Key Takeaways
The ARMA bill, backed by 14+ congressmen, aims for a 1M BTC federal reserve with a 20-year mandatory hold.Begich and Golden’s legislation authorizes the Treasury to buy up to 200,000 BTC annually for five years.The bill bans federal impairment of personal bitcoin ownership through an embedded self-custody clause.
Bipartisan ARMA Bill Targets 1 Million Bitcoin Reserve
Congressman Nick Begich (AK-AL) and co-lead Congressman Jared Golden (ME-02) formally introduced the American Reserve Modernization Act of 2026, known as ARMA, on May 21, backed by an immediate coalition of more than a dozen co-sponsors from both parties.
The legislation looks to establish a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve within the U.S. Department of the Treasury and a separate Digital Asset Stockpile for other federally held cryptocurrencies.
The bill’s headline provision is a 20-year mandatory holding period for any bitcoin acquired under the reserve, a clause designed to insulate the reserve from short-term political pressure and treat bitcoin as a long-term sovereign asset, on par with gold or strategic energy reserves rather than a tradable position subject to shifting administrations.
On the acquisition side, ARMA would authorize the Treasury to purchase up to 200,000 BTC per year for five years, targeting a goal of 1 million bitcoin under federal custody. Purchases would be funded through “budget-neutral acquisition strategies,” a provision that directs a formal study into how the government could expand the reserve without increasing taxes, adding to the deficit, or taking on new national debt obligations.
The bill also establishes quarterly “Proof of Reserve” reports and requires independent third-party audits of all federal digital asset holdings, creating a statutory transparency framework that the existing executive-order reserve (of holding only seized bitcoin) currently lacks.
ARMA Adds Self-Custody Protections as Bitcoin Reserve Momentum Builds
The bill explicitly prohibits the federal government from impairing the lawful right of Americans to own, transfer, or self-custody digital assets, a provision aimed at preempting any future regulatory effort to restrict personal bitcoin ownership under the guise of national reserve management.
Among the bill’s co-sponsors are Representatives Buddy Carter (GA-01), Barry Moore (AL-01), Burgess Owens (UT-04), Mike Carey (OH-15), Michael Rulli (OH-06), Riley Moore (WV-02), Pat Harrigan (NC-10), Matt Van Epps (TN-07), Mike Lawler (NY-17), Abraham Hamadeh (AZ-08), and several others.
ARMA arrives on the heels of a fast-moving legislative environment with Bitcoin.com News recently reporting that a White House adviser teased an imminent “big announcement” on the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve, while Senators Bill Cassidy and Cynthia Lummis introduced separate Senate legislation (in late March) to formalize the reserve and expand domestic bitcoin mining.
At the state level, too, at least two U.S. states enacted their own strategic bitcoin reserve laws within a 48-hour window last year.
Looking ahead, the latest bill’s bipartisan framing (with a Republican and a Democrat as co-leads) gives it a broader coalition than most digital asset legislation has managed to date. Even then, passage through the Senate still faces significant procedural hurdles.
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