Key Takeaways

ARMA would make the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve a permanent federal program rather than an executive-order policy.
Government-held bitcoin placed in the Reserve would generally face a 20-year restriction on selling, exchanging, auctioning or collateralization.
The bill would introduce public proof-of-reserve reporting, independent audits and studies on acquiring additional bitcoin without raising taxes or increasing the deficit.

What the Bill Would Change

The US House Financial Services Committee has advanced a bill that would turn President Donald Trump’s Strategic Bitcoin Reserve into a permanent part of US law.

The American Reserve Modernization Act of 2026, or ARMA (H.R. 8957), passed the committee by a 28-21 vote on September 16.

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The bill would require the US government to place bitcoin obtained through criminal and civil forfeitures into a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve managed by the Treasury Department. It would also require the government to hold the bitcoin for at least 20 years.

However, the bill is not yet law. It still needs to pass the full House and Senate before it can reach the president’s desk.

Trump created the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve through an executive order in March 2025. The order directed the federal government to keep bitcoin seized through criminal and civil forfeitures instead of selling it through auctions.

The problem is that an executive order can be changed or canceled by a future president.
ARMA would put the policy into federal law, making the reserve much harder for a future administration to reverse.

The US government is estimated to hold more than 300,000 BTC. Arkham Intelligence estimates the figure at about 324,527 BTC, worth roughly $24.7 billion based on the figures cited in the reports.

US government’s estimated digital assets holdings — Arkham Intelligence

The exact amount is uncertain because the government has not published a single, reconciled balance sheet of all its bitcoin holdings.

The most important part of the bill for bitcoin holders is its proposed 20-year holding requirement.

Under the legislation, bitcoin placed in the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve would generally not be available for sale, exchange, auction or use as collateral during that period. That would effectively remove a large amount of government-held bitcoin from potential selling pressure for two decades.

The bill also directs the Treasury and Commerce departments to study ways to acquire additional bitcoin over five years without increasing taxes, government borrowing or the federal deficit.

It does not, however, provide money for the government to simply go into the market and buy bitcoin. ARMA would also require federal agencies to report the digital assets they hold or control.

The legislation calls for public proof-of-reserve reporting and independent audits, giving the public more information about how much bitcoin the government owns and whether it controls the corresponding private keys.

The bill would require the Treasury Department to provide regular public reporting on the federal government’s Strategic Bitcoin Reserve, with different requirements for quarterly and annual reports:

Quarterly reports, prepared by the Treasury secretary, would disclose the Reserve’s total bitcoin holdings, transactions during the period and evidence that the government maintains control of the private keys securing the assets.

The reports would also include a public cryptographic attestation and would be posted on the Treasury Department’s website. An independent third-party auditor with expertise in cryptographic attestations would be selected to verify the accuracy and integrity of the quarterly reports, while the Comptroller General would conduct oversight of the Reserve, the reports and the audits.
Separately, the Treasury secretary and Commerce secretary would be required to provide Congress with an initial study and annual updates examining the potential acquisition of additional bitcoin over the following five years.

The reports would assess the risks, costs and potential benefits of acquiring more bitcoin and examine whether purchases could be made in a budget-neutral manner.

The reports would go to the Senate Banking and Finance committees and the House Financial Services and Ways and Means committees.

Begich, the bill's sponsor, argued that the current system is too fragmented.
“We cannot allow Bitcoin to be held by the federal government to languish in fragmented and inconsistent custody,” Begich said, pointing to cybersecurity and accounting concerns.

The bill separates Bitcoin from other digital assets.

Digital assets obtained through government forfeitures would generally go into a separate Digital Asset Stockpile rather than the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve. This means assets such as Ether and other tokens would not necessarily face the same 20-year restriction as bitcoin.

The legislation also includes provisions protecting private bitcoin ownership and self-custody. It states that nothing in the law would authorize the government to confiscate or interfere with lawfully held private bitcoin.

Supporters say the bill would give the Bitcoin already held by the government a clear long-term structure.