Committee grills depository plan for gold-and-silver debit card as stakeholders raise security, fiscal, and regulatory concerns

The Senate Finance Committee held an extended hearing Wednesday on House Bill 10,56, a measure to enable gold and silver held in the Texas Bullion Depository to function as legal tender and to permit transactions via a state-run or contractor-run digital payment mechanism.

Senator Bryan Hughes, the bill’s sponsor in the Senate, said the measure would allow Texans to deposit physical gold and silver in the state depository or buy bullion-backed digital currency and use a debit card for ordinary purchases. “Based on the existence of the Texas bullion depository…this would be run by the state of Texas,” Hughes said.

Comptroller staff and the depository administrator described operational and fiscal issues. Macy Douglas, administrator of the Texas Bullion Depository, said the state facility currently holds more than $380 million in metals on deposit and that most customer deliveries are…