Congressman Begich pushes plan for bitcoin reserve, cites need to diversify US balance sheet
The United States needs to diversify its national balance sheet — and that should include Bitcoin, according to Rep. Nick Begich, one of the lawmakers looking to advance a bill that could see the country buying one million bitcoins.
"I'm a believer that we need to diversify our national balance sheet," the Alaska Republican said on Wednesday at the BTC in D.C. conference in Washington, D.C. "We've got a heavy emphasis on gold, I think we should have an additional strong emphasis on bitcoin."
Begich, alongside Sen. Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyo., introduced the "Boosting Innovation, Technology, and Competitiveness through Optimized Investment Nationwide Act," or BITCOIN Act, this past year. If passed, the bill would establish bitcoin as a strategic reserve asset — a move that builds upon President Donald Trump's executive order to create permanent bitcoin holdings similar to the country's gold cache.
The legislation outlines a plan for acquiring one million bitcoin over five years using "budget neutral strategies." The bill expands upon Trump's executive order, which prohibited the sale of bitcoin and other crypto assets forfeited to the U.S. government through criminal or civil proceedings and kept in a separate "stockpile."
The proposed bill has drawn support from crypto executives, including Strategy co-founder Michael Saylor, who joined Begich and Lummis at a roundtable to discuss the bills.
At the time of the bills' introduction, Begich said the legislation would secure "America's economic future."
"We must lead—not follow—in this digital revolution," he said in a statement. "The time to act is now."
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