US Government-Held Bitcoin Locked Up for at Least 20 Years

A bill advanced by the US House of Representatives' financial services committee on September 16, 2026, would make America's government-held Bitcoin unsellable for at least twenty years. The American Reserve Modernization Act (H.R. 8957) aims to establish a strategic Bitcoin reserve and manage federal government holdings transparently.

The bill obliges the Treasury to set up a secure custody facility for Bitcoin within the department, channels all qualifying Bitcoin of the federal government into it, and prohibits any sale or other disposal during the minimum period of twenty years. This would lock up a significant source of supply in the market, affecting how large the effect would be on prices.

The US actually holds an estimated 198,000 BTC originating from forfeitures, while surveys put the figure at around 328,000 BTC for the entire federal holding. The bill itself addresses this gap by requiring quarterly reports with detailed information on total holdings, transactions, and demonstrated control over private keys.

Section 9 instructs the Treasury to examine budget-neutral routes for acquisitions, prohibiting any borrowing, new tax, or deficit-financed spending for Bitcoin purchases. This means a state that may only reallocate but not buy with fresh money is not a source of demand on which a price forecast can rest.