The U.S. Bitcoin reserve bill cleared a key hurdle in the House Financial Services Committee on Wednesday, the 16th of September.
During the markup, the committee passed the bill, also known as the American Modernization Act (H.R. 8957), with a 28-21 vote. The legislation was introduced in May by Congressman Nick Begich and 20 other co-sponsors.
Speaking on the bill’s markup progress, Begich hailed chairmen French Hill of the Financial Services Committee and Bryan Steil of the Crypto Subcommittee for advancing the legislation. He added,
This bipartisan legislation protects the American principles of financial sovereignty through self-custody, while establishing a clear Congressional framework for responsibly securing digital asset holdings held across our federal government.
In his support for the BTC reserve bill, Representative Steil echoed Begich’s stance and warned,
We cannot allow Bitcoin to be held by the federal government to languish in fragmented and inconsistent custody. It poses unacceptable cybersecurity risks and fails to give an adequate accounting of what the federal government actually owns.
For Steil, the bill offers the right framework to address these issues.
Industry reaction to the US Bitcoin reserve bill
The move was a complete surprise, given that the broader crypto market structure bill, the CLARITY Act, failed its Senate procedural vote earlier in the week.
For his part, Conner Brown, the Executive Director of advocacy organization Bitcoin Policy Institute (BPI), termed the BTC reserve bill vote a “historic step.”
A genuinely historic step for Bitcoin policy today. For the first time, a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve bill was considered by a federal committee, and it passed.
In fact, this was not the only legislative win for the sector. Separately, the House also cleared the crypto tax bill. This meant both bills moved closer to becoming law, but there is a caveat.
What’s next for US Bitcoin reserve bill?
However, there’s nearly a 90% chance the Democrats will win House control in the November midterm elections. This could stall the BTC reserve bill’s momentum from becoming final law.
Interestingly, the prediction site Polymarket was still pricing only a 6% chance of the bill becoming law in 2026. Undoubtedly, the pessimistic outlook was tied to the uncertainty around House control by Democrat Party ahead of the midterms.
Already, the Democrats voted against the bill in the markup. Notably, Congressman Bill Foster, a Democrat, slammed the bill as part of the Trump family corruption spree.
This bill will use taxpayer resources to boost the price of Bitcoin, which will only be great for crypto billionaires as well as Trump and his family.
As such, despite clearing the committee hurdle, the bill may fail if Democrats regain House control.
Final Summary
- The BTC reserve bill passed committee, but the outcome of the November elections could affect its progress
- There was an 89% chance Democrats could regain House control and stall the bill
