When Rep. Matt Van Epps helped lead the American Reserve Modernization Act of 2026 this week, he framed the invoice not as an summary nationwide safety measure — however as a direct extension of what he sees taking place in his personal yard.
“Nashville is likely one of the nation’s main Bitcoin hubs,” Van Epps mentioned in a press release to Bitcoin Journal, pointing to Bitcoin Park, town’s rising digital asset neighborhood, and the annual Bitcoin convention, set to return to Nashville in 2027.
“Nashville is rapidly rising as one of many nation’s main Bitcoin hubs, with a rising digital asset neighborhood, establishments like Bitcoin Park, and the annual Bitcoin convention, which is scheduled to return again to Nashville in 2027,” Van Epps mentioned. “Supporting this invoice means supporting the monetary innovation happening in my district.”
For the freshman congressman from Tennessee’s seventh District — a West Level graduate and fight helicopter pilot who received his seat in a December 2025 particular election — that is private. The invoice is, in his telling, a press release about what his district already represents.
Van Epps co-led the laws alongside Rep. Nick Begich (R-AK), who introduced the American Reserve Modernization Act of 2026, referred to as ARMA. The invoice would codify President Trump’s March 2025 govt order establishing a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve — giving it the drive of statute somewhat than leaving it to the discretion of future administrations.
The reserve would sit contained in the U.S. Division of the Treasury and maintain BTC seized via federal regulation enforcement forfeitures and civil penalties.
Van Epps’ central argument for the laws is fiscal. “With a nationwide debt of $39 trillion, that is a vital piece of laws,” he mentioned. Underneath ARMA, any future sale of Bitcoin from the reserve can be permitted for just one goal: decreasing the nationwide debt. No transfers to different authorities applications, no discretionary spending — simply debt discount. The reserve, he burdened, “can be established with out price to American taxpayers”.
The invoice additionally attracts a agency line on property rights. Van Epps and Begich included language affirming that the federal authorities can’t intervene with a person’s proper to personal, switch, or self-custody digital assets — a provision that displays the libertarian undertow working via a lot of the pro-Bitcoin caucus in Congress.
Van Epps: Bitcoin can repair some issues within the U.S.
For Van Epps, the argument goes past portfolio administration. He described the reserve as one thing with the potential to “resolve main issues” for the nation, with the nationwide debt chief amongst them. Bitcoin’s fastened provide and its appreciation over time, in his view, give america a device that gold certificates and conventional reserves can’t match.
The invoice requires BTC within the reserve to be held for at least 20 years — a provision designed to take the asset out of short-term political calculations and deal with it as a generational stability sheet resolution.
Quarterly public Proof of Reserve stories and unbiased third-party audits would accompany the reserve, including a layer of statutory transparency that the prevailing govt order lacks.
Eighteen authentic co-sponsors signed on, stretching throughout 9 states. The Senate stays the more durable terrain — competing crypto laws is shifting via committee there, and the trail to 60 votes is unclear.
