- Oklahoma’s Strategic Bitcoin Reserve bill passed a committee vote, moving the state closer to holding Bitcoin as a financial safeguard.
- Bitcoin’s price fell to $86,099, leading to $1.06 billion in liquidations and heavy outflows from ETFs and crypto stocks.
The Oklahoma House recently approved Michele Carlisle’s bill 12-2 in a House committee in support of Bitcoin adoption, labelled as Strategic Bitcoin Reserve (SBR). One of the provisions of this bill is to require the state to purposefully accumulate Bitcoin for financial security.
In a recent tweet, Satoshi Action Fund CEO Dennis Porter revealed that the bill had been passed on February 25. This proposal was led and supported by Republican Representative Cody Maynard, who made an argument that Oklahoma should prepare its financial future through Bitcoin reserves.
BIG BREAKING: ‘Strategic Bitcoin Reserve’ passes out of committee in Oklahoma with a vote count of 12-2.
Thank you to the leadership by @CodyMaynard15 who carried the SBR bill. pic.twitter.com/jC7bhVbVuB
— Dennis Porter (@Dennis_Porter_) February 25, 2025
This stands in contrast to other Bitcoin reserve bills, which have been proposed in Montana and North Dakota and failed. According to Porter, the challenges in institutional Bitcoin adoption, but he noted that great legislative success is unique.
The initiative is in harmony with other recent federal endeavours to incorporate Bitcoin into related economic strategies. Senator Cynthia Lummis has introduced the Bitcoin Act at the federal level to the Trump administration to influence the regulation of digital assets. Other states have also come up with similar bills, such as Pennsylvania, which shows the rising trend in the procurement of Bitcoins all over the country.
Bitcoin Faces Market Decline
As lawmakers in Oklahoma passed Bitcoin legislation, Bitcoin’s value plunged to $86,099, wiping $1.06 billion from the crypto space. Long positions accounted for $873 million in losses.
Data from Coinglass on February 26 states that in the past 24 hours, 230,000 merchants have been closed, and the open positions decreased by 5%. Exchange inflows were up 14.2%, indicating panic selling. Also, funding rates were in the red, implying that bearish sentiment is on the rise.
Following the trend, Bitcoin ETFs posted substantial redemptions and recorded a weekly outflow of $1.1 billion in five days. For instance, on February 24, ETFs experienced a net outflow of $516 million. Crypto stocks were down as well, with Coinbase’s stock price decreasing by 6.4%, while Robinhood’s, Bitcoin miners Bitdeer, and Marathon Digital fell by 29% and 9%, respectively.
According to IntoTheBlock on-chain, about 12% of Bitcoin addresses are still operating at a loss, the highest since October 2024 in terms of realized loss. Currently, there are many investors who purchased at the $108,000 peak, meaning that they are trapped, and such traders are likely to sell off the inventory.
With Bitcoin briefly dropping below $90k, roughly 12% of all Bitcoin addresses are holding at a loss.
This is the highest unrealized loss percentage since October 2024 pic.twitter.com/pngLz4G4wc
— IntoTheBlock (@intotheblock) February 25, 2025
Why has Bitcoin been Unstable?
Macroeconomic instability has been a factor in Bitcoin’s decline. President Donald Trump’s tariff on Canadian and Mexican imports is currently causing significant concerns about inflation and stagnated economic growth. Also, trade tensions between the US and China regarding semiconductor restrictions have impacted and reduced investors’ confidence.
Traditional markets have also not been immune to the declines, with the Nasdaq Composite shrinking by 2.8% and the S&P 500 losing 2.1%. The increase in the U.S. Dollar Index conveys a safer-haven demand, adding pressure to BTC.
