FOX Business' Darren Botelho reports Republicans are racing to cement U.S. crypto dominance with a proposed national bitcoin reserve funded by seized digital assets tied to Iran.
EXCLUSIVE:Rep. Nick Begich. R-Alaska, is unveiling the American Reserve Modernization Act to establish a U.S.strategic bitcoin reservein an attempt to diversify America’s reserves balance sheet.
This bill. which is receiving bipartisan support, would establish the reserve within theTreasury Departmentwith a separate digital asset stockpile for federally held digital assets different from bitcoin. Begich told FOX Business that bitcoin draws similarities to gold in the crypto asset class.
"When you look at gold, it is the dominant precious metal reserve," Begich said. "When you look at bitcoin, it represents about 60% of all market cap for the entire crypto space. So the market has decided, in the case of gold. in the case of bitcoin, that this will be the predominant store of value within that asset class."
Rep. Nick Begich, R-Alaska, speaks during a news conference with House Republican leadership in the Capitol Visitor Center on Nov. 18, 2025.(Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
US TARGETS IRAN’S $7.7 BILLION CRYPTO NETWORK TIED TO REGIME OPERATIONS
In March 2025, PresidentDonald Trumpsigned an executive order to establish a strategic bitcoin reserve, but it’s not yet fully operational. The Trump administration has been working on establishing a reserve with the hope that the U.S. will claim global dominance in crypto.
In the past, Trump shared his belief in crypto.
"This could be perhaps the greatest revolution in financial technology since the birth of the internet itself," Trump said at the signing of the Genius Act in July 2025.
TRUMP CREATES STRATEGIC BITCOIN RESERVE, OTHER CRYPTOCURRENCIES TO BE USED IN STOCKPILE
Over the past month, the Treasury Department launched Operation Economic Fury to obstruct Iran’s revenue streams. pressure itsfinancial systems,as the fragile ceasefire between the U.S. and Iran continues. As of late April, the Treasury Department announced it had seized nearly $500 million in Iranian cryptocurrency assets.
However, Rep. Pat Harrigan, R-N.C., who is one of more than a dozen co-sponsors of the bill, says the U.S. needs to find out how to manage previously seized bitcoin.
"The United States government already holds billions in seized bitcoin with no coherent strategy for managing it,. that needs to change," Harrigan said.
KEVIN O’LEARY REVEALS THE ONLY TWO CRYPTOCURRENCIES HE SAYS ARE WORTH OWNING
This comes as the Senate Banking Committee passed the Clarity Act with bipartisan support in a 15-9 vote to send the bill to the Senate floor. Sen. Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyo., says this could be voted on by the middle of June,. adds that it is "probably pretty optimistic."
Senator Cynthia Lummis, a Republican from Wyoming, speaks during the Bitcoin 2021 conference in Miami, Florida.(Getty Images)
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Begich hopes the U.S. will hold about 5%, or about 1 million coins, of the world’s bitcoin in the reserve. This would be roughly equivalent to what the U.S. government currently holds in gold.
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