Congress Advances American Reserve Modernization Act to Secure 324,527 Bitcoin in Federal Reserve

U.S. lawmakers moved fast. The House Committee on Financial Services cleared H.R. 8957 — the American Reserve Modernization Act of 2026 — with a 28-21 vote, pushing Washington closer to making Bitcoin a permanent fixture in federal reserves.

The bill, introduced by Representative Nicholas Begich, wants to do two things at once: create a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve and stand up a Digital Asset Stockpile under the Department of the Treasury. Both would hold Bitcoin and other digital assets the federal government picks up through criminal or civil forfeiture. The reserve lock-in period? Twenty years. Begich’s pitch to colleagues wasn’t ideological — he leaned hard on practical concerns, citing cybersecurity risks and what he called a lack of adequate accounting across federal agencies currently sitting on seized crypto. The government, he argued, needs consistent custody rules. Right now it basically doesn’t have them.

The numbers here are not small.

Current estimates put U.S. government Bitcoin holdings at roughly 324,527 BTC, worth around $24.7 billion. That’s a serious pile of digital assets spread across agencies with no unified reporting framework — which is kind of the whole problem the bill is trying to fix. Fragmented custody, no standard audits, no centralized picture of what the government actually owns. H.R. 8957 would change that.

What the Bill Actually Requires

The legislation comes with teeth on the transparency side. Every federal agency would have to account for its digital asset holdings. Quarterly “proof of reserve” reports would be mandatory. Third-party audits would come with them. That’s not a soft suggestion — it’s a reporting mandate baked into the bill’s text.

There’s also a provision encouraging states to store their own Bitcoin inside the Federal Reserve system, giving them a centralized, federally overseen option rather than figuring out their own custody arrangements. Whether states actually want that is unclear, but the option would be there.

And the bill calls for a study on budget-neutral strategies to expand the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve over time — meaning the government would look at ways to grow its holdings without just writing a check. No details yet on what those strategies might look like. The bill doesn’t spell that out.

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One piece that’ll probably get less attention but matters: H.R. 8957 explicitly reaffirms the rights of private Bitcoin ownership and self-custody. The language around financial sovereignty, privacy, and personal liberty in the digital era is in there, which is a notable signal given how much debate there’s been in Washington about whether the government views self-custody as a threat or a right.

Who’s Watching and What Comes Next

The bill’s got attention from outside Congress too. Bitcoin Policy Institute executive director Connor Brown and Strive CEO Matt Cole have both weighed in on its potential impact on crypto policy, per the source. Neither quote was specified, but their acknowledgment puts some institutional weight behind the push.

But a committee vote is not a law. Not even close. H.R. 8957 still needs to pass the full House, then clear the Senate, then land on the President’s desk. That’s a lot of steps, and the Senate’s appetite for Bitcoin legislation has been unpredictable. The 28-21 committee split doesn’t exactly scream bipartisan momentum, either. Seven votes is a thin margin for something this consequential.

The timing matters too. Trump’s executive order establishing the Bitcoin reserve was always vulnerable to reversal by a future administration. That’s the whole point of the legislation — to lock the policy into statute so it can’t just be unwound by whoever sits in the Oval Office next. Congressional codification is harder to undo than an executive order. That’s the bet Begich and supporters are making.

Broader Stakes for Digital Asset Policy

It’s worth stepping back. The U.S. holding $24.7 billion in Bitcoin and having no consistent federal framework for managing it is a pretty wild situation when you say it out loud. Agencies have been sitting on seized crypto for years with varying levels of rigor around how they track, store, and report it. Some of that Bitcoin has been sold at auction. Some has sat. The accounting has been messy.

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If H.R. 8957 passes in its current form, it would be the first statutory framework specifically governing federal Bitcoin reserves. That’s a meaningful precedent — not just for Bitcoin, but for how the government treats digital assets it acquires through law enforcement going forward.

The Digital Asset Stockpile provision covers assets beyond Bitcoin too, which means other seized crypto would fall under the same reporting and custody rules. Scope unclear on exactly which assets qualify, but the intent seems broad.

The committee cleared it. Now the real fight starts.

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