Texas Names CleanSpark CFO, Miner CEO to Bitcoin Advisory

Texas Acting Comptroller Kelly Hancock on Thursday appointed four outside members to the five-member Strategic Bitcoin Reserve Advisory Committee to advise on bitcoin valuation, custody, risk and reserve management. The appointees are CleanSpark CFO and president Gary Vecchiarelli, Cormint Data Systems founder and CEO Jamie McAvity, Southern Methodist University law professor Carla Reyes and investment executive Laurie Dotter.

The advisory body was created by Senate Bill 21, signed into law in June, which directs the comptroller to administer the state Strategic Bitcoin Reserve. Hancock said in a statement: “The Legislature gave the Comptroller's office a clear responsibility to administer the Texas Strategic Bitcoin Reserve, and that work must be done with transparency, security and strong financial controls. This advisory committee brings together the kind of expertise needed to help the state carry out that direction carefully, responsibly and in the best interest of Texas taxpayers.”

Vecchiarelli helped build CleanSpark's digital asset management program, including establishing an institutional trading desk, yield strategies, borrowing facilities and governance policies for bitcoin transactions. McAvity leads Cormint, which operates a 130-megawatt mining facility in Fort Stockton. Reyes teaches digital asset and commercial law at SMU and serves on the Commodity Futures Trading Commission's Innovation Advisory Committee. Dotter chairs the Investment Advisory Board for the Employees' Retirement System of Texas and serves on the comptroller's primary Investment Advisory Board.

Hancock joins the four outside members to form the five-member committee. Earlier this month the comptroller's office issued a request for proposals seeking a provider to acquire, hold, manage and report the state's bitcoin holdings.

The comptroller initially seeded the reserve with a roughly $10 million position in BlackRock's IBIT bitcoin ETF, described in the RFP as a temporary measure before moving to direct custody of bitcoin. Recent state filings do not clearly show which entity currently controls those IBIT shares.

At the federal level, proposed legislation called the American Reserve Modernization Act would create a national Strategic Bitcoin Reserve, require public proof-of-reserve reporting and lock government-held bitcoin in the reserve for at least 20 years.

The advisory committee is expected to provide technical guidance on valuing bitcoin holdings, custody solutions, risk management practices and reserve governance. The comptroller's office did not provide a timetable for the committee's formal recommendations or for when direct bitcoin custody would begin.