New Bitcoin Reserve Bill Pressures Treasury On Custody Rules
The US House Appropriations Committee has superior H.R. 5166 — the Financial Services and General Government (FSGG) spending invoice for FY2026 — with language that might formally direct the Treasury Department to spell out how the federal authorities will custody Bitcoin and different digital belongings it acquires, explicitly together with holdings earmarked for the newly created Strategic Bitcoin Reserve. The invoice was reported on September 5, 2025, as House Report 119-236 and positioned on the Union Calendar.
Congress Demands Public Information On Bitcoin Reserve
At the statutory degree, Section 138 of the reported bill requires the Treasury, inside 90 days of enactment, to ship a public plan for the “safe and environment friendly custody” of federal digital belongings, “together with belongings held beneath the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve and the US Digital Asset Stockpile.” The plan should delineate custody structure, authorized authorities, cybersecurity controls, and interagency workflows for transfers and safekeeping.
Section 137 provides a second mandate: a report on the practicability of building the reserve and the associated stockpile, addressing potential limitations, the anticipated influence on the Treasury Forfeiture Fund, how Bitcoin and different digital belongings could be offered on the federal steadiness sheet, and any third-party contractors used for custody. Read collectively, the 2 sections would power the Treasury to make clear each whether or not and the way the federal authorities will keep long-term Bitcoin holdings — and what meaning for presidency accounting and forfeiture-fund mechanics.
The committee report accompanying the invoice underlines Congress’s intent to trace the movement of seized belongings into this system. It directs the Treasury to supply month-to-month tables of the Forfeiture Fund’s exercise, together with any “diversions from the Forfeiture Fund to the Bitcoin Strategic Reserve and/or the digital asset stockpile.” That identical report part labels the custody directive “Custody of Digital Assets,” emphasizing robust safeguards to forestall loss, unauthorized entry, or liquidation.
The push comes six months after the White House issued Executive Order 14233, which created each the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve and the US Digital Asset Stockpile by consolidating government-owned crypto seized in felony and civil circumstances. The order states that authorities BTC positioned into the reserve “shall not be bought,” positioning Bitcoin as a strategic asset held for nationwide goals topic to regulation. It additionally instructs Treasury and Commerce to develop methods to amass extra authorities BTC on a budget-neutral basis.
H.R. 5166 would additionally carry the national-security group into the loop. Section 139 directs the Treasury Secretary and the Director of the National Security Agency to supply a categorized report on inter-agency coordination inside 90 days of enactment — a sign that lawmakers see digital-asset custody (and key administration) as an operational threat floor in addition to a balance-sheet query.
The legislative strain is going on alongside separate efforts to codify the reserve. In March, Rep. Byron Donalds introduced H.R. 2112 to present the chief order “the power and impact of regulation,” whereas different measures, akin to H.R. 2032, have proposed constructing out a decentralized, cold-storage reserve community for presidency BTC. None of these standalone payments has been enacted, however the appropriations route, if handed, would time-box the Treasury to ship concrete solutions shortly after the spending invoice turns into regulation.
What Changes If H.R. 5166 Becomes Law?
First, the Treasury would owe the general public an in depth custody blueprint, not simply inside memoranda or ad-hoc practices developed for asset seizures. Second, Congress would obtain an analytical roadmap for the way a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve and stockpile would work together with forfeiture processes and the federal steadiness sheet — key inputs for any future determination to scale this system past seized belongings.
Third, the categorized NSA-Treasury report would institutionalize safety coordination round pockets infrastructure and interagency transfers. Together, these steps would shift the federal authorities’s dealing with of Bitcoin from case-by-case liquidation in the direction of an outlined reserve posture aligned with the March 6 coverage that reserve BTC is to not be bought.
However, the measure doesn’t itself applicable BTC, buy Bitcoin on the open market, or authorize fast diversions into the reserve; it units reporting and planning obligations contingent on enactment of the underlying appropriations invoice. The House-reported textual content should nonetheless clear the complete House, the Senate, and reconciliation earlier than reaching the President’s desk. Until then, the timelines — “inside 90 days of enactment” — are potential.
At press time, BTC traded at $112,700.