The Financial Services Committee approved H.R. 8957 by 28 votes to 21 on Wednesday, but on a substitute text that replaced the bill Nick Begich introduced in May. The 20-year holding period survived; the quarterly proof-of-reserve report in the original became an annual one.
The House Financial Services Committee approved H.R. 8957, the American Reserve Modernization Act, by 28 votes to 21 on Wednesday, sending a statutory version of the US Strategic Bitcoin Reserve to the House floor. The committee's calendar lists the session as a markup of various measures, opening at 10 a.m. Eastern in room 2128 of the Rayburn building. Cointelegraph, crypto.news and TFTC each reported the same 28-21 count.
The text that advanced is not the text Representative Nick Begich introduced in May. Representative Bryan Steil offered an amendment in the nature of a substitute that replaced the bill in full and became the base document for the final vote, according to crypto.news and TFTC, which both report that it was adopted by voice vote first. That matters for anyone reading the bill, because the version posted on GovInfo is the introduced one.
That introduced text gives the Treasury Secretary 180 days to establish a "secure Bitcoin storage facility" called the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve, with a separate Digital Asset Stockpile for everything that is not bitcoin, and directs the Secretary to set security measures in consultation with the Defense and Homeland Security departments. Section 5 requires bitcoin deposited in the reserve to be held "for not less than 20 years from the date of deposit," and provides that during that period no bitcoin in the reserve "may be sold, swapped, auctioned, encumbered, or otherwise disposed of." Section 10 declares that the ability to hold one's own private keys is fundamental and protects lawful self-custody, an idea New Hampshire wrote into state law in July.
The substitute keeps the 20-year lock but moves its starting line. CoinGape's reading of the amendment before the markup, and TFTC's account after it, both describe a 20-year period running from the date of enactment for everything in the reserve rather than from each individual deposit. CoinGape also reports that assets arriving through forks or airdrops are locked for one year instead of the five in the original, that the ban on sales retains a rulemaking path if a future sale is judged to be in the national interest, and that proceeds from any stockpile sale would cover management costs first and then go to reducing the national debt.
The change that most affects what the public can see is to the reporting. Section 6 of the introduced bill requires "an ongoing Proof of Reserve system of public cryptographic attestation" with quarterly public reports showing "demonstrated control of private keys," verified by a third-party auditor and overseen by the Comptroller General. Crypto.news, TFTC and CoinGape all report that the substitute makes those reports annual. Cointelegraph's account describes quarterly reporting, which matches the introduced text rather than the version the committee voted on.
Annual is still more than exists now. No official proof-of-reserve report confirms what the federal government holds, crypto.news notes. It cites Arkham Intelligence research from August putting it near 325,000 bitcoin across addresses associated with the government. Cointelegraph gives 324,527 bitcoin, worth about $24.7 billion at the time it published. The executive order that created the reserve in March 2025 covered roughly 200,000 coins seized in criminal and civil forfeiture and told agencies not to sell them. When wallets tied to the government moved about 3,800 bitcoin and 30,007 ether to Coinbase Prime in July, MiningPool reported the movement because a blockchain analytics firm flagged it, not because anyone in Washington disclosed it.
Steil told the committee the reserve is "a smart financial strategy that will increase our reserve strength while also reducing our deficit," The Block reported. Committee chair French Hill described the measure as bringing federally held assets under Treasury custody and consistent oversight, according to crypto.news. Begich argued that government bitcoin should not sit in fragmented and inconsistent custody; the two newsrooms that carried the line render it differently, so it is paraphrased here rather than quoted. Representative Bill Foster, an Illinois Democrat, opposed the bill on the grounds that bitcoin is not critically important to the US economy and is too volatile, The Block reported.
Three crypto measures moved in Congress in two days. The CLARITY Act fell 11 votes short of opening Senate debate on Tuesday. On Wednesday the Ways and Means Committee approved a crypto tax bill in a separate markup, and Financial Services approved this one. The tax bill and the market-structure bill would both change what private firms may do. H.R. 8957 changes what the Treasury must do with coins the government already holds.
A committee vote sends a bill to the House floor and no further. The Senate companion, introduced by Senator Cynthia Lummis, has not passed, The Block reported. Crypto.news adds that the amended bill would let states park bitcoin in segregated Treasury accounts while keeping ownership, and sets the Treasury two clocks: 60 days to account for federal digital assets and 180 days to stand up the reserve. Both run from an enactment that has not happened.
