North Carolina Senate Bill 709, the 2025 State Investment Modernization Act, is an unenacted 2025-2026 bill that would reorganize the State Treasurer’s investment statutes and create the North Carolina Investment Authority. For crypto-law tracking, S 709 is notable because its Senate text would add a new section on “Investments in digital assets,” allowing the proposed Investment Authority to invest designated state funds in digital assets only under board approval and third-party review. As of June 11, 2026, the bill’s recorded status is referral to the Senate Committee on Rules and Operations of the Senate after first reading on March 26, 2025.
Why S 709 matters for digital assets
The bill would define “digital asset” broadly to include virtual currency, cryptocurrency, native electronic assets, stablecoins, nonfungible tokens, and other digital-only assets that confer economic, proprietary, or access rights or powers. That definition would place the proposal in the category of state public-fund crypto investment legislation rather than a licensing, exchange, or consumer-protection bill.
The proposed authority would apply to “designated funds,” cross-referenced to funds described in the General Fund and Highway Funds investment statutes and special funds held by the State Treasurer. The bill therefore concerns government-managed investment portfolios. It does not create private market permissions for crypto firms, change money-transmission rules, or create a general retail-investor framework.
Key crypto-related provisions
- Board approval: The Investment Authority could invest cash of designated funds in digital assets only after approval by its Board of Directors.
- Independent assessment: Approval would depend on a third-party consultant assessment addressing custody, portfolio risk, adverse scenarios, controls, operational robustness, and regulatory compliance.
- Secure custody: The bill defines a secure custody solution as a technological product, or blended product and service, using advanced measures to safeguard private keys and prevent unauthorized access.
- Portfolio cap: Digital-asset investments from any designated fund could not exceed 5% of that fund’s balance during an initial board-set period. The board would review the limit annually and could raise or lower it after that period.
Investment governance context
S 709 is broader than the crypto provision. It would create the North Carolina Investment Authority as an entity within, but independent from the control of, the Department of State Treasurer for organizational, staffing, procurement, and budgetary purposes. The proposed board would include the State Treasurer as an ex officio member and four appointed members. The board’s responsibilities would include investment policy statements, risk budgets, global custodian appointment, annual operating budgets, market-oriented compensation plans, and oversight of investment performance.
Status and companion bill history
S 709 was filed on March 25, 2025, passed first reading, and was referred to Senate Rules on March 26, 2025. The House companion, H506, later became Session Law 2025-6 after Governor Josh Stein signed it on June 13, 2025. However, the H506 committee-substitute history shows the proposed digital-asset investment authority was removed from the companion text before enactment. The enacted session law therefore modernizes North Carolina public-fund investment governance, but it should not be described as an operative crypto-investment authorization.
CryptoSlate editorial classification
For CryptoSlate’s legal-reference taxonomy, S 709 should be tracked as an in-committee state bill with crypto relevance limited to its unenacted Senate text. The companion law is relevant background because it enacted the broader investment-authority framework without the digital-asset section. This distinction matters for readers comparing state-level “strategic reserve” or public-fund crypto bills: S 709 proposed a board-approved investment authority for multiple designated funds, not a standalone Bitcoin reserve mandate. The bill also does not identify a particular token, exchange-traded product, custodian, or acquisition schedule. Readers should treat this profile as legislative tracking, not legal, tax, investment, or trading advice.