Select committee moves to draft cash-equivalency bill and form Frontier token working group

The select committee voted, without recorded objection, to ask the Legislative Service Office to draft legislation to allow state entities to engage with the Frontier token in a cash-equivalent capacity and to create an operational working group to pilot Frontier token use across state agencies.

The chair outlined three steps: draft a cash-equivalency bill with input from LSO and the Stable Token Commission; form a seven-member working group including university representatives, the treasurer's office, tourism, YDOT and the department of revenue to pursue pilot projects and operational questions; and rewrite the existing Stable Token Commission statute to create a new Digital Asset Authority that would inherit prior duties and have a selection process modeled on the Investment Funds Committee (IFC).

Committee discussion covered board size and selection mechanisms. Several members suggested seven members as a starting point; others recommended statutory baselines for subject-matter expertise and requirements that a majority maintain a Wyoming nexus. Members debated whether to include an independent selection panel or let the authority manage appointments subject to Senate confirmation; Senator Nethercott directed LSO to remove an intermediate selection panel and instead use the existing authority and staff processes with legislative oversight.

Why it matters: The actions would concentrate stable-token policy and operational authority in a single state body, create channels to pilot real-world token use within state government, and begin statutory work to allow certain tokens to be treated as cash equivalents in government operations.

The committee directed LSO to proceed with drafting and flagged the item for future meetings and working-group work; no final statutes were adopted at the session.