Ohio Strategic Cryptocurrency Reserve Act (H.B. 18)

The introduced bill would amend several sections of the Ohio Revised Code governing public retirement systems and lottery funds and would enact a new section 135.146 addressing state digital-asset investments. In the introduced text, “digital asset” is defined broadly to include virtual currency, cryptocurrency, native electronic assets, stablecoins, non-fungible tokens, and other digital-only assets that confer economic, proprietary, access, or similar rights.

As introduced, H.B. 18 would permit the Ohio Treasurer of State to invest interim moneys from the General Revenue Fund, the Budget Stabilization Fund, and the deferred prizes trust fund in digital assets, subject to statutory limits. The introduced version caps such investments at 10% of the relevant fund balance at the time of investment. It also limits eligible assets to exchange-traded products and to digital assets with an average market capitalization of at least $750 billion over the preceding 12 months, as determined by the Treasurer using a commercially reasonable method.

The introduced text includes detailed custody requirements. A digital asset acquired under proposed section 135.146 would have to be held directly by the Treasurer through a secure custody solution, by a qualified custodian on behalf of the state, or in the form of an exchange-traded product issued by a registered investment company. The bill also would allow the Treasurer to loan acquired digital assets for additional returns only if the Treasurer determines that doing so does not increase financial risk to the applicable fund.

H.B. 18 also addresses state retirement systems. The introduced text adds language to several retirement-system investment statutes stating that nothing in those sections prohibits a board from investing in an exchange-traded product as defined in the proposed reserve statute. The bill does not itself direct a retirement board to purchase a specific digital asset.

The bill was introduced on Jan. 23, 2025, by Rep. Steve Demetriou, with Republican cosponsors Tex Fischer, Mark Johnson, Angela King, Brian Lorenz, Ty Mathews, and Josh Williams. It was referred to the House Technology and Innovation Committee on Jan. 28, 2025. Later tracking materials indicate that the committee accepted a substitute bill on May 27, 2025, amended the bill on Oct. 7, 2025, and held a fifth hearing on Oct. 14, 2025.

Those later materials describe the measure as creating an Ohio Strategic Reserve Fund, permitting the Treasurer to invest interest earnings from certain state funds in digital assets, and naming the bill the Ohio Strategic Reserve Act. Because the public bill text located for this profile still shows the introduced version, editors should verify the latest substitute or amended text before treating any provision as final.

H.B. 18 is a pending bill, not an operative law. It would affect state-level investment authority and public-fund governance if enacted. It does not provide legal, tax, investment, or trading guidance for private market participants.