Wyoming Senator Cynthia Lummis, known as the “Bitcoin Senator,” has identified 2025 as a pivotal year for Bitcoin and crypto, with several proposed policies and key government positions expected to converge and spur change.

“With David Sacks as Crypto Czar, this will be the most pro-digital asset administration ever,”  Lummis wrote on X. “I look forward to working closely with [Sacks] to pass comprehensive digital asset legislation and my strategic bitcoin reserve.”

Earlier this month, Donald Trump appointed venture capitalist Sacks to oversee artificial intelligence and crypto policy initiatives next year.

The President-elect has promised to protect domestic crypto mining interests, shore up regulation, and make the U.S. the “crypto capital” of the world.

On the last two points, Sacks will “work on a legal framework so the crypto industry has the clarity it has been asking for and can thrive in the U.S,” Trump said on December 6.

Lummis’ enthusiasm follows a reshuffle of key government officials, including a new SEC chair, as Trump prepares to re-enter the White House for a second presidential term.

Central to the Senator’s vision is the Boosting Innovation, Technology, and Competitiveness Through Optimized Investment Nationwide Act, also known as the “Bitcoin Act.” 

The legislation proposes the creation of a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve, which she described as “a network of secure storage vaults, purchase program, and other programs to ensure the transparent management of Bitcoin holdings of the federal government.”

The initiative aims to accumulate 1 million Bitcoin—5% of the total supply—over five years. The reserve would be funded by reallocating existing Federal Reserve assets, such as bonds and gold, rather than creating additional debt. 

“This Bitcoin Act is going to be transformative for this country,” Lummis said during her speech at the Bitcoin conference in Nashville four months ago. “With a strategic Bitcoin reserve, we will have an asset that, before 2045, can cut our debt in half.”

The Act also mandates a 20-year holding period for these assets, focusing on a long-term commitment to the asset.

According to Arkham Intelligence data, the U.S. government already holds substantial Bitcoin reserves, estimated at $21 billion, primarily seized through criminal cases. If passed, the Bitcoin Act could integrate these holdings into the strategic reserve.

The federal push mirrors momentum at the state level. Ohio Representative Derek Merrin introduced a bill on Tuesday that would allow the state treasury to invest public funds in Bitcoin. 

Pennsylvania’s legislation, introduced by Representative Mike Cabell, seeks to allocate up to 10% of the state’s treasury reserves to Bitcoin as a hedge against inflation. 

Meanwhile, Texas has proposed funding its reserve through donations and authorizing Bitcoin payments for taxes and fees.

Edited by Sebastian Sinclair

Wyoming refunded $14.2 million in property taxes to state homeowners in 2024, about $6 million more than the statewide relief program doled out in 2023.

The Wyoming Department of Revenue recently reported the 2024 payment totals amounted to a 72% increase, according to WyoFile calculations.

In addition to the dollars refunded, the number of households receiving refunds also increased this year, jumping from 8,818 to 13,485. The 4,667 additional households that applied for and received property tax refunds this year amount to an uptick of about 52% compared to 2023, due in part to changes enacted by lawmakers.

Lawmakers should add $10.5 million to the refund program  through the state’s supplemental budget for next year’s operations, Department of Revenue Director Brenda Henson told the Legislature’s Joint Appropriations Committee last week.

The two-year budget for the program amounted to $20 million. The supplemental budget request would bring the account back up to $16.2 million for 2024 tax year refunds.

“I think there’s always been a need for property tax relief,” Henson, who served as a county assessor for 16 years, told the panel. “The property tax refund program is the only needs-based, income-tested relief program that’s on the books today.

“We believe that that additional $10.5 million will be sufficient to fund refunds for [tax year] 2024.”

The refunds distributed this year were for property taxes paid in 2023. To qualify for a refund, members of a household had to apply and show they met certain income, tax and asset requirements and limits.

The state program is separate from additional county tax refund programs available in 2024 in Albany, Converse, Lincoln, Sublette and Teton counties.

Teton tops another list

Among Wyoming’s 23 counties, Teton County got the largest share of state refund money this year, receiving $2.9 million. The 630 refunds in Teton County averaged $4,666.

Laramie County households received the second largest share of the funds — $2.2 million altogether. The 2,245 refunds, the largest county total, averaged $997.

Park County’s average refund at $1,178 was the second highest after Teton County’s. Those funds went to 1,645 successful applicants.

That Teton County — where staggering incomes and immense property values skew statistics — would receive the largest share of tax breaks raised questions from one lawmaker. Federal data shows the average per capita income for a Teton County resident was $471,751 last year, the highest in the nation.

“Teton County is the highest average dollar refund,” Sen. Jim Anderson, (R-Casper) said at the appropriations meeting. “I would think that wouldn’t be so if [the program] was income-related.”

The tax relief program is designed for home-owning residents, Anderson observed, not for absentee landlords or owners of rental properties — types of housing that may be more common in Teton County’s resort and tourist-heavy communities than in other parts of Wyoming.

“This has to do with owner-occupied houses,” Anderson said of the refund program. “I was thinking that would decrease the Teton County [refunds], but it’s four times what everybody else is.”

Property values drove the Teton figure up, Henson said.

“Obviously, fair market value of residential properties in Teton County is significantly higher” than other counties, she said. “So that’s why that refund amount is higher.”

Teton County’s assessed value for residential land, improvements and personal property amounted to $3.7 billion in 2024, Henson told the Joint Revenue Committee last month. That figure for the entire state amounted to $10.4 billion.

Teton County’s assessed residential value is more than three times the value in Laramie County, the next highest, which is $1.2 billion for 2024, according to Henson’s presentation. Yet Teton County has a population of 23,167 compared to Laramie County’s 101,187.

Residential value makes up 86% of Teton County’s total assessed value, according to Department of Revenue information. Statewide, counties’ residential value averages 32% of their overall assessed value, state information shows.

The supplemental budget will be debated when the Legislature convenes early next year.

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