Texas Closes Legislative Session Without Penning Crypto Policy

The mining bill that flew through the Texas state senate might be on pause until 2025

article-image

lev radin/Shutterstock modified by Blockworks

share

Texas closed its regular legislative session Monday, leaving crypto bills in limbo for potentially 19 months. 

Texas is one of four states on a biennial legislature schedule, meaning state lawmakers only meet for regular sessions every other year. The next regular session is scheduled for Jan. 14, 2025. 

A Texas Senate bill aimed to nix tax breaks for miners and crack down on energy usage is one of the legislative matters left unresolved. The Senate passed the bill unanimously in early April before it was referred to committee in the House. The House did not vote on it before closing the session. 

The Senate Bill, number 1751, was sponsored by three Republican state senators and drew criticism from crypto advocates in the area

Kristine Cranley, director of business development at Texas Blockchain Council, said in an April 1 tweet the bill placed an “arbitrary cap” on miners, causing the cost of grid stabilizing services to increase. 

A second crypto bill made it further in the legislative process, but still has yet to become law. House Bill 1666, which would require exchanges to hold reserves high enough to at least cover any obligations to customers, passed the House in April and the Senate in May. 

It was sent to Governor Greg Abbott on May 22. Abbott has 20 days to sign or veto, if no action is taken the bill becomes law without a signature. 

Crypto-related policies are not the only bills lawmakers failed to finalize before Monday’s deadline. High-profile proposals to use a budget surplus to fund property tax cuts and ramp up border security also did not make it over the finish line. 

Governor Abbott has the power to reconvene lawmakers for a Special Session, which he did late Monday evening to focus on property tax and border security policy. 

“Many critical items remain that must be passed,” Abbott said in a statement Monday. 

Abbott did not mention any crypto policy in his Monday statement opening the Special Session, although further gatherings could be called before January 2025. 
After the close of the regular session in 2021, Abbott called for three special sessions, each lasting around 30 days, which is the max for special sessions, and intended to address between 10 and 20 topics.


Get the news in your inbox. Explore Blockworks newsletters:

Tags

Upcoming Events

Old Billingsgate

Mon - Wed, October 13 - 15, 2025

Blockworks’ Digital Asset Summit (DAS) will feature conversations between the builders, allocators, and legislators who will shape the trajectory of the digital asset ecosystem in the US and abroad.

Industry City | Brooklyn, NY

TUES - THURS, JUNE 24 - 26, 2025

Permissionless IV serves as the definitive gathering for crypto’s technical founders, developers, and builders to come together and create the future.If you’re ready to shape the future of crypto, Permissionless IV is where it happens.

Brooklyn, NY

SUN - MON, JUN. 22 - 23, 2025

Blockworks and Cracked Labs are teaming up for the third installment of the Permissionless Hackathon, happening June 22–23, 2025 in Brooklyn, NY. This is a 36-hour IRL builder sprint where developers, designers, and creatives ship real projects solving real problems across […]

recent research

Featured.png

Research

Helium stands at a pivotal moment in its evolution as a decentralized wireless network, balancing rapid growth, economic restructuring, and global expansion. With accelerated growth in domestic DAUs and Hotspots supporting its network, Helium is leveraging strategic partnerships and innovative proposals to scale internationally. The recent implementation of HIP 138, “Return to HNT,” has unified its token economy under HNT, simplifying participation and strengthening liquidity, while HIP 139’s phase-out of CBRS refocuses efforts on scalable Wi-Fi offload. Meanwhile, governance shifts under HIP 141 raise questions about centralization as Nova Labs consolidates control over the roadmap.

article-image

In 2011, WikiLeaks faced a financial blockade imposed by the US government. It was Bitcoin’s first major test.

article-image

Kado’s founder Emery Andrew spoke to Blockworks about the acquisition and what’s next for the team

article-image

LayerZero’s Bryan Pellegrino chatted with Blockworks about the firm’s next steps and its 10-year runway

article-image

Colosseum co-founder Matty Taylor is seeing “high-performance [Solana] founders showing a lot of interest in private trading technology”

article-image

Executives weigh the growth potential they see in the public stock and private credit/equities arenas

article-image

Players can stake ME, trade tokens and link wallets to climb the leaderboard