Relating to the bridge across Columbia Boulevard; declaring an emergency.

2025 Regular Session Introduced by Lew Frederick and 3 co-sponsors

Arizona creates a Bitcoin and Digital Assets Reserve Fund to hold unclaimed digital assets (airdrops, staking rewards) and manage their escheatment.

In committee upon adjournment.

Purpose / Intent

Modernize Arizona’s unclaimed property statute to (1) explicitly include digital assets (virtual currency/cryptocurrency) and related phenomena (airdrops, staking rewards) as reportable/unclaimed property, and (2) create a state-managed reserve fund to receive and manage rewards or interest produced from those digital assets.

Key provisions

Adds a new statute (A.R.S. § 41‑180) establishing the "Bitcoin and Digital Assets Reserve Fund":

The Fund consists of any airdrops, staking rewards or interest earned as prescribed by the amended unclaimed property law (see A.R.S. § 44‑308).
The State Treasurer administers the Fund; monies are subject to legislative appropriation.
Staking rewards received by the State may be held in the form of digital assets.
With legislative approval, the Treasurer may deposit 10% of the digital assets held in the Fund into the State General Fund; the statute expressly prohibits depositing bitcoin into the General Fund.

Amends A.R.S. § 44‑301 (definitions) to:

Define "AIRDROP", "DIGITAL ASSETS" (including virtual currencies and cryptocurrencies), and "STAKE".
Expand the statutory definition of "property" to expressly include digital assets (and references to securities).
Make minor changes (e.g., de minimis business-to-business threshold language).

Amends A.R.S. §§ 44‑302, 44‑308 and 44‑312 (presumptions of abandonment and disposition rules) to incorporate treatment of digital assets, airdrops and staking rewards under unclaimed property procedures (reporting, escheatment, and disposition). (Full procedural details are in the amended code sections; text for some subsections was truncated in the provided document.)

Who is affected

Holders of unclaimed property that may include digital assets: exchanges, custodial wallet providers, financial institutions, businesses that hold digital-only assets.

Apparent owners of digital assets (owners of dormant wallets/accounts) who may have property presumed abandoned under statutory timelines.

State agencies: Department of Revenue (reporting/enforcement), State Treasurer (fund administration), and the Legislature (appropriation/approval for transfers).

Potential claimants and unclaimed‑property administrators.

Implementation / Practical impact

Establishes a legal pathway for the State to receive, hold, stake and otherwise manage digital assets that escheat as unclaimed property.

Imposes new reporting/escheat responsibilities on holders of digital assets and requires the State to address valuation, custody, security and conversion (digital-to-fiat) issues for such assets.

Legislative oversight is required for transfers from the Reserve Fund to the General Fund (10% with approval), with a specific ban on depositing bitcoin into the General Fund.

Legislative timeline / status

Introduced: Feb 12, 2025

Passed both chambers and transmitted to Governor: April–May 2025

Signed by Governor: May 7, 2025

Enacted as Chapter 150, 2025 session laws.

Note: The bill package included an amendment filing record that referenced other materials; one amendment text appearing in the provided packet appeared to be from a different state’s bill and is not part of the enacted Arizona statute.

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