Massachusetts H.5255 is a pending House bill in the 194th General Court titled An Act allowing for fiscal resilience through authorization of strategic investment in stable digital financial assets. The measure would create a proposed Chapter 64O of the Massachusetts General Laws, titled Taxation and Investment in Digital Financial Assets. As of June 11, 2026, the bill remains in committee after the Joint Committee on Revenue reported a favorable new draft and referred it to the House Committee on Ways and Means on March 18, 2026.
The proposal is part of a broader set of Massachusetts digital-asset bills but is narrower than a comprehensive licensing regime. Its central focus is public-fund investment authority, custody, and tax treatment for digital financial assets. The bill should be read as proposed legislation only; it has not been enacted and the text states that its operative section would take effect only upon enactment.
Key provisions of Massachusetts H.5255
Public-fund Bitcoin investment authority
H.5255 would authorize the state treasurer to invest public funds in Bitcoin from specified accounts, including the General Fund, the Commonwealth Stabilization Fund, the State Retiree Benefits Trust Fund, and other state funds requested by the treasurer and approved by the General Court. The bill would cap such investment at 10% of the total public funds in the applicable account.
Stated policy intent for digital financial assets
The bill’s intent section states that Massachusetts would permit the inclusion of Bitcoin and other stable digital financial assets as stores of value and potential inflation hedges for state funds. It also references public pension funds and frames the proposal around economic security, financial resilience, and flexibility in public investment decisions.
Definition and tax treatment
The proposed definition of “digital financial asset” is broad. It covers digital representations of value recorded on a cryptographically secured distributed ledger, including virtual currencies, cryptocurrencies, stablecoins, non-fungible tokens, and other exclusively digital assets that confer economic, proprietary, access, or similar rights. For specified taxation purposes, the bill states that digital assets would be treated as cash equivalents.
Custody and exchange-traded product options
Digital assets acquired by the listed funds would have to be held directly by the state treasurer through a secure custody solution, by a qualified custodian on behalf of the state, or through an exchange-traded product issued by a registered investment company. The bill defines secure custody with requirements for government-controlled private-key access, encrypted channels, geographically diversified secure data centers, multi-party governance, logging, disaster recovery, code audits, and penetration testing.
Status and legislative timeline
H.5255 is a committee bill that replaced H.3279, an earlier petition by Rep. Christopher J. Worrell concerning taxation and investment in digital financial assets. H.3279 was referred to the Joint Committee on Revenue in February 2025, had hearing activity in 2025, and was accompanied by the new draft H.5255 on March 18, 2026.
The March 18, 2026 H.5255 text states that the Revenue Committee recommended the bill “ought to pass.” Legislative trackers and the Massachusetts source listing identify the current pending committee as House Ways and Means. No enacted date, effective date, floor vote, or governor action was found in the reviewed sources.
Jurisdictional impact
For CryptoSlate reference purposes, H.5255 is best classified as a Massachusetts state bill covering government crypto holdings, custody, taxation and reporting, and the regulatory perimeter for digital financial assets. It does not appear to create a consumer-facing licensing system for exchanges, wallet providers, or digital-asset businesses. The bill is most relevant to public finance, state treasury policy, digital-asset custody, and Bitcoin reserve proposals at the state level.
This profile is informational and should not be read as legal, tax, investment, or compliance advice.