Bitcoin Magazine
New Hampshire Council Rejects $100 Million Bitcoin-Backed Bond
The New Hampshire Executive Council rejected a plan on Wednesday to authorize a $100 million bond backed by Bitcoin, killing a proposal that state officials had cast as a first-in-the-nation bid to draw digital finance to the Granite State.
The New Hampshire councilors voted 3-2 against it, according to reporting from The Boston Globe.
The New Hampshire Business Finance Authority and Governor Kelly Ayotte had promoted the bond as “groundbreaking” and “historic.” The deal would have stood as the world’s first Bitcoin-backed municipal bond. The plan had cleared Moody’s ratings and reached the Executive Council for its final vote before issuance.
The council did not share that enthusiasm. Karen Liot Hill, the lone Democrat, framed her opposition as caution rather than hostility.
“I’m not opposed to Bitcoin or cryptocurrency in general,” she told The Boston Globe. “But I do think that we are being asked as a state to lend a kind of legitimacy to a financial transaction, which is from … an emerging asset class that has been shown to be very volatile.”
James Key-Wallace, executive director of the Business Finance Authority, disputed the framing. “The only quibble I would have is … I wouldn’t call them ’emerging,'” he said. “They’ve ’emerged.’ They’re here.”
Key-Wallace stressed that the bond carried zero risk for New Hampshire taxpayers. The loan agreement would create a conduit between private investors and a private borrower, with cryptocurrency as collateral.
The state would owe nothing, even in a Bitcoin crash. Should Bitcoin climb across the three-year term, the authority could collect millions in fees for small business, child care, housing, and economic development programs. He said the deal could lead to “several more.”
Ayotte, who last year signed a law giving the state treasurer discretion to invest in Bitcoin and made New Hampshire the first state to pass a strategic Bitcoin reserve into law, defended the value of moving first.
“I think it’s something that we really need to think about,” she said, “because our state continues to thrive when we are continuing to be innovative — and especially if we can do so in a way that protects the taxpayers.”
Liot Hill moved to table the proposal, but no colleague seconded the motion, a silence that sent the plan to its final vote. Janet Stevens and David Wheeler joined her in opposition. Joseph Kenney and John Stephen voted in favor.
Key-Wallace said his team remains excited about the state’s role in the digital asset economy, and he offered to present the idea to the council in the future.
This post New Hampshire Council Rejects $100 Million Bitcoin-Backed Bond first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Micah Zimmerman.
Bitcoin Magazine
New Hampshire’s $100 Million Bitcoin-Backed Bond Faces Final Vote
New Hampshire’s plan to issue what backers call the world’s first Bitcoin-backed municipal bond goes before the state’s Executive Council on Wednesday, the last approval the $100 million project needs before it can move forward, The Boston Globe reported today.
Governor Kelly Ayotte, who has called the effort “historic,” and the five-member council will hold a public hearing Wednesday morning at the request of James Key-Wallace, executive director of the New Hampshire Business Finance Authority.
Key-Wallace asked the council to find the proposal feasible and beneficial to the public and to authorize the quasi-governmental agency to proceed. He has said the model would position the state as “a global leader in responsible crypto finance.”
The structure differs from a conventional municipal bond in a key respect: no public money is at stake. Rather than the government repaying investors, a private borrower does. The borrower is CleanSpark, a Bitcoin mining company that posts Bitcoin as collateral.
Bond payments are funded from proceeds tied to that collateral, and investors gain upside exposure through additional payments linked to Bitcoin price appreciation. If the price falls below a set threshold, a trust holding the collateral can be liquidated to repay bondholders in full.
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Digital asset firm Wave Digital Assets is set to administer the transaction, while BitGo would serve as custodian, holding the Bitcoin in regulated cold storage.
Moody’s has noted that “no public funds of the State of New Hampshire or any political subdivision thereof may be used to pay amounts under the rated bonds.”
The idea is part of a broader push to draw blockchain business to New Hampshire, a state that in 2025 became the first to pass a strategic Bitcoin reserve law. Supporters argue the bond gives the Business Finance Authority a revenue stream to fund its investment programs without exposing taxpayers to Bitcoin’s price swings.
That volatility remains the central concern. Because the three-year bond relies on a fluctuating asset as collateral, a downturn could trigger an automatic liquidation before the term ends.
Documents Key-Wallace submitted to the council argue the state is shielded because the loan agreement creates a conduit between private investors and a private borrower, with the cryptocurrency serving as collateral rather than any government guarantee.
Ratings reflect the risk. Moody’s assigned the bonds a provisional “Ba2” rating — two notches below investment grade — labeling them speculative with substantial credit risk, a tier often described as “junk.” Keith Ammon, a Republican state representative active in the state’s crypto policy, told the Granite State News Collaborative that the rating “makes sense” as a cautious starting point given the novelty involved.
Outside analysts have raised further questions. David Krause, an emeritus finance professor at Marquette University, examined the plan and found that recent Bitcoin price movements would be “highly likely” to trigger the liquidation provision, according to The Boston Globe.
While the state would be “legally insulated from direct financial liability,” Krause wrote, introducing so volatile a form of collateral challenges the transparency, predictability, and stability that municipal finance has historically emphasized, and shielding the state from liability does not remove reputational risk.
“While the bond may serve as a proof of concept for integrating digital assets into structured finance, it is not well suited as a general-purpose public finance tool,” he concluded.
A vote in favor Wednesday would clear the Business Finance Authority to issue the bond.
This post New Hampshire’s $100 Million Bitcoin-Backed Bond Faces Final Vote first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Micah Zimmerman.
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