Testimony on House Bill No. 4510 — Elizabeth Hansson, Economic Competitiveness Committee (November 11, 2025)
Summary
Written testimony of Elizabeth Hansson, Founder of the Detroit Blockchain Collective and Michigan President of Stand With Crypto, before the Economic Competitiveness Committee on House Bill No. 4510, Investment in Cryptocurrency by Certain Retirement Funds, dated November 11, 2025. Hansson states that the bill authorizes fiduciaries to consider, but never mandates, exchange-traded products for digital-asset exposure. The testimony says that under the bill an eligible asset must meet a minimum market-capitalization threshold of $250 billion and that total exposure is capped at 5 percent of fund assets. It cites New Hampshire, Texas and Arizona as states with digital-asset frameworks and asks the committee to support the bill.
Summary drafted by a model from the document's text below and checked by script against that text before publication. It is a navigation aid, not a reading of what the document proves. Where AI is used
Cite this document
“Testimony on House Bill No. 4510 — Elizabeth Hansson, Economic Competitiveness Committee (November 11, 2025).”
Archived at Pandemic Darlings, https://pandemicdarlings.com/source-documents/2025-12-11-testimony-hb-4510-elizabeth-hansson-61067-ebd3c8f994/
, SHA-256 36fd1504750be55639f2efc6ee64d6e8ef126c65018caf9fcb6ccb13e1e7a645.Full text
TESTIMONY OF
Elizabeth Hansson
Founder, Detroit Blockchain Collective
Michigan President, Stand With Crypto
BEFORE THE
Economic Competitiveness Committee
Re. House Bill No. 4510: Investment in Cryptocurrency by Certain Retirement Funds
November 11, 2025
Chair Hoadley, Majority Vice Chair Bohnak, Minority Vice Chair Grant, and members of the
Committee, thank you for the honor of the invitation to provide testimony on House Bill 4510. Your
ongoing attention to this issue reflects a clear commitment to ensuring Michigan’s pension system
operates with strong fiduciary standards and modern, well-defined tools. I appreciate the opportunity
to contribute to that effort. My hope is that my perspective is helpful as the Committee evaluates how
House Bill 4510 can bring clarity to fiduciaries and support responsible, long-term management of
Michigan’s public retirement assets.
I have spent my career working at the intersection of software engineering, economic innovation, and
emerging technology. After graduating from the University of Michigan, I began my professional life as
a software engineer in the automotive sector, and as Michigan’s tech landscape evolved, my work
expanded into blockchain and financial technology, where I ultimately served eight years as CTO of a
decentralized finance company during a period of rapid expansion and transformation in digital-asset
markets. My work in this space has given me firsthand insight into the technical, economic, and
operational considerations that shape blockchain systems and the communities that rely on them.
In Michigan, I now focus on strengthening our state’s digital-asset ecosystem and ensuring that
policy, technology, and economic opportunity move in alignment. I founded the Detroit Blockchain
Collective, one of the largest and most active blockchain communities in the Midwest, and I work
closely with student groups at Michigan’s major universities to support the next generation of builders.
I also serve as the Michigan President for Stand With Crypto, where I represent nearly 55,000 Stand
With Crypto advocates in our state, and more than 1.2 million Michiganders who own cryptocurrency.
This work has shown me both the promise and the challenges of digital-asset adoption, and the
importance of clear, well-designed policy frameworks to guide responsible innovation.
House Bill 4510 establishes a clear and familiar pathway for Michigan’s pension boards to
evaluate digital-asset exposure within the regulated environment of SEC-supervised
exchange-traded products. The bill authorizes fiduciaries to consider, but never mandates them to
adopt, these products as part of their investment analysis. It preserves continuity with current
standards by leaving all allocation decisions to pension boards and imposing no new investment
requirements. It also fits firmly within the fiduciary oversight, disclosure, and audit structures that
govern pension investments in commodities and other alternative assets.
Michigan’s public pension trustees operate under the Prudent Investor Rule, which emphasizes
diversification, risk-adjusted returns, and the use of modern portfolio theory. House Bill 4510
respects this framework by allowing consideration of digital-asset exposure only through regulated
investment companies, where fiduciaries maintain full discretion, oversight, and independent
judgment. This bill does not create a new asset mandate; it simply ensures that fiduciaries can
evaluate a modern asset class using the same risk frameworks already applied to commodities,
alternatives, and inflation-hedging instruments.
Michigan’s public pension system has already incorporated digital-asset exposure within a diversified,
regulated structure. The State of Michigan Retirement System first reported a position in a spot
Bitcoin exchange-traded fund in 2024 and subsequently expanded that position in 2025. It has also
disclosed regulated Ethereum exposure through exchange-traded products. Analysts reviewing these
filings noted that Michigan was among the earliest public pension systems to report positions in both
Bitcoin and Ethereum ETPs.
House Bill 4510 strengthens Michigan’s existing fiduciary framework by clarifying the narrow
circumstances under which digital-asset exposure may be considered. By replacing ambiguity with
clear statutory limits, the bill adds defined guardrails and risk-management parameters to current
practice. Under the bill, any eligible asset must meet a minimum market-capitalization threshold of
$250 billion, and total exposure to digital assets is capped at 5 percent of fund assets. These limits
ensure that any consideration of digital-asset products occurs within a conservative and prudently
structured framework, aligned with long-dated obligations.
Several states have already stepped into leadership roles on this issue by adopting measured
statutory frameworks that incorporate digital assets within fiduciary obligations. New Hampshire
enacted a first-in-the-nation reserve law permitting up to 5 percent of public funds in digital assets
that meet a high market-capitalization threshold, held through secure custody or an
exchange-traded product. Texas created a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve with defined custody,
reporting, and market-cap requirements. Arizona updated its unclaimed-property statutes for digital
assets and established a Bitcoin and Digital Assets Reserve Fund. These examples underscore
that responsible participation is possible when lawmakers pair innovation with clear statutory
guardrails and transparent oversight structures.
Concerns about volatility are understandable, which is why any potential allocation under House
Bill 4510 would be both entirely optional and limited to a modest, liquid position. The bill simply
permits fiduciaries to evaluate these regulated products using the same discipline they apply to
other narrowly sized alternative holdings, should the risk-return profile warrant review. It defines
when such consideration may occur without encouraging, requiring, or expanding exposure
beyond what prudent management would allow.
House Bill 4510 is a measured update to statute that mirrors the tools Michigan’s pension system
has already used in practice. The bill establishes clear parameters, a minimum
market-capitalization threshold and a hard 5-percent cap on total digital-asset exposure, while
preserving all existing fiduciary obligations and oversight requirements. It is a conservative
permission structure that can be used to hedge inflation risk and diversify return sources, if and
when the data supports it. I respectfully ask for your support in advancing this bill so Michigan’s
pension fiduciaries retain a safe, optional instrument to protect beneficiaries and ensure our state
is aligned with responsible financial innovation.
File and source
- File
- 2025-12-11_testimony_hb-4510-elizabeth-hansson_61067.pdf
- Size
- 51,766 bytes
- SHA-256
- 36fd1504750be55639f2efc6ee64d6e8ef126c65018caf9fcb6ccb13e1e7a645
- Original
- No public link identified.