American elected officials revive the strategic Bitcoin reserve project

The US Congress puts Bitcoin back at the center of the political game. With the ARMA project, elected officials want to turn bitcoins already held by the state into a real strategic reserve, governed by law.

Washington wants to give Bitcoin an official status

The US Congress is reviving the battle around the United States’ strategic Bitcoin reserve with the American Reserve Modernization Act of 2026. The text, notably supported by Nick Begich and Jared Golden, aims to create a federal reserve of bitcoins managed by the US Treasury.

The idea is not only to store digital assets. It is especially to bring Bitcoin into the language of national reserves. In other words, to consider it as a strategic asset, on par with a stock that the state does not resell at the whim of political cycles.

The ARMA project follows the spirit of the BITCOIN Act, but with a more institutional ambition. It wants to lock the subject into law. This is where the file becomes sensitive. A Bitcoin reserve voted by Congress would carry more weight than a simple presidential decree.

A reserve designed to last twenty years

The strongest point of the text remains its long-term custody logic. The bitcoins placed in the reserve should be kept for at least twenty years. However, one exception exists: they could be sold to reduce the US national debt.

This choice sends a clear message to the market. The United States does not only want to accumulate. They want to avoid rushed sales that have sometimes marked the management of bitcoins seized in legal proceedings. It is a way of saying: the stock becomes political, almost patrimonial.

ARMA also aims to acquire one million bitcoins over five years through budget-neutral strategies. In plain terms, the project seeks to avoid direct taxpayer money. This detail is crucial because it attempts to defuse the most obvious opponents’ argument: why buy such a volatile asset with public funds?

The debate goes far beyond the price of bitcoin. ARMA also wants to enforce regular proof-of-reserve reports and independent audits. In a sector often criticized for its opacity, this promise of transparency is not decorative. It serves to make the idea more acceptable to the general public.

The text also emphasizes digital property rights. It states that the federal government must not infringe on individuals’ rights to own or self-custody their digital assets. This detail speaks directly to the crypto culture, deeply attached to self-custody.

It is also a subtle political maneuver. The text’s proponents are not merely selling a national reserve. They associate bitcoin with financial sovereignty, individual freedom, and state modernization. The vocabulary is chosen carefully. It targets investors but also voters wary of Washington.

A battle far from won

The path remains complicated. In March 2025, Donald Trump had already signed a decree establishing a strategic bitcoin reserve funded by assets seized by the state. But a decree does not have the same solidity as a law. This is precisely the gap ARMA wants to fill.

Jared Golden summed it up simply: the United States already holds bitcoin, but Congress has never set a clear federal policy to manage this asset. The ARMA project therefore tries to turn an existing accumulation into an assumed national strategy.

This battle is part of a larger sequence, opened by the decree that transformed bitcoin into a state asset. ARMA does not guarantee an immediate revolution. But it shows one thing: Bitcoin is no longer treated as a marginal curiosity in Washington. It becomes a subject of public strategy.