North Carolina lawmakers have introduced bills in the House and Senate that could see the state’s treasurer allocate up to 5% of various state retirement funds into cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin.
The Investment Modernization Act (House Bill 506), introduced by Representative Brenden Jones on March 24, would create an independent investment authority under the state’s Treasury to determine which digital assets could be suitable for inclusion into the state retirement funds.
An identical bill, the State Investment Modernization Act (Senate Bill 709), was introduced into the state’s Senate on March 25.
The bills define a digital asset as a cryptocurrency, stablecoin, non-fungible token (NFT), or any other asset that is electronic in nature that confers economic, proprietary or access rights.
The North Carolina bills don’t set market cap criteria for digital assets, unlike other crypto bills that are working their way into law at the state level.
The newly created agency, dubbed the North Carolina Investment Authority, would, however, need to carefully weigh the risk and reward profile of each digital asset and ensure the funds are maintained in a secure custody solution.
Bitcoin legislation tracker Bitcoin Laws noted on X that House Bill 506 wasn’t drafted as a Bitcoin reserve bill as it does not mandate the investment authority to hold Bitcoin (BTC) — or any digital asset — over the long term.
North Carolina wants in on Bitcoin bill race
On March 18, North Carolina senators introduced the Bitcoin Reserve and Investment Act (Senate Bill 327), which calls for the treasurer to allocate up to 10% of public funds specifically into Bitcoin.
The bill — introduced by Republicans Todd Johnson, Brad Overcash and Timothy Moffitt — aims to leverage Bitcoin investment as a “financial innovation strategy” to strengthen North Carolina’s economic standing.
The treasurer would need to ensure that the Bitcoin is stored in a multi-signature cold storage wallet, and the BTC could only be liquidated during a “severe financial crisis,” with approval from two-thirds of North Carolina’s General Assembly.
The bill would also create a Bitcoin Economic Advisory Board to oversee the reserve’s management.
According to Bitcoin Law, 41 Bitcoin reserve bills have been introduced at the state level in 23 states, and 35 of those 41 bills remain live.
Earlier this month, US President Donald Trump signed an executive order to create a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve and a Digital Asset Stockpile, both of which will initially use cryptocurrency forfeited in government criminal cases.
The New York State Attorney General’s (NAYG) recent legal action against Galaxy Digital over its promotional ties to the now-collapsed cryptocurrency Terra (LUNA) was unfair and an abuse of the legal system, says SkyBridge Capital and founder Anthony Scaramucci.
“It’s LAWFARE, pure and simple due to an obscure but dangerously powerful New York law known as the Martin Act,” Scaramucci said in a March 28 X post.
Martin Law can “open the door for abuse”
“The law has no need to prove intent, creating a low standard of proof that can open the door for abuse like this. It shouldn’t exist,” he said.
New York’s Martin Act is one of the US’s strictest anti-fraud and securities laws, allowing prosecutors the power to pursue financial fraud cases without needing to prove intent. The NAYG alleged that Galaxy Digital violated the Martin Act over its alleged promotion of Terra, with Galaxy Digital agreeing to a $200 million settlement.
According to NAYG documents filed on March 24, Galaxy Digital acquired 18.5 million LUNA tokens at a 30% discount in October 2020, then promoted them before selling them without abiding by disclosure rules.
Scaramucci reiterated that Galaxy CEO Michael Novogratz was under the impression everything he was saying about Luna was true, as he had been deceived by Terraform Labs and its former CEO, Do Kwon.
The filing alleged that Galaxy helped a “little-known” token, referring to LUNA, increase its market price from $0.31 in October 2020 to $119.18 in April 2022 while “profiting in the hundreds of millions of dollars.”
Asset manager and investor Anthony Pompliano said he isn’t familiar with the details of the lawsuit but vouched for Novogratz, calling him a “good man” who has devoted a lot of time and money to helping others.
The Terra collapse is one of the crypto industry’s most infamous failures. In March 2024, SEC attorney Devon Staren said in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York that Terra was a “house of cards” that collapsed for investors in 2022.
Billionaire investor Elon Musk has sold his social media platform X to his AI startup xAI, sparking controversy as it coincides with a US judge rejecting his bid to dismiss a lawsuit tied to the social media platform.
The transfer of ownership of X to xAI on March 28 means that the class-action lawsuit against Musk — accusing him of defrauding former Twitter shareholders by delaying the disclosure of his initial investment in the social media platform — has become “a whole lot spicer,” Cinneamhain Ventures partner Adam Cochran said in a March 28 X post.
Acquisition may open up xAI to more ‘exposure’
On the same day that Musk said “xAI has acquired X in an all-stock transaction,” a US judge reportedly rejected Musk’s attempt to dismiss the lawsuit. Cochran said it has “opened up his AI entity to exposure here too, and it’s a much bigger pie.”
Musk said the deal values xAI at $80 billion and X at $33 billion, factoring in $12 billion in debt from the $45 billion valuation. He originally bought X, formerly Twitter, for around $44 billion in April 2022.
“xAI and X’s futures are intertwined. Today, we officially take the step to combine the data, models, compute, distribution and talent,” Musk said.
“This combination will unlock immense potential by blending xAI’s advanced AI capability and expertise with X’s massive reach,” he said, adding:
“This will allow us to build a platform that doesn’t just reflect the world but actively accelerates human progress.”
However, Cochran claimed that “Musk used his pumped up xAI stock to pay multiple times over value for X, but still take an $11B loss on the transaction.” He said that Musk is “screwing over xAI investors, and X investors” and was executed to sell user data to xAI.
xAI is best known for its AI chatbot “Grok” which is built into the X platform. When Musk released it in November 2023, he claimed it could outperform OpenAI’s first iteration of ChatGPT in several academic tests.
Musk explained at the time that the motivation behind building Grok is to create AI tools equipped to assist humanity by empowering research and innovation.
While Cochran said that Grok being valued at $80 billion is an “insanely dumb valuation,” crypto developer “Keef” disagrees. Keef said, “This is shady all around, but given the day, Grok is genuinely probably the top model for various tasks.”
Five Democratic lawmakers in the US Senate have called on leadership at regulatory agencies to consider the potential conflicts of interest from a stablecoin launched by World Liberty Financial (WLFI), the crypto firm backed by US President Donald Trump’s family.
In a March 28 letter from the US Senate Banking Committee, Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren and four other Democrats asked the Federal Reserve’s committee chair on supervision and regulation, Michelle Bowman, and acting comptroller of the currency, Rodney Hood, how they intended to regulate WLFI and its stablecoin, USD1.
The letter came as members of Congress are considering legislation to regulate stablecoins through the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for US Stablecoins, or GENIUS Act. The bill, if signed into law, would essentially allow the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) and Federal Reserve to oversee stablecoin regulation, including for issuers like WLFI and its USD1 coin.
Trump also signed an executive order in February attempting to have all federal agencies — purportedly including the OCC — “regularly consult with and coordinate policies and priorities” with White House officials, giving the US president unprecedented control.
“President Trump’s involvement in this venture, as he strips financial regulators of their independence and Congress simultaneously considers stablecoin legislation, presents an extraordinary conflict of interest that could create unprecedented risks to our financial system and to the integrity of decisions made by the [Fed and OCC],” said the letter, adding:
“The launch of a stablecoin directly tied to a sitting President who stands to benefit financially from the stablecoin’s success presents unprecedented risks to our financial system.”
Since World Liberty launched in September 2024 — months before the US election and Trump’s inauguration — many of the firm’s goals have been shrouded in secrecy. The project’s website notes that Trump and some of his family members control 60% of the company’s equity interests.
As of March 14, World Liberty had completed two public token sales, netting the company a combined $550 million. On March 24, the project confirmed launching its first stablecoin on the BNB Chain and Ethereum. The president’s son, Donald Trump Jr., also pitched USD1 from the DC Blockchain Summit on March 26 with three of WLFI’s co-founders.