Draft Bill Would Create a U.S. Strategic Bitcoin Reserve With a 20-Year Lock-Up and Quarterly Proof-of-Reserves
A newly published House bill would formalize a U.S. Strategic Bitcoin Reserve, requiring the Treasury to keep any Bitcoin placed into the reserve for at least 20 years and to publish quarterly, publicly audited proof-of-reserves.
Rep. Nick Begich (R-AK) introduced H.R. 8957, the American Reserve Modernization Act of 2026 (ARMA), on May 21 with co-lead Rep. Jared Golden (D-ME) and 16 original co-sponsors. The measure has been referred to the House Committee on Financial Services.
Under the bill, the Treasury Secretary must hold all Bitcoin deposited in the reserve for a minimum of 20 years. During that period, the government may not "sell, swap, auction, encumber, or otherwise dispose of" the BTC for any purpose. The sole carve-out allows sales to reduce the national debt, which exceeded $39 trillion when the bill was introduced. Supporters say the lock-up is meant to shield the reserve from short-term political pressure and deter future administrations from liquidating holdings.
ARMA also mandates quarterly proof-of-reserve reports posted on an official Treasury website. Reports must disclose total holdings and all transactions, and include a public cryptographic attestation showing the government controls the private keys. Each report must be verified by an independent third-party auditor with expertise in cryptographic attestations.
Beyond Bitcoin, the proposal creates a separate Digital Asset Stockpile to centralize custody of all other federally held non-Bitcoin digital assets now spread across multiple agencies.
On acquisitions, ARMA sets a target of up to 1 million BTC under federal custody, acquired at a pace of up to 200,000 BTC per year over five years. At a Bitcoin price of $62,123, a 1 million BTC reserve would amount to about $62.1 billion.
The bill does not authorize open-market purchases funded through appropriations. Instead, it directs the Treasury to study budget-neutral acquisition options, including revaluing the Federal Reserve's gold certificates at current market prices. The revaluation would generate paper gains that could be used to fund BTC purchases without increasing the national debt or raising taxes.
The U.S. government currently holds roughly 328,372 BTC, valued at about $20.4 billion at current prices, largely from law-enforcement forfeitures. ARMA would consolidate those holdings into the new reserve, replacing a history of ad hoc auctions. In the bill's official press release, original co-sponsor Rep. Pat Harrigan (R-NC) said: "The United States government already holds billions in seized Bitcoin with no coherent strategy for managing it, and that needs to change." Begich framed the effort as a matter of financial sovereignty, arguing that "Private property rights are fundamental to the American Ideal, and those rights must extend fully into the digital space."
The proposal lands as Congress accelerates broader crypto legislation. The CLARITY Act, a digital-asset market structure bill, cleared the Senate Banking Committee in a 15–9 vote on May 14. Sen. Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.) said a Senate floor vote could come as soon as mid-June. Patrick Witt of the White House President's Council of Advisors for Digital Assets called ARMA "Version 2," saying it builds on earlier BITCOIN Act proposals introduced in 2024 and updated in March 2025.
Key uncertainties remain. The bill does not guarantee the budget-neutral acquisition concept will work, and the Treasury-Commerce study is directed but not required to reach a specific conclusion. The House Financial Services Committee has not set a markup date, and it remains unclear whether ARMA can advance on its own or alongside the CLARITY Act amid a crowded Senate calendar.
