Nine-thousand feet up in the Tetons, business and state leaders came together to celebrate a limelight moment for the tech world and the Cowboy State.
The Frontier Token, the first state-government supported project of its kind, launched on seven blockchain networks last week. The goal? Creating a stable, dollar-equivalent digital asset.
The venue was the Wyoming Blockchain Symposium, a crypto-focused event hosted by SALT, a global investment platform
. International leaders in policy and technology spoke to crowds about the current state and future of cryptocurrencies, blockchain technology, new financial technology and policy, as well as Artificial Intelligence (AI).
The state has spent nearly a decade passing legislation and attracting professional talent to transform Wyoming from a state that’s business-friendly to a state that "moves at the speed of business,” as Cheyenne Mayor Patrick Collins described his city in reference to the construction of a new AI data center planned to be built there.
As a result, Wyoming is quickly becoming a center of new and emerging technologies.
Now, with the Blockchain Symposium over and the Frontier Token launched, Wyoming is looking to seize on the moment. With the help of a presidential administration that’s gone out of its way to deregulate in favor of business, Wyoming leaders want to address state woes by attracting new tech.
The Wyoming Frontier Token
Launched on Avalanche, Arbitrum, Base, Ethereum, Optimism, Solana and Polygon, the Wyoming Frontier Token (FRNT) is meant to act as a digital dollar, backed by the “full faith and credit” of the state of Wyoming, according to the commission tasked with creating it. That differentiates the token from other cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, the value of which has fluctuated wildly since its release.
When the Frontier Token is purchased, that money will go back into U.S. short-term treasury investments, which, according to Wyoming Stable Token Commission Director Anthony Apollo, will pay back the initial budget of $5 million transferred from the state’s general fund to create the token. After that, the token will support state programs, starting with the state’s education account.
Apollo and Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon believe the $5 million spent on the stable token will generate more money long-term for Wyoming overall, versus putting that money directly into an educational account.
”These are meant to be net new dollars for the state rather than taking the existing tax base or increasing the tax base to put that in the school foundation fund,” said Apollo. “We kind of balance our own budget first, then the dollars can come back to the state.”
The Frontier Token is accessible to individuals and businesses for purchase from one of the seven listed blockchain networks, as opposed to directly from the state. Once an individual has tokens in a crypto wallet,similar to Cash App or Venmo, but operating exclusively through blockchain instead of the traditional deposit and withdrawal, they can use them in transactions anywhere in the world or at any time, regardless of bank holidays.
For both Gordon and Apollo, the token is about the state’s effort to diversify its economy and in keeping with Wyoming’s tradition of reducing regulation for businesses and banks. Comparing the token to the Wyoming Mineral Trust Fund, which manages the surplus money the state government makes off of the severance taxes on the mineral industry, the governor emphasized that Wyomingites will benefit as a whole from "disciplined" state investments for the future.
“Part of this has been the ability to really make something that's useful for our Wyoming community, banks and credit unions,” Gordon told Wyoming Public Radio. “Having a way to be able to do transactions that are much easier to do than having to go through all the other paperwork and everything else that person might have to do, I think will be an advantage for our banks.”
On the national stage, the Frontier Token has placed Wyoming first in a race that few other states, like New Hampshire and Nebraska, are just beginning to join.
The token’s release comes as federal lawmakers have started regulating digital currencies and embracing digital currency reserves. Wyoming has been tapped nationwide for “blueprints” on how state and federal governments might one day regulate or deregulate the industry.
U.S. Sen. Cynthia Lummis (R-WY), who praised the Wyoming Legislature for its pro-crypto work over the past decade while on stage at the Symposium, helped work on the GENIUS Act recently signed by Pres. Trump. It creates a federal framework for stablecoins by providing the legal backings, definitions and classifications, which means banks, financial institutions and states can treat them as a more legitimate form of value. This would affect digital assets like Tether's dollar equivalent coin (USDT) and Circle’s stablecoin (USDC), both issued by private companies. However, the GENIUS Act doesn’t apply much regulation to states or state entities that wish to create stable digital assets.
“If you look at how issuers are defined in that piece of legislation, it's banks, trusts, fintechs and other business entities. There's no realm in there for oversight of sovereign entities,” said Apollo. “That being said, it's not to say we're operating without very strict guardrails. It's important to remember the Stable Token Act is the result of years of legislation before it was actually enacted.”
Co-chair of the Blockchain, Financial Technology, and Digital Innovation Committee, Rep. Daniel Singh (R-Cheyenne), stepped away from conversations with industry leaders to refer to the Frontier Token launch as a “revolutionary day for financial technology.”
“This is more of a nexus for the next step in technology. And that may rival existing technologies, like credit cards, like traditional banking institutions. We're going to be seeing the ramifications of that in the future,” said Singh.
Outside of the state government, there are concerns about stable tokens' effect on the financial sector. Professor Seth Oranburg from the University of New Hampshire believes that not including state stable tokens in the regulatory framework on the federal level could potentially “reshape U.S. monetary policy and resurrect echoes of the chaotic 'Wildcat Banking' era.” The “wildcat banking era” was during the mid-1800s, a time when the United States had no effective national banking system. Instead, poorly regulated and managed state-chartered banks tried risky policies and over-issued currency.
Within the state, Charles Hoskinson, chief executive officer of the blockchain research company Input Output Global and co-founder of the Wyoming-based blockchain company Cardano, called the entire project an "unmitigated disaster."
“I don't think the government should compete with private industry,” he said. “And also, I don't understand how the state of Wyoming thinks that for a $5 million investment, they can compete with a $243 billion industry.”
Previously mentioned stablecoins, like Circle, have been around far longer, and Circle recently announced the launch of a new blockchain network specifically for stable tokens. By comparison, and as of this publication, the Wyoming Frontier Token website notes under “Purchasing FRNT” that the “FRNT is not currently available for purchase.”
Hoskinson also criticized the procurement process, claiming that mostly out-of-state institutions were considered for the process, and that his company wasn’t “allowed to bid.”
When asked about not prioritizing state-based entities, Apollo said there were more criteria to consider than “being in Wyoming” and that the process was open in the interest of serving the state.
Gordon added, “We've simply said, ‘Here are the expectations the people of Wyoming want and we're not willing to relax those for any reason other than, to make sure that we are open, clear and we can improve.’ WSo we, on a rolling basis, are allowing anybody to come in.”
Regardless, Hoskinson held strong on his belief that the Frontier Token, formerly the Wyoming Stable Token – a name change he mocked in Reddit AMA after attending SALT – will be a failure and perhaps defunded “if not next year, then the year after.” This year, Hoskinson created a PAC, which will be used to advocate for what he believes are more appropriate crypto plans and procurement policies.
Gordon also briefly spoke about the concept of other tokens the state could offer, like an oil or uranium token. While noting that such commodities might have volatility associated with them, he suggested the interest exists for an entity to eventually tokenize real-world assets.
“For us, the ability to begin to tokenize some of that is going to be really valuable,” said Gordon.
Blockchain, crypto and fintech
“We’re literally spoon-feeding bitcoin to the masses” was how Eric Trump described the state of cryptocurrencies on stage during the last day of speaker events at the Symposium. For many at the event, blockchain and cryptocurrencies have entered the mainstream, culturally, socially and politically. That’s after the last election, when the Trump family launched Trump Media and Technology Group, a company that's actively expanding its crypto business despite its lack of profitability. But that societal assimilation has not yet produced the desired results for Wyoming lawmakers, in regard to the state’s exodus of young people.
Lummis is also betting that being friendly to crypto mining, startups and financial technology firms will help address that exodus, in addition to concerns around job creation and diversification.
“The nice thing about digital assets, they're very decentralized, so you don't need to be in a big city. You can be in Meeteetse and have a very robust digital asset business. So this is a business that can drop anchor anywhere in Wyoming and create jobs,” said Lummis.
Lummis holds similar views to Caitlin Long, founder of Custodia Bank and an avid supporter of blockchain technologies since the early 2010s. Long gained much of her experience working in New York but is from Wyoming. She believes decentralization and cloud-based services benefit a state like Wyoming, arguing that blockchain technologies will bring money into the state without “bringing in the people and the crime and traffic that comes with that.”
However, blockchain technology that’s capable of keeping people in the state and communities alive is trickier. According to a study by the National Center for Biotechnology Information, the majority of cryptocurrency users are “male, residing in the USA, between the age of 18–45, with a university degree, and who have a monthly income of over $3,000.” While the use of crypto and blockchain technologies may be prevalent primarily among young men, keeping them in the state is a matter of standard of living. More jobs mean more potential opportunities for an improved standard of living, but defining just how many jobs any given blockchain startup or crypto mining operation brings is hard to determine, according to Long.
“How many [workers] are [in] industry? To be honest, we don't know because we don't keep track,” said Long. “And trust us, you don't want us keeping track because anybody who really tries to track businesses and people is just gonna surveil them, and that's just not part of the ethos of Wyoming.”
Despite being unsure of how many jobs these technologies could bring to Wyoming, Long says there are over 5,000 businesses with “crypto,” “blockchain” or “bitcoin” in their name registered in the state.
“They're paying fees into the secretary of state and that tips over to the general fund and helps pay for our schools,” said Long.
Outside of the state’s brain drain problem, the governor is looking toward new use cases for blockchain technology, seeking to “develop the concept more into different commodities.” That’s because the digital ledger system that allows blockchain to operate as a decentralized, peer-to-peer financial system can be used in less straightforward ways than a transaction or trade.
“If you look at what blockchains are, it just provides an incredible tool for doing so many things. One of my personal hopes has been if people are concerned about carbon dioxide, how do we monetize it in a way,” said Gordon. “[Or] fractionalize the ownership of ranchers trying to get started. There's just so many opportunities that we need to dig in and get going on.”
Artificial intelligence, water and energy
While not a dedicated stage topic at the symposium, AI and the data centers that come with it were popular subjects of discussion. Companies have scrambled to implement generative AI into everything from web search to chat bots that are increasingly used for therapy. However, less-than-impressive revenues have led some investors and industry leaders to believe the sector might be in an overhyped bubble.
Regardless of AI’s long-term development, the nation has already committed to building out energy-intensive AI infrastructure. Cheyenne is slated to be home to a new 1.8 gigawatt data center, and next-door states like Utah are also aiming to build data centers with power requirements equivalent to the Beehive State’s total output.
For many communities, the power and water requirements required to run an AI data center are the top concern. For the federal government, its motivation lies in staying ahead of China in the race for Artificial General Intelligence, or a computer “mind” that’s more capable than a human mind – something that may be near-impossible in the long run.
For Cheyenne-based state Rep. Daniel Singh, it’s both.
“I want to make sure that the concerns about water usage, about sound, about the impact on electricity rates for the average consumer, and all those things are addressed,” said Singh. “But at the end of the day, we are in a tech war against the most authoritarian country in the world, which is China … And so as we balance the need for technological innovation and to address the threat of our foreign adversaries with the realities on the ground, of the type of infrastructure that exists, I think we can find a middle ground.”
For the governor, it is two-pronged as well. Just switch out a cold war with China for market competition with other states.
“I think it's also important to recognize that there is a tremendous opportunity here in Wyoming that other states are very anxious to take away from us,” said Gordon. “Texas is a great place where people are building lots of data centers. They're talking about Louisiana, Nebraska doing it, Colorado, all of these other states.”
The governor wants to meet market demands by supplying the growing energy needs of data centers and tech investments with Wyoming energy sources such as coal, nuclear, wind and solar. Citing Wyoming’s “abundance” of energy, Gordon sees it as “an opportunity here for Wyoming to really rethink its place in the 21st century.”
In addition to energy requirements, AI data centers need to be kept cool, as well. There are a few different ways to do this, but liquid cooling is often used. Other data centers in the West have eyed the already-crowded Colorado River as a source. While it’s unknown where the new AI data center in Cheyenne will pull its water from, Gordon said the state is famous for protecting its water through law.
“It's sacred and we protect our water. And so if someone is planning to use water, we want to make sure they have the right to do it. They have to be able to secure that right. And that's a process that any farmer, any ranch or any city, any industry has to go through. So there's already protections in there. It's not like you have a new business show up and they can take water from somewhere else that has to go through our Wyoming law,” said Gordon.
As part of Pres. Trump’s efforts to rapidly expand the infrastructure necessary to outcompete China, his administration launched a federal plan called Stargate. The project will see companies invest $500 billion in data center development. When asked if Wyoming was involved to any degree, Gordon said, “I can't answer that.”
This reporting was made possible by a grant from the Corporation For Public Broadcasting, supporting state government coverage in the state. Wyoming Public Media and Jackson Hole Community Radio are partnering to cover state issues both on air and online.
