Bitcoin Reserve Bill Clears Committee
The House Financial Services Committee advanced H.R. 8957, the American Reserve Modernization Act, on a party-line vote, per Decrypt. The bill would codify the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve in statute, bar sales for 20 years except to retire federal debt, and mandate quarterly proof-of-reserve reports with third-party audits. Coverage cited prediction markets assigning roughly 6% odds of full passage. The reserve currently exists by executive order.
US Bitcoin Reserve Bill: a lock with 6% odds
The Bitcoin reserve already exists. It rests on one signature — Trump's executive order from March 2025.
A future president could unwind it with one signature of their own.
This week a House committee advanced the bill that would change that. H.R. 8957 writes the reserve into law. Locks the coins for 20 years — no sales, no swaps, except to pay down federal debt. And orders something no government has done: quarterly public proof the coins exist, with auditors checking the keys.
The bill is not for buying bitcoin — the purchase plan is a study that may go nowhere.
The bill is to lock the bitcoin reserve. An executive order vanishes with an election. A statute takes a fight to undo.
However, the committee vote split exactly on party lines. Twenty-three sponsors, one Democrat — who doesn't sit on the committee. Prediction markets give it roughly 6% odds of becoming law.
This week showed why that matters. CLARITY died because one party wouldn't vote for anything touching the president's crypto interests. A bitcoin reserve bill wears that problem on its face.
So the lock exists on paper, advanced by half of one committee, going nowhere fast.
The reserve keeps resting on a signature. And signatures wash off.
2 sources
- House Committee Advances US Bitcoin Reserve Bill on Party-Line Split · decrypt.co · T1
- Lawmakers pass bill to freeze federal Bitcoin holdings for two decades · cryptoslate.com · T2