Read twice and referred to the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs.
Congressional Research Service
Official summary
Version 00 · Introduced in Senate · Jul 31, 2024
Boosting Innovation, Technology, and Competitiveness through Optimized Investment Nationwide Act of 2024 or the BITCOIN Act of 2024
This bill provides for the acquisition and storage of the cryptocurrency Bitcoin by the U.S. government.
The Department of the Treasury must purchase one million Bitcoins over a five-year period and hold the Bitcoins in trust for the United States. All Bitcoins acquired under this bill must be held for at least 20 years unless used to retire outstanding federal debt.
The bill directs Treasury to establish a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve for the secure storage of U.S. Bitcoins. The reserve must be a decentralized network of secure facilities across the United States. Existing U.S. Bitcoin holdings must be transferred to the reserve. States may voluntarily store Bitcoin holdings in the reserve in segregated accounts.
The bill also reduces the total amount of U.S. dollars Federal Reserve banks may hold in surplus and requires Federal Reserve banks to remit a certain amount of net earnings annually to the purchase of Bitcoins.
No related bills are listed in this snapshot. This does not establish whether the proposal has appeared in earlier Congresses.
Source last updated: Jan 14, 2025. Consult Congress.gov for the current record.
AI Conversation Starters
Explore the bill from different angles
Choose a perspective, copy a prompt, and paste it into your preferred AI. Each prompt includes the bill version and available official source links, and asks for counterarguments as well as supporting evidence.
Neutral evidence review
Objective
Analyze S.4912 as objectively as possible. Explain its main provisions, who would be affected, possible benefits and harms, implementation, exceptions, and uncertainties. Present the strongest arguments for and against it, and identify evidence needed to assess its public impact.
View full prompt & sources
Fairness and public impact
Progressive lens
Examine S.4912 through a progressive lens, focusing on fairness, access, economic inequality, and effects on vulnerable communities. Explain potential benefits, costs, and unintended consequences. Consider the strongest counterarguments and distinguish stated goals from demonstrated outcomes.
View full prompt & sources
Institutions and government scope
Conservative lens
Examine S.4912 through a conservative lens, focusing on fiscal responsibility, institutional stability, federalism, and the scope of government. Explain potential benefits, costs, and unintended consequences. Consider the strongest counterarguments and any provisions that challenge this perspective.
View full prompt & sources
Individual rights and government power
Liberty lens
Examine S.4912 through a civil-liberties and limited-government lens. Consider individual rights, privacy, voluntary choice, accountability, and government power. Explain tradeoffs, possible safeguards, and the strongest counterarguments without assuming the proposal is beneficial or harmful.