House committee advances H.R. 8957 Bitcoin reserve bill 28–21 with 20-year Treasury lockup
By 8bitcrypto
September 17, 2026
The U.S. House Committee on Financial Services advanced the American Reserve Modernization Act of 2026 (H.R. 8957) on September 16 in a 28–21 vote, clearing a committee hurdle for a bill that would put federally held Bitcoin into a statutory Strategic Bitcoin Reserve at the Treasury—and keep it there for at least 20 years. Introduced by Rep. Nicholas Begich with Democratic co-lead Rep. Jared Golden, the measure also creates a separate Digital Asset Stockpile for other forfeited digital assets. For NFT collectors who price floors in BTC, that is not a mint announcement; it is a custody-and-hold rule for coins the government already seized.
In plain English, the committee-approved text would require qualifying federal Bitcoin to move into the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve and bar Treasury from selling, swapping, auctioning, encumbering, or otherwise disposing of reserve BTC for two decades. Federal agencies would have 60 days after enactment to give Treasury a full accounting of Bitcoin and other digital assets they hold, seize, or control. Treasury would then have 180 days to stand up the reserve and stockpile and transfer eligible assets into those structures. The bill builds on President Trump’s March 2025 executive order that directed Treasury to keep forfeited Bitcoin as reserve assets rather than routinely liquidate them—H.R. 8957 would put that approach into statute with tighter reporting.
Transparency language is the other retail-readable piece. Coverage of the markup says Treasury would need a public cryptographic Proof of Reserve system plus an annual report on holdings, transactions, and private-key control, verified by an independent third-party auditor with cryptographic-attestation expertise, with ongoing oversight from the U.S. Comptroller General. A related study track would push Treasury and Commerce to examine budget-neutral ways to add more Bitcoin within 180 days—no new borrowing, taxation, or deficit spending in the proposed study frame. Cointelegraph separately attributed an Arkham Intelligence estimate of roughly 324,527 federal Bitcoin (~$24.7 billion at the time of that report); treat that as a third-party holdings estimate, not a bill figure.
Timing matters for crypto desks. The committee vote landed one day after the Senate failed to advance the CLARITY Act on a 49–50 cloture tally that needed 60 votes—a setback 8bitcrypto already covered on the Plain English Policy desk. CLARITY is about market-structure jurisdiction; H.R. 8957 is about how the federal government custody-manages Bitcoin it already owns through forfeiture. They are not the same bill. Supporters argue centralized Treasury custody and a long hold reduce fragmented agency risk; Rep. Bill Foster opposed the reserve idea at markup over Bitcoin’s volatility as a government reserve asset, per markup coverage.
Begich’s public case for the bill, as quoted in coverage of the markup, stresses fragmented federal custody as a cybersecurity and accounting problem—language aimed at consolidating seized coins under Treasury rather than inventing a new purchase mandate on day one.
What Thursday’s file proves is narrow. A House committee reported H.R. 8957 favorably 28–21 with a twenty-year no-sale lockup, agency accounting clocks, and proof-of-reserve reporting language. What it does not prove is that the full House has voted, that the Senate will pass it, or that any NFT floor will reprice solely because committee markup succeeded. No floor vote is scheduled in the coverage reviewed for this note. Watch the House floor calendar, any Senate companion, and the first Treasury accounting memos if the bill ever becomes law before treating reserve custody as live operational fact.
For 8bitcrypto readers on September 17, the clean Policy line is that Washington moved one committee step toward locking forfeited Bitcoin into a long-horizon Treasury vault—macro custody language that sits behind BTC bid currency, not a collector airdrop.
Disclaimer: This article is provided for informational and educational purposes only. It does not constitute financial, investment, legal, or trading advice. The NFT market is highly volatile, and past performance is not indicative of future results. Readers should conduct their own research and consult qualified professionals before making any decisions related to digital assets. The cover image for this article may have been created using artificial intelligence (AI).
