Texas cities and counties could soon get the green light to put up to $10 million of public money into Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies, under a bill a state lawmaker pre-filed this week. The measure would not force any local government to buy a single coin, but it would open the door for the ones that want to try.
State Rep. Ron Reynolds, a Democrat from Missouri City, pre-filed House Bill 815 on Tuesday, according to CryptoBriefing. As described in the outlet's report, the bill would allow municipalities and counties to invest up to $10 million of their funds in Bitcoin or other crypto assets, with that cap applying separately to each city and county, per TokenPost. The legislation would amend the Texas Public Funds Investment Act and would not limit local-government crypto holdings to Bitcoin alone, TokenPost reports.
Nobody would be required to participate. CryptoBriefing's reporting is direct on that point: HB 815 would not force any local government to buy anything. But any city or county that does want in would first have to revise its written investment policy before moving money into digital assets, the same report notes. School districts are excluded from the new authority altogether.
No Committee Yet, and a Narrower Scope Than Last Year's Attempt
The bill has not gotten far in the legislative process. For now, HB 815 has not been assigned to a committee, the outlet's report states. If it does eventually pass and get signed, the new investing authority would not kick in until September 1, 2027.
This isn't Texas's first swing at the idea. In 2025, House Bill 4258 aimed to set broader provisions covering state funds, but it did not pass, according to the same account. TokenPost describes HB 815 as a narrower version of that earlier, failed effort, this time focused on municipal and county money rather than state funds.
Missing Guardrails From the State's Bitcoin Reserve Law
Where HB 815 differs most from Texas's existing crypto framework is in what it leaves out. The new bill leaves out some of the safeguards built into the state's strategic Bitcoin reserve law, including a market cap threshold and custody regulations, per the CryptoBriefing report. It also lacks rules on how losses would be handled, the outlet notes.
That reserve law, Senate Bill 21, set a high bar for which coins the state itself could hold. An analysis of the legislation posted by the Texas Legislature describes a requirement that Bitcoin or other cryptocurrency purchased for the reserve carry an average market capitalization of at least $500 billion over the most recent 12-month period. HB 815 would not import that threshold, nor the custody rules that came with it, for the cities and counties it covers.
With no committee hearing scheduled and the earlier HB 4258 having already stalled out last year, HB 815's path through the Texas Legislature remains an open question. For now, the bill stands as a pre-filed proposal — one that would hand local elected officials a new financial option, minus the state-level guardrails attached to Texas's own Bitcoin holdings.
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