Ohio is one of 22 states with legislation proposed to allow huge new investments from the state treasury in cryptocurrency. State Rep. Josh Williams (R., Sylvania Township) is co-sponsoring legislation that will enrich cryptocurrency speculators but endanger Ohio taxpayers and pension beneficiaries.
Ohio House Bill 18 would allow up to 10 percent of the state treasurer’s balance to be invested in cryptocurrency. The proposed new law further stipulates that each of Ohio’s pensions are empowered to make the same investments.
The Ohio Strategic Cryptocurrency Reserve Act would also allow the state to invest in crypto derivatives trying to profitably trade on the fluctuations in asset values.
Crypto advocates last year pumped nearly $250 million into Congressional campaigns seeking relaxed regulatory standards. More of that money was spent in Ohio than any other state. Former U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, who opposed cryptocurrency as the main source of payment for terrorists, drug smugglers, sex traffickers, and cyber hackers, was targeted with $50 million to knock him out of the Senate Banking Committee chairmanship.
It’s not a coincidence that the Ohio local governments, like Wood County or Columbus, forced to pay ransom to unlock the data in their computers, sent their payment to criminal hackers the way criminals like it —- as cryptocurrency.
The wind changed in a big way when President Trump and the First Lady both issued personal cryptocoins and the Trump business empire announced plans to create a cryptocurrency. The White House ordered a study of a national digital asset stockpile as executive orders on his first day in office.
The Trump cryptocoins have fluctuated wildly, between $73.46 and $4.29 since creation on Jan. 17 and nicely illustrate the recklessness of holding Ohio public money in such a volatile investment.
Federal and state government holdings and public pension investments would validate cryptocurrency as an asset and make the value of existing crypto rise significantly. It’s already way up since the election because of Trump’s change of heart on an asset he once called “a scam.”
The Trump tax plan makes it clear digital asset appreciation is a presidential policy goal with a plan to make cryptocurrency capital gains tax-free for U.S.-based currency issuers.
The big Wall Street investment funds have rolled out crypto indexes to take advantage of the regulatory momentum behind the Republican embrace of digital assets.
Powerful financial interests are set to make a big profit if billions of government dollars flow into cryptocurrency. But without new money flowing into these assets the mania will burst and the cryptocurrency market could collapse.
In pushing for the power to make major crypto investments, Ohio is letting politics dictate economics to the detriment of governance.
Ohio Republicans remember the scandal of Coingate. They should know better than to initiate Cryptocoingate as an encore.
First Published February 24, 2025, 4:30 a.m.
