US Senate creates first-ever digital asset subcommittee
Senator Cynthia Lummis, who is pushing for a national strategic bitcoin reserve, will lead the new subcommittee
US Senator Cynthia Lummis | Gage Skidmore/"Cynthia Lummis" (CC license)
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The US senator pushing for a national strategic bitcoin reserve just got a promotion.
Cynthia Lummis, a Wyoming Republican who has long championed the crypto industry, will lead the new digital asset subcommittee under the Senate Banking Committee.
Lummis debuted the text for the Bitcoin Reserve Bill last summer at the Bitcoin 2024 Conference in Nashville. She introduced the bill late last Congress but has not yet unveiled an updated text this session.
The original bill sought to have the US government acquire a total of 1 million BTC — around 5% of the total supply. The bill permits sales of the asset for only one purpose: paying off the national deficit.
“We will be debt free because of bitcoin,” Lummis said in Nashville.
Now, with her own subcommittee and Senate Banking Chair Tim Scott’s ear, movement on the reserve could come a lot faster. Speculation that President Trump may create the stockpile via an executive order seems to have dissipated in recent weeks.
But, it’s very possible we see some sort of presidential action from Trump directing the DOJ to refrain from auctioning seized bitcoin.
In any case, Lummis seems committed to getting the reserve off the ground in Congress, saying on Thursday that lawmakers “need to urgently pass bipartisan legislation.”
We’ll be curious to see what the subcommittee selects as its first hearing topic.
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