A Democrat co-sponsored the bitcoin reserve bill that passed committee on Wednesday

H.R. 8957 got through House Financial Services 28-21 on Wednesday. Most of the coverage is calling it a Trump bill, which misses something.

Nick Begich wrote it but Jared Golden, a Democrat, is co-lead on it. Two days earlier CLARITY died in the Senate on what was basically a party-line vote. So narrow bills about one thing are moving. Big sweeping ones aren't.

A few details I thought were more interesting than the vote count:

The lock is 20 years. Treasury can't sell it, swap it or use it as collateral. That's long enough to outlast a few presidents.

Every federal agency has 60 days after it becomes law to say what they actually hold. Right now nobody really knows the total across all of them.

There's a line directing a study on buying more bitcoin without spending new money. That's the interesting bit, and probably the first thing to get cut.

It also says outright that people have the right to hold their own keys.

Still has to pass the full House and then the Senate, so it's not law. But no reserve bill has got this far before.