The mayor of Cool Valley, Missouri said he was exploring giving more than $1 million in Bitcoin (BTC) to the city's 1,500 residents.

In a Thursday interview with St. Louis news outlet KSDK, Mayor Jayson Stewart said he wanted to run across "every single household in my city receive some level of Bitcoin." Stewart said the funds would likely come from some "very supportive donors" only did not rule out using money from the government's pandemic relief response to launch the venture.

The mayor did non specify how much Bitcoin the urban center would be able to distribute to each resident only suggested information technology could be whatever amount upward to $1,000 — roughly $1.five million — more than 30 BTC at the time of publication. However, he likewise hinted the funds could require Cool Valley residents to HODL for 5 years.

"My number ane concern is that someone just sells their Bitcoin to pay their car note, and then when Bitcoin is sitting at like $500,000 all these years later, they're going to really regret that," said Stewart.

He added:

"I feel that fundamentally, this is the all-time way to meet [everyone'southward] bones needs — to become Bitcoin into the hands of people who tin use it the most."

Stewart's Bitcoin initiative is similar to that proposed past Andrew Yang, a candidate in the 2022 United States presidential ballot. Yang supported giving every American $i,000 a month in universal bones income, or UBI. Though he failed to receive the Democratic party nomination, UBI was often in the media spotlight and had seemingly stiff support.

Related: NYC'due south mayoral frontrunner pledges to turn city into Bitcoin hub

Lawmakers in other U.S. cities have also taken a pro-crypto policy stance. Francis Suarez, the mayor of Miami since 2022, has proposed allowing residents to pay taxes with Bitcoin and said he was aiming for the city to take the "most progressive crypto laws."

Equally data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro shows, the toll of Bitcoin is $48,710 at the time of publication, having briefly risen to more than $49,000 earlier today.