Texas has taken another concrete step toward holding Bitcoin directly. The state comptroller’s office said it has formed a five-member advisory committee to guide custody, valuation, and management of the Texas Strategic Bitcoin Reserve, while also opening a search for a crypto custodian to support the program’s next phase.
Right now, the reserve has about $10 million of Bitcoin exposure through BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust, or IBIT. According to the request for proposals, Texas plans to move from ETF exposure to directly held Bitcoin within 60 days of signing a contract. The RFP covers secure custody, liquidity services, and asset management.
Texas names the five people advising the reserve
Acting Comptroller Kelly Hancock will sit on the panel, according to the comptroller’s office. The committee was created under Senate Bill 21, passed by the 89th Texas Legislature and signed into law on June 22, 2025. That law gave the comptroller authority to administer the reserve and created the legal structure for state-level Bitcoin exposure.
In a statement, Hancock said lawmakers had given his office a clear responsibility to manage the reserve with transparency, security, and strong financial controls. He said the committee provides the expertise needed to carry out that work carefully and in the interest of Texas taxpayers.
The other members span investment oversight, mining, law, and corporate finance. Laurie Dotter, chair of the Investment Advisory Board for the Employees’ Retirement System of Texas, brings more than 35 years of experience in investment oversight and governance. Jamie McAvity, founder and CEO of Cormint Data Systems, also joined the panel. Cormint operates a 130-megawatt Bitcoin mining facility in Fort Stockton that the company has described as one of the country’s most efficient mining sites.
The committee also includes Carla Reyes, a law professor at Southern Methodist University who serves on the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s Innovation Advisory Committee and has testified before Congress on blockchain policy. The fifth member is Gary A. Vecchiarelli, CPA and president and CFO of CleanSpark. The comptroller’s office pointed to his work building CleanSpark’s Bitcoin trading desk, yield strategies, and digital asset governance systems.
The custodian search marks a move beyond ETF exposure
The RFP shows that Texas is preparing for a more operational reserve model. The state is not only looking for secure custody of assets, but also for liquidity support and broader asset management functions. That shifts the plan away from indirect market exposure alone and toward direct Bitcoin ownership under a formal custody structure.
The comptroller’s office said the reserve framework centers on direct custody and financial controls, while also leaving room to support additional digital assets over time. On that basis, Texas stands out as one of the more active U.S. states building a formal Bitcoin reserve structure.
Federal Bitcoin reserve efforts are still taking shape
At the federal level, work on a U.S. Strategic Bitcoin Reserve is still developing. President Donald Trump signed an executive order on March 6, 2025, directing the Treasury Department to establish a reserve using Bitcoin already held through criminal and civil forfeitures. The order also barred the Treasury from selling those holdings.
Those forfeiture-linked holdings were estimated at 328,372 BTC, making the U.S. government the largest known state holder of Bitcoin. In January 2026, Patrick Witt, executive director of the President’s Council of Advisors for Digital Assets, said legal issues still needed to be resolved before the federal reserve could be completed. By May 2026, he said a major legal breakthrough had been reached and that an announcement was close.
On Capitol Hill, Senator Cynthia Lummis and Representative Nick Begich have backed the American Reserves Modernization Act. The bill would let the Treasury buy up to 200,000 BTC per year for five years, with a minimum holding period of 20 years. If Congress passes the proposal, the first open-market Treasury Bitcoin purchase is projected for Q4 2026.