Rep. Nick Begich (R-Alaska) said he plans to reintroduce the Bitcoin Strategic Reserve bill in the current Congress, according to a CoinMarketCap dispatch on April 28. The proposal is the House counterpart to Sen. Cynthia Lummis's BITCOIN Act, which sets a target of accumulating one million BTC for the US Treasury over five years.
The signal is procedural rather than legislative. A reintroduction restarts committee referral and forces fresh hearings, but it does not move the bill any closer to a floor vote on its own.
Where the bill sits today
Lummis filed the Senate version in early 2025 and refiled it in March 2026 with a slimmer cosponsor list than supporters had hoped for. Begich's House companion was first introduced in March 2025 alongside the Senate text. Both versions stalled in committee, overshadowed by the larger market-structure fight around the CLARITY Act and the GENIUS stablecoin framework.
A reintroduction in the 119th Congress's second session means starting the clerk filing, committee assignment, and witness scheduling from the beginning. House Financial Services would be the likely landing spot, the same panel currently shepherding CLARITY through markup.
What the bill actually does
The BITCOIN Act, as written in the prior session, directs the Treasury to acquire 200,000 BTC per year for five years through a combination of seized assets, Federal Reserve gold revaluation, and budget-neutral mechanisms. The reserve would be held for at least 20 years and could not be sold to fund routine spending.
Crucially, it differs from President Trump's March 2025 executive order, which created a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve from existing forfeited holdings but did not authorize new purchases. Begich and Lummis want statutory authority for active accumulation, which only Congress can provide.
Why the timing matters
Mike Novogratz this week predicted CLARITY passes the Senate in May and gets signed in June, a forecast SpendNode covered in the CLARITY Act timing piece. Sen. Thom Tillis has separately said the markup window has slipped to mid-May, which compresses the calendar for any non-CLARITY crypto legislation before the August recess.
A reintroduction now signals Begich wants the bill in queue once CLARITY clears, not parked until the next Congress. Whether House leadership grants floor time is a separate question.
Bitcoin traded at $76,294 as of April 28, down 2.0% on the day per CoinMarketCap, with ETH at $2,275 and the Fear and Greed index at 41 (Neutral). The market reaction to the announcement has been muted, consistent with the procedural nature of the news.
What to watch next
Three near-term markers will indicate whether the reintroduction gains traction:
- Cosponsor count. The original House version had a small bipartisan group. A reintroduction with substantially more names would suggest the political ground has shifted.
- Committee referral. Financial Services is expected, but a dual referral to Ways and Means (which oversees Treasury) would slow the bill considerably.
- Lummis coordination. Whether the Senate and House versions are reconciled on acquisition mechanics matters. The 2025 drafts diverged on the Federal Reserve gold revaluation provision, which several Republican appropriators view as unworkable.
For everyday crypto holders, the bill is symbolic in the short term. A federal accumulation program at 200,000 BTC per year would represent roughly half of annual new supply post-halving, which is the actual market-structure argument supporters have made. Until the bill moves out of committee, that calculus is theoretical.
Overview
Rep. Nick Begich plans to reintroduce the House version of the Bitcoin Strategic Reserve bill, the companion to Sen. Cynthia Lummis's BITCOIN Act. The reintroduction restarts committee work but does not advance the bill on its own. With CLARITY consuming most of the May markup window and Bitcoin trading at $76,294 amid a 2.0% pullback, the news is a procedural marker rather than a market catalyst. Watch the cosponsor count, committee referral, and Lummis coordination for signs of real momentum.
