Proposed Pro-Bitcoin Legislation

A "Digital Bill of Rights" that protects the right of individuals to use, hold, self-custody, and mine digital assets, while limiting unnecessary state and local government restrictions and ensuring digital assets are treated fairly under the law — to foster adoption, innovation, and individual financial freedom in Illinois.

• Prohibits state and local governments from restricting the acceptance of digital assets as payment for legal goods and services.
• Protects the right to self-custody (to hold your own digital assets in your own hardware or self-hosted wallet and move them freely) and bars the state from seizing, freezing, or forcing the surrender of your assets or private keys without a court order or other lawful process.
• Protects the right to mine digital assets, at home or as a business, barring local governments from singling out mining with discriminatory zoning, noise, or utility-rate rules while keeping miners accountable as responsible grid neighbors.
• Bars the state from singling out digital assets for special taxes or fees not applied to comparable assets, so they aren't taxed differently from everything else.
• Keeps Illinois free of a central bank digital currency (CBDC): state and local governments may not accept, require, or help pilot a federal CBDC.
• Lets certain state-administered retirement and college-savings plans offer an optional digital-asset investment choice for participants who want one.
• Clarifies that people handling their own digital assets aren't treated as money-transmitting businesses (those running nodes, developing software, or mining).
• Promotes innovation and jobs through optional measures: a regulatory sandbox and R&D incentives for developers, support for mining operations that invest in Illinois and use clean energy, and a dedicated court track for digital-asset disputes.
• Builds on Illinois's existing Consumer Protection Act by emphasizing user rights and economic growth, while leaving consumer-protection oversight intact.

HB5621 sponsored by Rep. LaShawn Ford (D, Dist 8)

SB3743 sponsored by Sen. Emil Jones (D, Dist 14)

A proposed law that would make Illinois the first state to recognize a community-owned Bitcoin reserve. It creates a Community Bitcoin Reserve Program within the Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity and names the Altgeld Bitcoin Reserve in Altgeld Gardens, Chicago (the nation's first community-run Bitcoin reserve) as the first site, with other Illinois communities able to join under the same rules. Here's what it does:

-Costs taxpayers nothing: The state can only add Bitcoin to a reserve if lawmakers approve it and the purchase is budget-neutral — funded by surpluses, donations, grants, or partnerships, never new tax dollars.

-Keeps it secure: Every coin is held in multisignature cold storage, with at least one key held by the community and no single party able to move funds alone.

-Keeps it honest: Quarterly proof-of-reserve reports and yearly independent audits are posted publicly, and every coin is verifiable on-chain.

-Built for savings, not speculation: Bitcoin is locked for at least five years and can't be traded, loaned, or used as collateral — only small, capped amounts can later be released for community programs.