Wyoming Governor Mark Gordon distanced himself Wednesday from a failed effort by legislators in his state to establish a Bitcoin reserve, emphasizing he’s focused on more practical crypto initiatives.
“Wyoming has been pretty methodical in how we approach this,” Gordon told Decrypt at the DC Blockchain Summit. “Bitcoin has been incredibly volatile.”
“It’s been a bit of a learning curve,” he added, regarding legislators’ approach to bold initiatives like the Bitcoin reserve.
Back in January, Wyoming joined a wave of other states in weighing the prospect of using public funds to purchase large sums of Bitcoin as strategic investments. Last month, however, a bill on the subject failed overwhelmingly to pass out of committee in the Republican-dominated state.
As Gordon sees it, political and market tailwinds have recently shifted overwhelmingly in the crypto industry’s favor—a development he supports.
But at the same time, the remarkable bullishness of the current moment has led some to try to catch a multi-trillion-dollar wave, he said, instead of building common-sense blockchain products first.
“It’s great that the climate has changed—it opens a lot of doors,” the governor said. “But what can we make sure works? As opposed to [saying] ‘Holy cow, let’s just go all in.’”
To that effect, Gordon doubled down Wednesday on his commitment to launching a state-backed stablecoin in Wyoming.
Earlier onstage at the DC Blockchain Summit, he suggested the token, WYST, which is currently in testing, could be ready to launch as soon as July.
To Gordon, WYST is the exact sort of crypto-related project Wyoming should be focused on, given the clear benefits he believes it offers citizens of his state: flexibility and security, plus an interest generated on the token’s Treasury reserves that will fund the state’s school system.
“We’re anxious to make sure the product we have works and is transparent,” Gordon said. “People can have faith in it, and then it becomes useful, and then we can expand from there.”
When President Donald Trump ordered the creation of a federal Strategic Bitcoin Reserve earlier this month via executive order, the move was hailed both in the crypto industry and Republican circles.
And yet, in recent weeks, numerous deep-red states have soundly rejected proposals to establish state-level Bitcoin reserves.
A potentially crucial difference between the federal and state proposals is that some form of Trump’s national Bitcoin reserve already exists, thanks to the billions of dollars worth of Bitcoin seized over the years by the federal government.
State proposals, on the other hand, would require the purchase of new Bitcoin with public funds—a bolder gambit.
Earlier this month, Sen. Cynthia Lummis (R-WY) introduced a bill that would see the U.S. government purchase some $80 billion worth of additional Bitcoin to bolster its reserves. The plan has yet to be explicitly endorsed by the White House.
Edited by Sebastian Sinclair
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