The Arizona Senate Rules Committee passed the Digital Asset Reserve Fund bill, which will now be submitted to the full Senate for a vote.

PANews reported on February 24 that, according to Decrypt, the Arizona Senate has advanced SB 1649, proposing to establish a "Digital Asset Strategic Reserve Fund" managed by the state treasury. This would authorize the state treasurer to hold, invest in, and lend seized, confiscated, or surrendered digital assets to the state through qualified custodians or regulated exchange-traded products. The bill passed the Senate Finance Committee on February 16 with 4 votes in favor and 2 against, and was approved by the Senate Rules Committee on February 23. It will now be submitted to the full Senate for a vote.

The bill explicitly classifies Bitcoin, XRP, DigiByte, stablecoins, and NFTs as eligible assets, and uses a "cryptocurrency fair value score" to screen other eligible digital assets, based on a 1% benchmark threshold set when Bitcoin reaches $100,000 per coin. The bill emphasizes that related operations must not increase the state's financial risk. SB 1649 must first pass the Senate before being sent to the House of Representatives, and finally to the governor for signature.