Senate File 96 – also known as the Wyoming Gold Act – requires the Wyoming Treasurer to diversify the state’s holdings by acquiring no less than $10 million in “specie and specie legal tender” as part of the state’s Permanent Mineral Trust Fund. Wyoming’s Permanent Mineral Trust Fund has been invested in conventional investments but has remarkably never included any physical gold, even as gold has more than doubled in its dollar price during the five years since similar proposals had been floated in the Wyoming legislature – with gold bullion vastly outperforming the state’s existing investments.

The state of Utah recently acquired $50 million in physical gold currently, and Texas and Ohio have invested in gold as well. Similar legislation is under consideration in several other states this legislative session. Central banks around the world have been stockpiling gold at record rates over the past several years, an indication of high global tensions and concerns about devaluation of unbacked Federal Reserve Note “dollar” as well as its weaponization.