Crypto
Congress Just Voted to Turn the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve Into Federal Law
On September 16, 2026, the House Financial Services Committee voted 28 to 21 to advance the American Reserve Modernization Act, the bill that would write President Donald Trump's Strategic Bitcoin Reserve into federal law. The measure, H.R. 8957, is the furthest a bitcoin reserve bill has traveled in Congress. Representative Nick Begich of Alaska introduced it on May 21 with Representative Jared Golden of Maine as co lead, and congressional records list 23 cosponsors. The vote split along party lines, with Golden the sole Democrat among the sponsors.
The bill converts the president's March 2025 executive order into statute. An executive order can be reversed by a future president with a signature, while a statute requires another act of Congress, so permanence is the part that matters to holders. The 19 page text directs the Treasury Department to maintain a secure bitcoin storage facility, centralizing coins the federal government holds through criminal and civil forfeiture. It creates a separate digital asset stockpile for other holdings, mandates ongoing accounting and oversight, and holds reserve bitcoin for 20 years. The amended version dropped the May draft's plan for Treasury purchases of up to a million coins over five years. It instead directs work on budget neutral strategies for acquiring more bitcoin, with direct purchases assessed in a 180 day study.
The custody argument carried the markup. Representative Bryan Steil of Wisconsin argued that federal bitcoin deserves better than fragmented and inconsistent custody, calling the arrangement a cybersecurity concern and saying it fails to show what the government actually owns. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told senators in June that the reserve was proceeding with roughly 207,000 bitcoin, funded by seizures rather than open market buying. Codification would make the temporary order harder to reverse while keeping the reserve a vault rather than a shopping cart. The bill directs the Treasury to hold, rather than to buy.
The road ahead stays long. The bill needs a House floor vote, Senate passage, and the presidential signature, and most Senate legislation needs 60 votes to clear a filibuster, with Republicans holding 53 seats. The House cancelled its final two weeks of September, and a companion bill has yet to pass the Senate. The bill expires if it remains unsigned before the new Congress convenes in January. Still, the direction of travel is unmistakable. Sovereign bitcoin moved from a campaign idea to an executive order to a committee vote in eighteen months. What it means for you. the United States is treating seized bitcoin as a permanent national asset, and every future administration will need Congress, rather than a pen, to change that.
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What is this story about?
On September 16, 2026, the House Financial Services Committee voted 28 to 21 to advance the American Reserve Modernization Act, the bill that would write President Donald Trump's Strategic Bitcoin Reserve into federal law. The measure, H.R. 8957, is the furthest a bitcoin reserve bill has traveled in Congress. Representative Nick Begich of Alaska introduced it on May 21 with Representative Jared Golden of Maine as co lead, and congressional records list 23 cosponsors. The vote split along party lines, with Golden the sole Democrat among the sponsors.
Why does this story matter?
The road ahead stays long. The bill needs a House floor vote, Senate passage, and the presidential signature, and most Senate legislation needs 60 votes to clear a filibuster, with Republicans holding 53 seats. The House cancelled its final two weeks of September, and a companion bill has yet to pass the Senate. The bill expires if it remains unsigned before the new Congress convenes in January. Still, the direction of travel is unmistakable. Sovereign bitcoin moved from a campaign idea to an executive order to a committee vote in eighteen months. What it means for you. the United States is treating seized bitcoin as a permanent national asset, and every future administration will need Congress, rather than a pen, to change that.
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