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New Hampshire came within a single vote of making history. Instead, the state’s Executive Council rejected a $100 million Bitcoin-backed municipal bond proposal in a 3-2 vote on July 8, effectively shelving what would have been the first state-backed Bitcoin bonded structure anywhere in the country.
The proposal had serious backing, too. Governor Kelly Ayotte supported it publicly, Moody’s had already assigned it a provisional rating, and the state’s Business Finance Authority had signed off on the conduit bond structure months ago.
What the bond would have actually done
The bonds were structured as revenue bonds, meaning they carried no recourse to state credit or taxpayer funds. The money would have financed private Bitcoin purchases through a CleanSpark-related entity called NH CleanSpark Borrower Trust. CleanSpark is a publicly traded Bitcoin mining firm that would have held the purchased Bitcoin as collateral in a segregated trust.
The key safeguard was a 160% overcollateralization requirement. For every dollar of bond debt, CleanSpark would need to hold $1.60 worth of Bitcoin in the trust.
Moody’s issued a provisional Ba2 rating on March 31, 2026. That’s speculative-grade territory, roughly equivalent to how the agency rates some high-yield corporate debt.
Jefferies was tapped to manage what would have been a private-placement conduit deal. The BFA had approved the structure back in November 2025, viewing it as a pioneering test case for digital assets in public finance that could generate fees for economic development programs.
Why it failed
Councilors Wheeler, Liot Hill, and Stevens voted against the proposal. Councilors Kenney and Stephen voted in favor.
The opposition centered on Bitcoin’s volatility and the implications of granting institutional legitimacy to the asset class. Critics argued that even with overcollateralization buffers, Bitcoin’s price history makes it a questionable foundation for any public finance instrument.
New Hampshire enacted a strategic Bitcoin reserve law during 2023, positioning itself as one of the most crypto-friendly jurisdictions in the country. The BFA’s willingness to approve the conduit structure suggests the financial engineering itself passed muster. It was the political layer that proved to be the bottleneck.
The most telling detail might be the rating itself. Moody’s was willing to put a provisional Ba2 on this thing, which suggests the credit agency’s quantitative models could stomach the risk. The people who couldn’t stomach it were the elected officials who’d have to explain it to constituents if Bitcoin dropped 40% six months after issuance.
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