In 1933, FDR ordered Americans to surrender their gold to save the banking system. 93 years later, Washington wants to do the opposite: legally bind itself to hoard a decentralized digital commodity. On June 8, the full text of H.R. 8957, the American Reserve Modernization Act (ARMA), went public: a 20-year lock-up on the government’s 328,372 BTC, mandatory proof-of-reserve, and zero new spending authority. The only legal exit is selling to reduce the $39T national debt. [BILL] [NEWS]

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What happened

Rep. Nick Begich (R-AK) introduced ARMA on May 21 with Democratic co-lead Rep. Jared Golden (D-ME) and 16+ co-sponsors; it sits in the House Financial Services Committee. The bill formally establishes a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve under the Treasury with a 20-year minimum hold: no sale, swap, auction, or encumbrance, with one exception, direct reduction of the federal debt. It mandates quarterly proof-of-reserve via public cryptographic attestation, verified by an independent third-party auditor and published on Treasury’s website. All other seized crypto (ETH, SOL, XRP, the rest) goes into a separate Digital Asset Stockpile. “The United States government already holds billions in seized Bitcoin with no coherent strategy for managing it, and that needs to change,” said co-sponsor Rep. Pat Harrigan (R-NC). [BILL] [RELEASE]

What’s in the vault: the US holds an estimated 328,372 BTC, roughly $20B at current prices, accumulated entirely through forfeitures: Silk Road, the Bitfinex hack recovery, and a decade of smaller seizures. That’s about 1.56% of total supply, the largest known sovereign position. The rumored 600,000 BTC Venezuelan “shadow reserve” was never verified; tracked holdings remain unchanged. Germany is the cautionary tale: it sold ~50,000 seized BTC in July 2024 at ~$58,000 and watched the price clear $100,000 within four months. [NEWS]

The buried detail: ARMA mandates no purchases. But it directs Treasury to study budget-neutral acquisition strategies, including revaluing the Federal Reserve’s gold certificates, carried at the statutory $42.22 an ounce since 1973, to market prices. The paper gain could fund Bitcoin purchases without new debt or taxes. Read carefully: the bill buys nothing today and quietly builds the buying machinery for tomorrow. [ANALYSIS]