House Financial Services Committee Passes Strategic Bitcoin Reserve (BTC) Bill, 28-21

Treasury Custody and a 20-Year Hold

The American Reserve Modernization Act of 2026 would consolidate every bitcoin the federal government acquires through criminal and civil forfeiture into a single Strategic Bitcoin Reserve administered by the Treasury Department — and would bar the government from selling or otherwise disposing of those coins for at least twenty years after enactment, a statutory HODL mandate without precedent in US law. The bill, filed as H.R. 8957, cleared the House Financial Services Committee on September 16 in a 28-21 vote, a roll call the panel's official account confirmed in a post on X, advancing the text toward a vote by the full House. Alaska Representative Nick Begich, a Republican, introduced the measure on May 21, with Maine Democrat Jared Golden listed as co-sponsor. Forfeiture — the legal process by which authorities seize assets connected to criminal activity — is the reserve's only stated funding source in the current text. The reserve it creates would be the federal government's first formal long-term custody structure for bitcoin, while a separate Digital Asset Stockpile would hold any other digital assets the government comes to possess. Beyond custody, the text directs Treasury to build a proof-of-reserves framework, a mechanism for demonstrating that reported holdings actually exist, and requires annual reports on the reserve's balance together with third-party audits. The bill also records Congress's view that individuals retain the right to self-custody their digital assets and to control their own private keys, the cryptographic credentials that grant exclusive access to a self-hosted wallet. It amounts to the most direct legislative step yet in Washington's Bitcoin policy arc, and the 28-21 margin suggests support stretched beyond the bill's bipartisan sponsorship, though individual roll-call positions have not been published.

confirmed in a post on Xhttps://x.com/FinancialCmte/status/2100325232527421506?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

State Accounts and a 38-5 Tax Vote

A second structural clause instructs Treasury to study ways of growing the reserve through budget-neutral methods — approaches that impose no additional burden on taxpayers — although the bill names no specific funding mechanism, leaving that design question to future legislation. The text also opens the reserve to state participation: any state government may voluntarily deposit bitcoin it already holds into a segregated account within the federal reserve, and ownership of the deposited coins stays with the state. The same day, the House Ways and Means Committee approved the Digital Asset Tax Certainty Act, H.R. 10357, by a 38-5 margin. That bill is designed to bring US tax treatment of digital assets into line with that of established financial instruments. It would relieve the tax burden on small network and transaction fees paid in crypto, clarify how mining and staking rewards are taxed, and extend long-standing anti-avoidance provisions to digital assets — including the wash-sale rule, which blocks investors from claiming a loss on an asset sold and promptly repurchased, and constructive-sale rules that treat certain offsetting positions as completed sales. The text builds on a July 2025 subcommittee hearing and a June 2026 hearing before the full committee. Chair Jason Smith, a Missouri Republican, has argued that tax clarity is needed to stop crypto innovation and jobs from moving overseas and to keep the United States the 'world's crypto capital.' Neither bill is law. Each still requires a vote on the House floor and, if passed there, Senate consideration — and no floor date has been set for ARMA. The committee wins arrived a day after the Senate failed to cut off debate on the CLARITY Act, the broader market-structure bill: a failed cloture vote of 49-50 on September 15 fell short of the 60 votes required, leaving market-structure questions unresolved even as the seven Senate Democrats who blocked the motion face renewed pressure, and even as the SEC and CFTC have pledged direct rulemaking in the bill's absence. Readers tracking the market in real time can follow live spot and futures prices on Binance.

No Floor Date for H.R. 8957

COINOTAG's read of the bill text is that the twenty-year hold is the provision doing the most work. As introduced, H.R. 8957 binds only federal holdings, takes effect upon enactment, and does not touch privately held bitcoin — and it remains a proposal, not law, until both chambers vote. Strip out the hold restriction, and the rest — audits, state accounts, budget-neutral expansion — collapses into a managed inventory the Treasury could liquidate at will. The two committee votes of September 16 nonetheless mark how far Bitcoin (BTC) fundamentals have shifted: the question in Washington is no longer whether the state should hold bitcoin, but for how long.