HB 1695, the Tennessee Strategic Bitcoin Reserve Act, was a Tennessee House bill in the 2025-2026 114th General Assembly that would have amended Tennessee Code Annotated, Title 9, Chapter 4 to create a state Bitcoin reserve framework. As of June 12, 2026, the measure was not enacted. The House bill was filed on January 15, 2026, introduced on January 21, and its last House action was being taken off notice in the House Finance, Ways and Means Subcommittee on April 15. The regular session later adjourned sine die on April 23, leaving the proposal without enactment.
Purpose of the Tennessee Strategic Bitcoin Reserve Act
The bill framed Bitcoin as a decentralized digital commodity with limited supply and continuous global liquidity. Its findings stated that inflation can reduce the purchasing power of state-held assets in the general fund, revenue fluctuation reserve, and other investment pools. The operative intent was permissive rather than mandatory: the bill would have authorized the Tennessee State Treasurer to allocate a limited portion of eligible state funds to Bitcoin, subject to custody, security, and reporting safeguards.
Key provisions for Tennessee public funds
- Eligible funds: The treasurer could invest money from the general fund, the revenue fluctuation reserve, or another state fund expressly designated by the General Assembly.
- Allocation caps: Bitcoin holdings could not exceed 10% of each eligible fund's total assets at the time of purchase. Annual acquisitions would have been capped at 5% of a fund's assets until the 10% ceiling was reached.
- Bitcoin-only scope: The bill stated that it would not authorize investment of public funds in any digital asset, digital commodity, or cryptocurrency other than Bitcoin.
- Holding routes: Bitcoin could be held directly by the state through a secure custody solution, by a qualified custodian on the state's behalf, or through a Bitcoin-only exchange-traded product.
Custody, reporting, and payment provisions
HB1695 included detailed custody requirements for a state-level crypto reserve bill. A secure custody solution would have needed encrypted, offline hardware in at least two geographically distinct facilities, encrypted access channels, multi-party transaction authorization, role-based access controls, immutable audit logs, annual third-party code review and penetration testing, and disaster-recovery testing. The treasurer also would have been required to design an internal self-custody procedure by July 1, 2028 and hold at least 10% of aggregate state-owned Bitcoin through that procedure once operational.
The reporting section would have required the treasurer to publish and transmit a report by October 1 of each even-numbered year. The report would have covered Bitcoin quantities, U.S. dollar value at acquisition and at period end, purchases, sales, transfers, realized gains or income, and cryptographic proof sufficient for third parties to verify on-chain balances. The bill also would have allowed the treasurer to create a voluntary program to accept Bitcoin for state taxes, fees, or other obligations, with received Bitcoin transferred to the general fund at prevailing market value and the collecting agency credited in U.S. dollars.
Status and implementation timeline
Because HB1695 did not pass both chambers and was not enacted, its proposed July 1, 2026 effective date did not become operative. The companion Senate measure, SB2639, advanced further procedurally by receiving a Senate Commerce and Labor Committee recommendation, but it also did not become law. For this House-focused profile, the canonical status is mapped as Expired, with the ACF legislative stage marked as dead, because the 114th General Assembly adjourned before enactment.
Fiscal review context
The Tennessee Fiscal Review Committee estimated that implementation would have increased General Fund expenditures by $3.216 million in FY2026-27 and $1.716 million in FY2027-28 and subsequent years. The fiscal note also stated that the amount and timing of Bitcoin investments, and the participation of payers or agencies in any Bitcoin payment program, could not be reasonably estimated. Those estimates are included as legislative context and do not indicate that the bill became law.