Treasury to lock $6B annually in Bitcoin—bypassing Congress's budget power

What it does

This bill directs the U.S. Treasury to purchase 1 million Bitcoin over 5 years and establish a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve—a network of secure storage facilities across the country—to hold the government's Bitcoin holdings for at least 20 years. The bill also allows states to voluntarily store their own Bitcoin in segregated accounts within the reserve, and funds the purchases using Federal Reserve remittances and gold certificate revaluations, rather than direct appropriations.

Why we flagged it

The bill's core function is to establish a government Bitcoin reserve and purchase program, funded through Federal Reserve earnings and gold certificate revaluation rather than direct appropriation. This is a novel fiscal mechanism that treats Bitcoin as a strategic national asset comparable to gold reserves.

• Section 9 amends the Federal Reserve Act and gold certificate procedures to fund Bitcoin purchases—a mechanism substantively unrelated to the core Bitcoin reserve policy and buried in fiscal/technical language.

What the text implies

• The bill commits $6 billion annually in Federal Reserve remittances (fiscal years 2025–2029) to Bitcoin purchases, reducing funds available for debt reduction or other Treasury priorities, with no sunset or recapture mechanism if Bitcoin depreciates.
• The 20-year minimum holding period locks the government into a volatile, speculative asset with no flexibility to respond to market crashes, regulatory changes, or competing fiscal needs.

The full analysis lists 5 implications of this text.

Who stands to gain

Bitcoin holders and cryptocurrency ecosystem (increased institutional demand and legitimacy); Cryptocurrency exchanges and custodians (potential contracts for storage and auditing); Financial institutions with regulatory exposure to digital assets (AIG, FBK, FMAO, PFG, PRU—mapped a