[Digital Today reporter Yoonseo Lee] U.S. state New Hampshire has entered discussions on issuing $100 million worth of bitcoin-backed bonds.

Cointelegraph, a blockchain outlet, reported on July 7 local time that New Hampshire’s secretary of state’s office said the state legislature plans to discuss the bond proposal at a public hearing.

The agenda item took shape after New Hampshire’s corporate finance authority put it on the governor and executive council agenda. The authority is set to address a $100 million bitcoin-backed bond issue at its Wednesday meeting. Any actual issuance would require approval from Governor Kelly Ayotte (켈리 아이오트) and the five-member state executive council.

The bond has a structure different from traditional municipal bonds. It already received approval from the corporate finance authority in November 2025, and only the final approval process remains. Ayotte said at the time the structure was an innovative way to bring more investment opportunities to New Hampshire and establish it as a leading state in digital finance without exposing state funds or taxpayer money to risk.

New Hampshire’s move extends its digital asset-friendly policies. In May 2025, it became the first U.S. state to pass a strategic bitcoin reserve bill. The law allowed up to 5 percent of public funds to be invested in digital assets with a market capitalisation of more than $500 billion. Under the current conditions, bitcoin would qualify.

Market participants and academia have also raised risks alongside its experimental significance. David Krause (데이비드 크라우스), an emeritus associate professor of finance at Marquette University, said in an April analysis that the bond could serve as a proof of concept for combining digital assets with structured finance but was not suitable as a general-purpose public finance instrument. He viewed it as having no recourse to state government funds or taxpayers because private borrower CleanSpark provides the collateral funds.

Krause also pointed to the bond’s main significance as exposing the challenges of adapting the traditional financial system to highly price-volatile digital assets. He also warned it would be difficult for such a structure to spread directly into the public-sector bond market.

Credit ratings are also a burden. Moody’s assigned the bitcoin bond a Ba2 rating in March. That falls into the speculative-grade category with substantial credit risk. It is read as a signal that even if issuance goes ahead, it would be hard to expect the same stability as typical municipal bonds.

If New Hampshire issues a bitcoin-backed bond, it would become one of the early cases at the level of a U.S. state government. A similar idea was pursued in El Salvador, but the $1 billion bitcoin-backed “Volcano Bonds” proposed in 2022 did not materialise after a downturn in the cryptocurrency market.

Against that backdrop, New Hampshire’s decision could become a test of how far U.S. state governments can incorporate digital assets into public finance. With final approval and a review of credit risk still pending, whether the issue goes ahead and the possibility of the structure spreading to other states are expected to be key points to watch.

New Hampshire is once again First in the Nation! Just signed a new law allowing our state to invest in cryptocurrency and precious metals. pic.twitter.com/ua9bawZKbM