House Committee Sends Bitcoin Reserve Bill to Floor With a 20-Year Lock and No Buy Button 🗝️

The House Financial Services Committee voted 28-21 on Wednesday along party lines to advance the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve bill, formally titled the American Reserve Modernization Act (H.R. 8957), sending it toward a full chamber vote. The markup session began at 10:00 a.m. ET in Room 2128 of the Rayburn House Office Building, where the committee also considered eight additional pieces of legislation. An amendment from ranking member Maxine Waters (D-CA) failed on the same 21-28 split.

Committee chairman French Hill (R-AR) called the measure "a common-sense measure that brings digital assets held across federal agencies under Treasury custody and consistent oversight." The bill directs the Secretary of the Treasury to establish a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve within 180 days of enactment and a separate Digital Asset Stockpile for non-Bitcoin digital assets. Federal agencies would have 60 days to provide a complete accounting of every Bitcoin and digital asset under their control, with those holdings transferred to Treasury within 30 days after the reserve is stood up.

Once deposited, no Bitcoin in the reserve could be "sold, swapped, auctioned, encumbered, or otherwise disposed of for any purpose" for 20 years. Forked and airdropped assets would have to be held for one year rather than five. Proof-of-reserve reports would shift from quarterly to annual, and a prior requirement to post them on the Treasury website was dropped.

The text that advanced is narrower than the version introduced in May by Rep. Nicholas Begich (R-AK), who introduced H.R. 8957 on May 21 alongside Rep. Jared Golden (D-AK). The committee adopted a substitute amendment from Rep. Bryan Steil (R-WI) by voice vote, stripping provisions that had directed a study of acquiring Bitcoin using "discretionary surplus remittances from Federal Reserve Banks or revaluation of gold certificates held by the Federal Reserve Banks," tariff revenue, and gifts. The bill's long title was rewritten to drop language about offsetting costs using Federal Reserve System resources. Steil's version funds the reserve only through asset swaps, forfeitures, and cooperative programs with states, while expanding "Qualifying Bitcoin" to cover all Bitcoin the federal government owns rather than only seized coins.

The measure still authorizes no purchases, ordering Treasury and Commerce to study within 180 days whether additional Bitcoin acquisitions could be made without cost to taxpayers. That section expressly bars "any borrowing or other financing, including the pledging, encumbering, or use of any digital asset or other asset of the United States as collateral." Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent reinforced that stance separately on Fox Business, stating, "We're not going to be buying that," though he endorsed the concept of a U.S. strategic Bitcoin reserve. Proceeds from sales of stockpile assets, which the original bill earmarked for additional Bitcoin purchases or debt reduction, would now cover management costs first. The Digital Assets, Financial Technology, and Artificial Intelligence Subcommittee previously reviewed the bill on July 17 as part of a hearing on how the CLARITY Act could foster innovation.