H.R. 2032 — BITCOIN Act of 2025

This section states congressional findings recognizing Bitcoin's role as a resilient digital asset and medium of exchange, comparable to gold reserves; the benefits of U.S. acquisition and long-term storage of substantial quantities of Bitcoin to enhance national financial security, hedge against economic uncertainty, complement existing reserves, and strengthen the U.S. dollar's global position.

This section defines terms used in the Act, including airdrop (i.e., a gratuitous distribution of digital assets to holders of Bitcoin in a broad, equitable, and non-discretionary manner), Bitcoin Purchase Program (i.e., the program established under section 5(a)), cold storage (i.e., a method of storing private keys required to transact in Bitcoin with a nexus to a secure physical location protected from unauthorized access and isolated from network connections), fork (i.e., a change to the consensus mechanism of a distributed ledger that creates a separate ledger and new digital asset sharing a common transaction history with Bitcoin up to the point of the change), Secretary (i.e., the Secretary of the Treasury), and Strategic Bitcoin Reserve (i.e., the decentralized network of secure Bitcoin storage facilities established under section 4(a)).

This section establishes the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve, a decentralized network of secure cold storage facilities distributed across the United States for government Bitcoin holdings, with the Secretary of the Treasury responsible for generating and managing associated private keys, ongoing monitoring and auditing, geographic dispersion to minimize compromise risks, and state-of-the-art physical and digital security measures developed in consultation with the Secretaries of Defense and Homeland Security and industry experts. The Reserve must account for and store all digital assets from Bitcoin forks and airdrops. Such assets may not be sold for five years from receipt unless authorized by law; thereafter, (1) the Secretary must assess and retain the fork asset with the highest publicly traded market capitalization, (2) the Secretary may sell or dispose of other fork assets with proceeds to the Treasury general fund, and (3) if a non-dominant fork asset has novel technological utility or strategic value (as determined with the Secretary of Commerce and experts), the Secretary may recommend its retention to Congress.

This section establishes a Bitcoin Purchase Program directing the Secretary of the Treasury to purchase 200,000 Bitcoins per year over five years, totaling 1,000,000 Bitcoins, in a transparent and strategic manner to minimize market disruption, with flexibility to adjust the schedule by rule based on market conditions and offsets for transfers to the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve. All purchased Bitcoins must be deposited in the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve and held for a minimum of 20 years from acquisition, regardless of acquisition method, with no sales, swaps, auctions, encumbrances, or other disposals permitted during that period; two years before the holding period ends for any Bitcoin, the Secretary must recommend to Congress whether to continue holding or allow gradual release solely to reduce the national debt, limited to no more than 10% of reserve assets in any two-year period thereafter. The section further authorizes additional Bitcoin acquisitions beyond 1,000,000—via federal agency transfers, forfeitures, gifts, or other lawful means excluding direct program purchases—which must be deposited in the reserve, subjected to the same holding period and requirements, and reported annually to the public for 20 years beginning one year after enactment; it also requires coordination of program purchases with any Exchange Stabilization Fund (ESF) Bitcoin purchases, where the ESF supports U.S. exchange rate stability through transactions in gold, foreign exchange, and related instruments.

This section establishes a Proof of Reserve system of public cryptographic attestation for the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve. Under the system, the Secretary of the Treasury must (1) publish quarterly public reports detailing total holdings, transactions, and demonstrated control of private keys, including cryptographic attestation; (2) make the reports available on Treasury's website; and (3) select an independent third-party auditor with cryptographic expertise to verify report accuracy and integrity. The Comptroller General of the United States must conduct regular oversight of the reserve, reports, and audits.

This section prohibits the sale, swap, auction, or other encumbrance of Bitcoin under the control of any federal agency—including the U.S. Marshals Service—beginning on the date of enactment. It further directs agency heads to transfer legal title to such Bitcoin (including after final, unappealable forfeiture judgments) to the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve.

This section establishes a voluntary program allowing states to store their Bitcoin holdings in segregated accounts within the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve. Participating states must enter a contractual agreement that (1) specifies responsibilities of the state and Reserve for managing and securing the state's Bitcoin, (2) requires the state and Secretary to develop security protocols and access controls for the account, and (3) provides that the state retains title to its Bitcoin and any resulting assets from forks or airdrops. Participating states may withdraw or transfer account contents subject to the agreement and federal regulations. The section limits federal liability for any loss, theft, destruction, or inaccessibility of such Bitcoin except in cases of gross negligence or willful misconduct by the Secretary or responsible officials and requires states to acknowledge inherent custody risks.

This section lowers the cap on aggregate surplus funds of the Federal Reserve banks to $2.4 billion (from $6.825 billion), with amounts exceeding the cap transferred to the Treasury general fund. (Federal Reserve banks deposit net earnings after paying dividends to member bank stockholders into surplus funds.) It further directs that, for FY2025 through FY2029, if the Federal Reserve banks remit net earnings to the Treasury general fund, the first $6 billion of remittances each fiscal year (before repaying any deferred assets) shall fund the Bitcoin Purchase Program established in section 5. It requires Federal Reserve banks to tender all outstanding gold certificates to the Treasury Secretary within 180 days of enactment; directs the Secretary to issue replacement certificates reflecting the fair market value of the underlying Treasury gold; and requires each Federal Reserve bank to remit the difference between old and new certificate values to the Treasury general fund within 90 days. Funds from gold certificate remittances are allocated first to fully fund Bitcoin purchases under the program up to 1 million Bitcoins (with any excess reducing public debt), taking priority over FY2025-FY2029 remittances; the Secretary must report allocations annually under section 5(d). It also makes a conforming amendment to 31 U.S.C. 5117(b) by removing the fixed statutory price for gold certificates.

This section provides rules of construction clarifying that nothing in the Act authorizes the federal government to seize, confiscate, or impair property rights in lawfully acquired Bitcoin holdings or infringes upon rights of individuals, businesses, or organizations to purchase, hold, transfer, or dispose of Bitcoin in accordance with the law. The section further affirms individuals' rights to maintain full lawful control over their Bitcoin and other digital assets, including self-custody of private keys (i.e., the cryptographic mechanism enabling personal control without intermediaries).

This section modifies the Exchange Stabilization Fund statute (31 U.S.C. §5302) to (1) add section 5 of the BITCOIN Act of 2025 to the list of authorities for the fund, (2) authorize the fund to acquire and hold Bitcoin in addition to gold, foreign exchange, and other instruments of credit and securities, and (3) require semiannual and annual reports on the fund to include detailed accountings of Bitcoin transactions and holdings. (As background, the Exchange Stabilization Fund finances Treasury Department operations to stabilize the U.S. dollar exchange rate and support international monetary facilities.)