Moody’s Ratings assigned a provisional Ba2 rating to two series of taxable bonds totaling up to $100 million backed by bitcoin (BTC).
The Business Finance Authority of the State of New Hampshire will issue the bonds as part of the Waverose Finance 2026 project.
The Ba2 rating falls within the speculative category and sits two notches below investment grade. This indicates substantial credit risks, primarily tied to cryptocurrency’s volatility.
Bond Structure and Collateral
Series A-1 and A-2 bonds will be secured by a loan that is itself collateralized by bitcoin. Bond payments will come exclusively from proceeds of the bitcoin collateral. The State of New Hampshire and its political subdivisions bear no responsibility for these bonds and will not use public funds for repayment.
Initial collateral coverage stands at 1.60x, with an LTV trigger at 1.40x. Hitting the trigger would require mandatory full repayment of the bonds.
BitGo Bank & Trust will serve as the bitcoin custodian. BitGo Prime will handle asset liquidation for payments. Wave Digital Assets will administer the transaction, with a backup administrator in place.
Series A-2 bonds may also receive additional yield if BTC’s price rises above a certain threshold. However, this applies only after full repayment of principal, interest, and expenses.
Context and Outlook
This marks the first time a US state has planned to issue municipal bonds directly backed by bitcoin. The Business Finance Authority of New Hampshire approved the project in November 2025. Proceeds will go to the Bitcoin Economic Development Fund to support business and innovation within the state.
Moody’s notes that the rating is sensitive to bitcoin’s price dynamics, the operational resilience of the network, and the effectiveness of the liquidation mechanism.
An official launch date for the bonds has not yet been announced.
Bitcoin Price on April 1
At the time of writing, bitcoin continues to trade in a range below $70,000. According to CoinGecko, bitcoin trades at $68,667.
Over the past 24 hours, the asset showed no significant price movement. The 24-hour gain stands at just under 3%.
Over longer timeframes, the coin fell 3.6% over seven days and 7% over fourteen days.
