New Hampshire Nears a $100 Million Bitcoin-Backed Bond, a US First

New Hampshire is on the verge of a first in American public finance. Governor Kelly Ayotte and the state’s Executive Council are holding a public hearing on a $100 million municipal bond backed by Bitcoin, which would make New Hampshire the first US state to tie public debt to the cryptocurrency. The deal runs through the New Hampshire Business Finance Authority, which approved the framework back in November 2025, and the governor has called the effort historic while stressing that it is meant to “attract new investment opportunities while ensuring that state funds and taxpayer money remain protected.”

The structure is designed to keep the state at arm’s length. It is a conduit bond, meaning a private borrower, not the state, repays investors. That borrower is CleanSpark, a Bitcoin mining company, which posts Bitcoin as collateral instead of any public money. The bond is over-collateralized at roughly 150% to 160%, with the Bitcoin held by custodian BitGo in regulated cold storage and Wave Digital Assets administering the transaction. Bondholders are paid from the collateral’s proceeds and get some upside linked to Bitcoin’s price, and if the price drops below a set threshold the trust can liquidate the Bitcoin to repay them. Even with that cushion, Moody’s assigned only a provisional Ba2 rating, speculative grade and two notches below investment grade, an explicit nod to how volatile the backing asset is.

That tension is the whole story. On one hand, this extends New Hampshire’s push to the front of US crypto policy after it became the first state to pass a strategic Bitcoin reserve law, and it hands other states a ready-made template to copy. On the other, the elaborate over-collateralization, the speculative rating and the built-in liquidation trigger all exist because Bitcoin can move violently, which sits awkwardly next to the predictability that municipal finance is built on. Critics warn that a forced sale of the collateral is a real possibility rather than a remote one. The bond is small, and taxpayers are shielded by design, but if the council clears it, the more interesting question is how many other states decide that a swinging asset belongs anywhere near the word municipal.