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Texas Acting Comptroller Kelly Hancock on Thursday named four outside members to the state's Strategic Bitcoin Reserve Advisory Committee, installing CleanSpark CFO and president Gary Vecchiarelli, Cormint Data Systems CEO Jamie McAvity, SMU law professor Carla Reyes and investment executive Laurie Dotter alongside Hancock himself. The five-member body, created under Senate Bill 21, will advise the comptroller on bitcoin valuation, custody, risk and reserve management for one of the first state-level bitcoin reserves in the U.S.
The committee lands as the Comptroller's office is already running a Request for Proposals for a third-party provider to acquire, hold, manage and report on the state's BTC holdings. Texas funded the reserve as a standalone line item with a $10 million position in BlackRock's IBIT spot bitcoin ETF, framed in the RFP as an "interim measure before transitioning to direct Bitcoin custody." McAvity runs the Texas-based bitcoin miner Cormint, which operates a 130-megawatt facility in Fort Stockton; Vecchiarelli built out CleanSpark's institutional-grade digital-asset program, including its trading desk, yield strategies and borrowing facilities; Reyes also sits on the CFTC's Innovation Advisory Committee; Dotter chairs the Investment Advisory Board for the Employees' Retirement System of Texas.
Why it matters
The roster signals how seriously Texas is treating the build-out: a sitting exchange-traded-finance CFO, a law professor with a CFTC seat, a 130 MW miner operator, and a public-pension investment chair. That is the kind of plumbing you assemble when the expectation is direct BTC custody, not just a passive ETF sleeve. Texas became the third state to enact a strategic bitcoin reserve when Gov. Greg Abbott signed SB 21 last June, after Arizona and New Hampshire, but it is the first to fund a standalone reserve line item — and the first to publish an RFP for an external custody operator.
Market impact
The $10 million IBIT position is small in absolute terms, but the operational template is the part the rest of the state-reserve cohort will copy.
Frequently asked questions
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Who did Texas appoint to its Strategic Bitcoin Reserve Advisory Committee?
Acting Comptroller Kelly Hancock named four outside members: CleanSpark CFO and president Gary Vecchiarelli, Cormint Data Systems CEO Jamie McAvity, SMU law professor Carla Reyes, and investment executive Laurie Dotter. Hancock chairs the five-member body created under Senate Bill 21.
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What is the committee's mandate under SB 21?
The committee advises the Texas Comptroller on bitcoin valuation, custody, risk and reserve management for the state's Strategic Bitcoin Reserve, which was created when Gov. Greg Abbott signed SB 21 into law last June.
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How is Texas currently funding its bitcoin reserve?
Texas seeded the reserve with a $10 million position in BlackRock's IBIT spot bitcoin ETF, which the comptroller's RFP describes as an "interim measure before transitioning to direct Bitcoin custody." The office is running an RFP for a third-party provider to acquire, hold, manage and report on the state's BTC…
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How does Texas's reserve differ from other state bitcoin reserves?
Texas is the third state to enact a strategic bitcoin reserve, after Arizona and New Hampshire, but it is the first to fund a standalone reserve line item rather than merely authorising one, and the first to publish an RFP for an external custody operator. McAvity's Cormint operates a 130 MW bitcoin mining facility in…
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What federal legislation is also moving on a U.S. bitcoin reserve?
Lawmakers recently introduced the American Reserve Modernization Act, which would codify a national Strategic Bitcoin Reserve, require public proof-of-reserve reporting, and lock any government-held bitcoin into the reserve for at least 20 years.
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