focuses on establishing a strategic digital assets reserve made up of digital assets seized through criminal proceedings to be managed by the state’s treasurer.
The treasurer would be limited to investing no more than 10% of the fund’s total value each fiscal year. However, they would also be able to loan the fund’s assets in order to increase returns, provided that doing so doesn’t increase financial risks.
The Arizona Strategic Bitcoin Reserve Act (SB 1025) specifically deals with Bitcoin (BTC). The bill proposes allowing Arizona’s Treasury and state retirement system to invest up to 10% of its available funds into Bitcoin.
Additionally, SB 1025 would also allow for the state’s Bitcoin reserve to be stored in a secure, segregated account inside a federal Bitcoin reserve, should one be established.
While Arizona is now considered to be leading the race to establish a state-based digital asset reserve, several other states are hot on its heels.
On March 6, the Texas Senate passed the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve Bill (SB-21) by a vote of 25-5. The Texan bill still needs to pass the House and get the governor’s signature to pass into law. Following this vote, a new bill was introduced by Democrat Representative Ron Reynolds to cap the size of the previously uncapped reserve to $250 million.
Utah also recently passed Bitcoin legislation, but all references to the establishment of a strategic reserve were removed at the last moment.
Meanwhile, the Oklahoma House passed its Bitcoin Reserve Bill HB1203, 77-15 on March 25. That bill will now head to the state’s senate.
Massachusetts’ securities regulator has reportedly launched a probe over Robinhood’s prediction markets offering that has allowed users to bet on the outcomes for a slew of events, including basketball tournaments.
Reuters reported on March 24 that Massachusetts Secretary of State Bill Galvin said his office subpoenaed Robinhood last week to get information on its marketing materials and the number of Massachusetts-based users that traded sports events contracts on college basketball tournaments.
Galvin said he was concerned the trading platform was “linking a gambling event on a popular sports event that’s especially popular to young people to a brokerage account.”
“This is just another gimmick from a company that’s very good at gimmicks to lure investors away from sound investing,” he added.
Robinhood launched a prediction markets hub on March 17 that would be initially available through the Commodity Futures Trading Commission-regulated prediction platform Kalshi and would feature event contracts on college basketball tournaments and the May federal funds rate.
A Robinhood spokesperson told Cointelegraph that the event contracts “are regulated by the CFTC and offered through CFTC-registered entities.”
“Prediction markets have become increasingly relevant for retail and institutional investors alike, and we’re proud to be one of the first platforms to offer these products to retail customers in a safe and regulated manner,” the spokesperson said.
Robinhood Markets (HOOD) share price remained relatively flat after the close of trading on March 24 after an over 9% jump over the day to close at $48.36, according to Google Finance.
Robinhood is up nearly 30% so far this year but has fallen from its Feb. 14 all-time peak of $65.28. Source: Google Finance
The CFTC and Galvin’s office did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Event contracts are agreements that allow users to bet on the outcome of essentially anything, from sports games to election outcomes and the price of cryptocurrencies.
They were popularized on the blockchain-based prediction market Polymarket and non-decentralized rival Kalshi and have caught the ire of some regulators.
Last month, Robinhood scrapped event contracts allowing for bets on the Super Bowl a day after launching the products after the CFTC asked it to.
The Massachusetts probe also requested Robinhood hand over internal communications about the decision to roll out the recent college basketball events contracts after the CFTC’s request to stop the Super Bowl contracts.
The CFTC also reportedly asked Kalshi and Crypto.com early last month to explain how both of their Super Bowl event contracts complied with derivatives regulations.
Circle said it will officially launch its stablecoin in Japan on March 26 after one of its local partners received regulatory approval to list the US dollar stablecoin three weeks ago.
USDC (USDC) will first be listed on the “SBI VC Trade” crypto exchange under a joint venture between its parent firm — Japanese financial conglomerate SBI Holdings — and Circle’s Japanese entity Circle Japan KK, Circle said in a March 24 statement.
The news comes three weeks after SBI VC Trade secured an industry-first regulatory approval on March 4 to list USDC under the Japan Financial Services Agency’s stablecoin regulatory framework.
Circle is also looking to list USDC on Binance Japan, bitbank and bitFlyer in the near future.
Japan’s bitbank and bitFlyer are two of the country’s largest crypto exchanges, having processed more than $25 million each over the last day with over 1.85 million visits to their websites in the last month.
The regulatory approval comes after two years of back-and-forth negotiations with regulators, banking partners and industry players, Circle’s Jeremy Allaire said in a March 24 X post.
“[This] unlocks tremendous opportunities not just in trading digital assets, but more broadly in payments, cross border finance and commerce, FX,” he added.
SBI Holdings CEO and president Yoshitaka Kitao said the USDC launch would enhance financial accessibility and drive crypto innovation in Japan’s evolving digital economy.
“[This aligns] with our broader vision for the future of payments and blockchain-based finance in Japan.”
Meanwhile, USDC and Circle’s euro-backed EURC (EURC) stablecoin were recognized as the first stablecoins under the Dubai Financial Services Authority’s new regime on Feb. 24.
The recognition allows companies operating in the Dubai International Financial Centre — a free economic zone — to integrate the two stablecoins into a range of digital asset applications, including payments, treasury management and services.
Trump Media has signed a non-binding agreement with Crypto.com to launch a series of exchange-traded funds in the US.
Trump Technology Group Corp (TMTG) — the operator of the social media platform Truth Social and fintech brand Truth.Fi — is also part of the agreement, which is subject to regulatory approval, according to a March 24 statement from Trump Media.
The parties plan to launch the ETFs later this year through Crypto.com’s broker-dealer, Foris Capital US LLC. The ETFs will consist of digital assets and securities with a “Made in America” focus.
Crypto.com will provide the infrastructure and custody services to supply the cryptocurrencies for the ETFs, which may include a basket of tokens, including Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH), Solana (SOL), XRP (XRP) and Cronos (CRO).
The parties involved expect the ETFs to be widely available internationally, including in the US, Europe and Asia across existing brokerage platforms.
”Once launched, these ETFs will be available on the Crypto.com App for our more than 140 million users around the world,” Crypto.com co-founder and CEO Kris Marszalek said.
The ETFs are anticipated to launch alongside a slate of Truth.Fi Separately Managed Accounts (SMA), which TMTG also plans to invest in with its cash reserves.
The potential ETF launch would mark yet another crypto-related endeavor involving US President Donald Trump.
However, Democratic lawmakers say that conflicts of interest have already arisen between Trump’s presidential duties and the Trump Organization’s ownership of the crypto platform, World Liberty Financial, in addition to the Official Trump (TRUMP) memecoin that launched three days before he was inaugurated.
House Representative Gerald Connolly recently referred to the TRUMP token as a “money grab” that has allowed Trump-linked entities to cash in on over $100 million worth of trading fees.
Democrat Maxine Waters also criticized Trump’s memecoin on Jan. 20, referring to it as a rug pull that represented the “worst of crypto.”
OpenAI released updates Monday for Advanced Voice Mode, its AI voice feature that enables real-time conversations in ChatGPT, to make the AI assistant more personable and interrupt users less frequently. Manuka Stratta, an OpenAI post-training researcher, announced the changes in a video posted Monday to the company’s official social media channels. OpenAI’s latest update aims […]
The Arc Prize Foundation, a nonprofit co-founded by prominent AI researcher François Chollet, announced in a blog post on Monday that it has created a new, challenging test to measure the general intelligence of leading AI models. So far, the new test, called ARC-AGI-2, has stumped most models. “Reasoning” AI models like OpenAI’s o1-pro and […]
Earlier this year, DeepSeek briefly crashed Nvidia’s stock because of speculation that its models require far fewer chips. Now, Chinese fintech giant Ant Group, which is backed by Alibaba founder Jack Ma, is claiming a major AI breakthrough. Ant was able to use Chinese chips made by Alibaba and Huawei to create methods that cut […]
Last year, AI-powered sales automation startup 11x appeared to be on an explosive growth trajectory. However, nearly two dozen sources — including investors and current and former employees — told TechCrunch that the company has experienced financial struggles, largely of its own making. Numerous people in the U.S. and U.K. told TechCrunch that the situation […]
Vertical farming company Plenty has filed for bankruptcy, the company said in a press release on Monday. In its statement, Plenty said it has received a commitment for $20.7 million in debtor-in-possession financing as part of a proposed restructuring plan. It plans to continue to operate a strawberry farm in Virginia and a plant science […]
This is today’s edition of The Download, our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what’s going on in the world of technology.
Why handing over total control to AI agents would be a huge mistake
—Margaret Mitchell, Avijit Ghosh, Sasha Luccioni, Giada Pistilli all work for Hugging Face, an open source AI company.
AI agents have set the tech industry abuzz. Unlike chatbots, these groundbreaking new systems can navigate multiple applications to execute complex tasks, like scheduling meetings or shopping online, in response to simple user commands. As agents become more capable, a crucial question emerges: How much control are we willing to surrender, and at what cost?
The promise is compelling. Who doesn’t want assistance with cumbersome work or tasks there’s no time for? But this vision for AI agents brings significant risks that might be overlooked in the rush toward greater autonomy. In fact, our research suggests that agent development could be on the cusp of a very serious misstep. Read the full story.
OpenAI has released its first research into how using ChatGPT affects people’s emotional wellbeing
OpenAI says over 400 million people use ChatGPT every week. But how does interacting with it affect us? Does it make us more or less lonely?
These are some of the questions OpenAI set out to investigate, in partnership with the MIT Media Lab, in a pair of new studies. They found that while only a small subset of users engage emotionally with ChatGPT, there are some intriguing differences between how men and women respond to using the chatbot. They also found that participants who trusted and “bonded” with ChatGPT more were likelier than others to be lonely, and to rely on it more.
Chatbots powered by large language models are still a nascent technology, and difficult to study. That’s why this kind of research is an important first step toward greater insight into ChatGPT’s impact on us, which could help AI platforms enable safer and healthier interactions. Read the full story.
—Rhiannon Williams
The must-reads
I’ve combed the internet to find you today’s most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology.
1 Genetic testing firm 23andMe has filed for bankruptcy protection Following months of uncertainty over its future. (CNN) + Tens of millions of people’s genetic data could soon belong to a new owner. (WSJ $) + How to… delete your 23andMe data. (MIT Technology Review)
2 Europe wants to lessen its reliance of US cloud giants But that’s easier said than done. (Wired $)
3 Anduril is considering opening a drone factory in the UK Europe is poised to invest heavily in defense—and Anduril wants in. (Bloomberg $) + The company recently signed a major drone contract with the UK government. (Insider $) + We saw a demo of the new AI system powering Anduril’s vision for war. (MIT Technology Review)
4 Bird flu has been detected in a sheep in the UK It’s the first known instance of the virus infecting a sheep. (FT $) + But the UK is yet to report any transmission to humans. (Reuters) + How the US is preparing for a potential bird flu pandemic. (MIT Technology Review)
5 A tiny town in the Alps has emerged as an ALS hotspot Suggesting that its causes may be more environmental than genetic. (The Atlantic $) + Motor neuron diseases took their voices. AI is bringing them back. (MIT Technology Review)
6 Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost lunar lander has completed its mission And captured some pretty incredible footage along the way. (NYT $) + Europe is finally getting serious about commercial rockets. (MIT Technology Review)
7 How the US could save billions of dollars in wasted energy Ultra tough, multi-pane windows could be the answer. (WSJ $)
8 We need new ways to measure pain Researchers are searching for objective biological indicators to get rid of the guesswork. (WP $) + Brain waves can tell us how much pain someone is in. (MIT Technology Review)
9 What falling in love with an AI could look like It’s unclear whether loving machines could be training grounds for future relationships, or the future of relationships themselves. (New Yorker $) + The AI relationship revolution is already here. (MIT Technology Review)
10 Could you walk in a straight line for hundreds of miles? YouTube’s favorite new challenge isn’t so much arduous as it is inconvenient. (The Guardian)
Quote of the day
“Blockbuster has collapsed. It’s time for Netflix to rise.”
—Kian Sadeghi pitches the company they founded, DNA testing firm Nucleus Genomics, as a replacement for 23andMe in a post on X.
The big story
This town’s mining battle reveals the contentious path to a cleaner future
January 2024
In June last year, Talon, an exploratory mining company, submitted a proposal to Minnesota state regulators to begin digging up as much as 725,000 metric tons of raw ore per year, mainly to unlock the rich and lucrative reserves of high-grade nickel in the bedrock.
Talon is striving to distance itself from the mining industry’s dirty past, portraying its plan as a clean, friendly model of modern mineral extraction. It proclaims the site will help to power a greener future for the US by producing the nickel needed to manufacture batteries for electric cars and trucks, but with low emissions and light environmental impacts.
But as the company has quickly discovered, a lot of locals aren’t eager for major mining operations near their towns. Read the full story.
—James Temple
We can still have nice things
A place for comfort, fun and distraction to brighten up your day. (Got any ideas? Drop me a line or skeet ’em at me.)
+ Who are fandoms for, and who gets to escape into them? + A long-lost Klimt painting of Prince William Nii Nortey Dowuona has gone on display in the Netherlands. + Feeling down? These feel-good movies will pick you right up. + Why Gen Z are dedicated followers of Old Money fashion.
