State of Tennessee Looking for a Crypto Vendor to Help it Hold Unclaimed Cryptocurrencies

The State of Tennessee has requested proposals from contractors who can help it manage unclaimed cryptocurrency on its behalf.

According to the announcement, the government has asked prospective vendors to submit a proposal to the Tennessee Department of Treasury on how they’ll manage any cryptocurrency for the state. Although the state doesn’t hold any crypto at the moment, the state wants to be prepared.

Pursuant to Tennessee’s unclaimed property program, this latest request, dubbed ‘Request for Proposals for safekeeping and servicing of unclaimed securities and virtual currency,’ requests those vendors to “be prepared in the event that unclaimed virtual currency is remitted to the state’s unclaimed property program.”

The program is an initiative of the government to reunite owners with their assets. It currently has $1.2 billion worth of unclaimed assets. While the state holds the cash directly, a vendor holds the securities on its behalf. It’s now seeking to use the same approach for cryptocurrencies.

Requirements include an approved trading volume price structure

Applicants are expected to provide a price structure for the trading volume they are capable of handling. The structure is based on a trading volume of $500,000 or 50 BTC transfers across exchanges.

This move appears to be an attempt by the government to bring crypto under its control if it should receive unclaimed crypto assets.

However, other conditions the applicant is expected to meet also include providing “a narrative that illustrates the Respondent’s experience in dealing directly with Unclaimed-Securities and virtual currency” or an “understanding of how Unclaimed Securities and virtual currency is unique to the custody services and how the Respondent will be able to fulfill those services.”

The vendor must also explain in detail the technology they plan to use and the processes. The deadline for submitting the proposal is Thursday, with the state authorities planning to announce the successful applicant by May 10. The RFP also states that it is not limiting its option to Bitcoin holdings alone.  

Tennessee continues to dip its toes into crypto policy

Notably, this is not the first time Tennessee is showing interest in crypto. The city of Jackson has shown repeated interest in crypto with a number of its policies.

A lawmaker in the state, Jason Powell, also proposed a bill in February that’ll allow the state to directly invest in crypto and non-fungible tokens.

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