US Senate advances bill establishing national Bitcoin strategic reserve with $50bn initial allocation
A bipartisan Senate bill to create a United States Bitcoin Strategic Reserve cleared the Banking Committee, with proponents arguing it would hedge against dollar devaluation and position America as the dominant nation in the digital asset era.
Crypto — March 17, 2026
The United States Senate Banking Committee advanced legislation in March 2026 that would establish a national Bitcoin Strategic Reserve, with an initial allocation of $50 billion drawn from existing Treasury Exchange Stabilization Fund resources — the most significant step yet toward formalising Bitcoin as a component of US sovereign wealth.
The BITCOIN Act, sponsored by Republican Senator Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming and co-sponsored by seven senators from both parties, cleared the committee by a vote of 13 to 8, sending it to the full Senate floor. The bill had previously stalled in 2025 but gained momentum following the Treasury Department's informal accumulation of confiscated Bitcoin worth approximately $17 billion.
Lummis said the legislation was a matter of national competitiveness. 'Other nations are accumulating Bitcoin. Sovereign wealth funds in the Gulf are accumulating Bitcoin. If the United States does not establish a strategic reserve, we will wake up in a decade having ceded the dominant position in the global digital asset system to others,' she said.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent had indicated cautious support for the concept in principle while expressing reservations about the specific $50 billion allocation, preferring that any reserve be built initially from confiscated assets before committing fresh Treasury resources.
Bitcoin's price rose approximately 8% in the week following the committee vote, reaching $94,000, as markets interpreted the legislative progress as a confirmation of institutional and sovereign demand.
Critics argued that committing $50 billion of taxpayer resources to a volatile asset was imprudent. Senator Elizabeth Warren called the bill 'a government handout to crypto speculators dressed up as national security policy.'
Abu Dhabi's Mubadala investment vehicle had already disclosed a $436 million position in BlackRock's iShares Bitcoin ETF in February 2026 filings, providing advocates with a concrete example of sovereign wealth funds building digital asset positions outside the United States.
