Invest2 publishers3 min readPublished
House committee strips the Fed and gold funding routes from the Bitcoin reserve bill
The version reported out of committee 28-21 keeps a 20-year lock on the 324,527 Bitcoin the government already holds and cuts proof-of-reserve reporting to once a year, with new buying left to a study.
The Investor · Invest desk
What happened
- All 28 votes to report the American Reserve Modernization Act favorably came from Republicans and all 21 against came from Democrats at the House Financial Services Committee.
- Once deposited, no Bitcoin could be sold, swapped, auctioned or encumbered for 20 years, and every federal agency would have to account for its holdings within 60 days.
- Arkham Intelligence estimates the federal government holds 324,527 Bitcoin, worth $24.7 billion.
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Why it matters
- constraint With no purchase authority in the text and Bessent having ruled out agency buying, the reserve can only grow through forfeitures, swaps and state programs, so nothing here puts Treasury behind a bid.
- contradiction A reader relying on Cointelegraph gets quarterly reports and third-party audits; a reader relying on Decrypt's account of the reported text gets one report a year, so the transparency question turns on which draft is being described.
- exposure The defeat of Waters' amendment leaves officials' and their families' digital asset holdings and compensation untouched by the bill, moving that fight to the House floor.
- precedent Locking every federally owned coin rather than only seized ones means a future administration that wants to sell any of it needs Congress, not a change of policy.
The clauses Rep. Bryan Steil's substitute removed were the only ones pointing toward new purchases. Rep. Nick Begich's May text directed a study of acquiring Bitcoin with "discretionary surplus remittances from Federal Reserve Banks or revaluation of gold certificates held by the Federal Reserve Banks," along with tariff revenue and gifts, and what remains is asset swaps, forfeitures and cooperative programs with states [9]. The long title's promise to "offset costs utilizing certain resources of the Federal Reserve System" was rewritten to drop the phrase [10]. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has separately ruled out agency purchases [17].
Arkham Intelligence estimates the government holds 324,527 Bitcoin worth $24.7 billion [20], which marks the holding at about $76,100 a coin [27]. Proceeds from selling stockpile assets would cover management costs first; Begich's version earmarked them for buying more Bitcoin or cutting the debt [13].
Twenty proof-of-reserve reports would cover the two decades of the hold, where quarterly filing would have produced 80 [28]. Forked and airdropped assets would have to be held one year instead of five [12].
The two published accounts of this bill do not describe the same document. Cointelegraph writes that the legislation establishes transparency measures including quarterly proof-of-reserve reports and third-party audits [23], and that it would let states store their Bitcoin at the Federal Reserve while directing a study of budget-neutral acquisition [24]. Decrypt reports that the text which advanced moved reporting to annual and dropped the requirement to post it on Treasury's website [11]. Begich introduced H.R. 8957 on May 21 [22], and the committee adopted Steil's substitute by voice vote before reporting the bill out [8].
Committee chairman French Hill called it "a common-sense measure that brings digital assets held across federal agencies under Treasury custody and consistent oversight" [6]. Begich said, "We cannot allow Bitcoin to be held by the federal government to languish in fragmented and inconsistent custody" [21]. Connor Brown, executive director of the Bitcoin Policy Institute, called it a "genuinely historic step for Bitcoin policy" [25].
One clause went the other way. "Qualifying Bitcoin" is no longer limited to coins seized in forfeiture and now covers all Bitcoin the federal government owns [14], so the 20-year lock reaches coins that were never seized.
Maxine Waters' amendment would have barred the president, vice president, members of Congress and their spouses, children and children-in-law from holding a controlling stake in any digital asset, serving as an officer or owner of an issuer, or taking "direct or indirect compensation, including fees, for the sale, marketing, or mining" of one [4]. It failed 21-28 [3].
What the committee reported is a custody and accounting bill. Agencies inventory what they hold, Treasury takes the keys, and the purchase question survives as a study by Treasury and Commerce into whether buying more could be done without cost to taxpayers, due within 180 days [15]. That same section 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" [16]. I would revise the reading if that study names a workable no-cost route, or if the Senate puts the remittance and gold revaluation language back in. Trump created the reserve by executive order in March 2025 [18], and the bill still has to clear the full House, with no companion passed in the Senate [19].
What to watch
- The Treasury and Commerce study due within 180 days, and whether it names a purchase route it can call costless to taxpayers.
- Whether a floor amendment restores quarterly proof-of-reserve reporting, the website posting requirement, or the Waters conflict-of-interest bar.
- Any Senate companion bill, and whether it revives the Federal Reserve remittance and gold certificate revaluation language.