18 months after the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve order, executed sovereign buying is ~$10M of Texas IBIT shares plus a $1M Czech test: the 324,527 BTC federal stack is 100% forfeiture, no budget-neutral purchase exists, and the bill the House committee advanced 28-21 drops the purchase mandate
The finding: as of September 2026 the United States has not bought a single bitcoin for its Strategic Bitcoin Reserve. Arkham puts federal holdings at about 324,527 BTC, roughly $24.7 billion, and every coin came from criminal or civil forfeiture. The only US public-sector purchases that have cleared are Texas's, about $10 million of BlackRock's IBIT ETF rather than spot bitcoin. Abroad, the sole central bank to execute a purchase is the Czech National Bank, with a $1 million test portfolio it keeps outside its FX reserves. Everything else in the reserve narrative is a statute, an authorisation or a press release.
What the headlines got wrong starts with the March 6, 2025 executive order, which asked for budget-neutral acquisition strategies. On August 14, 2025 Treasury Secretary Bessent said, "We're not going to be buying that, but are going to use confiscated assets and continue to build that up", valuing the stack at $15 to $20 billion, before softening on X to say Treasury remains committed to exploring budget-neutral pathways. Thirteen months later no pathway has produced a purchase. The federal reserve is a promise not to sell, and that promise is administrative: on July 13, 2026 Arkham flagged $8.8 million of government BTC moving to a Coinbase Prime deposit address that had earlier received Samourai forfeiture coins.
Congress moved on September 16, 2026, but not toward buying. The House Financial Services Committee passed the American Reserve Modernization Act 28-21. ARMA, introduced May 21 by Begich and Golden, codifies the reserve, imposes a 20-year hold, requires quarterly proof-of-reserve reports and independent audits, and orders a study of budget-neutral acquisition. It omits the BITCOIN Act's mandate to buy 1 million BTC over five years; Lummis's S.954 still sits in committee without a markup. The reserve that can plausibly pass holds what it seized and buys nothing.
State by state, executed versus announced. Texas: SB 21 signed June 22, 2025, $10 million appropriated; first purchase November 20, 2025 of about $5 million in IBIT at $51.87 a share with bitcoin at $91,336; by May 2026 the comptroller reported about $10 million of IBIT exposure, named a five-member advisory committee on May 28, and issued a custody-and-liquidity RFP with bids due June 15 and contract execution targeted for late August, after which the ETF converts to direct BTC within 60 days. No award has been published, so Texas still holds no spot bitcoin. New Hampshire: HB 302 signed May 6, 2025, authorising up to 5% of state funds; the treasurer said she would not deploy operating or rainy-day funds and no investment has been disclosed, and the state's $100 million bitcoin-backed bond via the Business Finance Authority, rated Ba2 by Moody's, was killed 3-2 by the Executive Council on July 9, 2026. Arizona: HB 2749 signed May 7, 2025, but the fund consists only of airdrops, staking rewards and interest from unclaimed digital property after a three-year abandonment period, with no appropriation and no purchase mechanism, so it is structurally empty for years. Elsewhere: Bitcoin Laws tracks 20 bills across 14 states, 17 active, with Florida's three dead alongside earlier failures in Montana, North Dakota, Pennsylvania and Wyoming. No additional state has enacted a reserve in 2026.
Sovereigns elsewhere follow the pattern. The CNB bought $1 million of BTC, a USD stablecoin and a tokenised deposit in November 2025 to test custody and AML processes; its February 2026 study concluded the board would not put FX reserves into bitcoin. Bhutan, the model sovereign holder in most write-ups, is a net seller: Arkham-tracked wallets fell from about 13,000 BTC in October 2024 to about 3,100 BTC by May 2026, with roughly $207 million moved to exchanges this year, while Druk Holding says it does not recall selling (coindesk.com/markets/2026/05/16). Pakistan's reserve remains an announcement about seized coins with no disclosed holdings.
What to watch: whether ARMA reaches a House floor vote, where the operative clause is the 20-year hold rather than any purchase; the Texas custody award and first transfer out of IBIT, which would be the first spot bitcoin ever bought by a US government entity; and the next Arkham-flagged movement of federal coins to an exchange, the practical test of whether "never sell" survives without a statute. Until then, sovereign bitcoin demand in 2026 is measured in single-digit millions, and the largest tracked state holder is selling.
Sources (6)
AI Research
Key Takeaway
Every reserve headline since March 2025 has been authorisation, not execution: US federal holdings remain 100% forfeiture, Texas's ~$10M IBIT position is the only US public purchase, and the bill Congress just advanced removes the purchase mandate entirely.
The finding: as of September 2026 the United States has not bought a single bitcoin for its Strategic Bitcoin Reserve. Arkham puts federal holdings at about 324,527 BTC, roughly $24.7 billion, and every coin came from criminal or civil forfeiture. The only US public-sector purchases that have cleared are Texas's, about $10 million of BlackRock's IBIT ETF rather than spot bitcoin. Abroad, the sole central bank to execute a purchase is the Czech National Bank, with a $1 million test portfolio it keeps outside its FX reserves. Everything else in the reserve narrative is a statute, an authorisation or a press release.
What the headlines got wrong starts with the March 6, 2025 executive order, which asked for budget-neutral acquisition strategies. On August 14, 2025 Treasury Secretary Bessent said, "We're not going to be buying that, but are going to use confiscated assets and continue to build that up", valuing the stack at $15 to $20 billion, before softening on X to say Treasury remains committed to exploring budget-neutral pathways. Thirteen months later no pathway has produced a purchase. The federal reserve is a promise not to sell, and that promise is administrative: on July 13, 2026 Arkham flagged $8.8 million of government BTC moving to a Coinbase Prime deposit address that had earlier received Samourai forfeiture coins.
Congress moved on September 16, 2026, but not toward buying. The House Financial Services Committee passed the American Reserve Modernization Act 28-21. ARMA, introduced May 21 by Begich and Golden, codifies the reserve, imposes a 20-year hold, requires quarterly proof-of-reserve reports and independent audits, and orders a study of budget-neutral acquisition. It omits the BITCOIN Act's mandate to buy 1 million BTC over five years; Lummis's S.954 still sits in committee without a markup. The reserve that can plausibly pass holds what it seized and buys nothing.
State by state, executed versus announced. Texas: SB 21 signed June 22, 2025, $10 million appropriated; first purchase November 20, 2025 of about $5 million in IBIT at $51.87 a share with bitcoin at $91,336; by May 2026 the comptroller reported about $10 million of IBIT exposure, named a five-member advisory committee on May 28, and issued a custody-and-liquidity RFP with bids due June 15 and contract execution targeted for late August, after which the ETF converts to direct BTC within 60 days. No award has been published, so Texas still holds no spot bitcoin. New Hampshire: HB 302 signed May 6, 2025, authorising up to 5% of state funds; the treasurer said she would not deploy operating or rainy-day funds and no investment has been disclosed, and the state's $100 million bitcoin-backed bond via the Business Finance Authority, rated Ba2 by Moody's, was killed 3-2 by the Executive Council on July 9, 2026. Arizona: HB 2749 signed May 7, 2025, but the fund consists only of airdrops, staking rewards and interest from unclaimed digital property after a three-year abandonment period, with no appropriation and no purchase mechanism, so it is structurally empty for years. Elsewhere: Bitcoin Laws tracks 20 bills across 14 states, 17 active, with Florida's three dead alongside earlier failures in Montana, North Dakota, Pennsylvania and Wyoming. No additional state has enacted a reserve in 2026.
Sovereigns elsewhere follow the pattern. The CNB bought $1 million of BTC, a USD stablecoin and a tokenised deposit in November 2025 to test custody and AML processes; its February 2026 study concluded the board would not put FX reserves into bitcoin. Bhutan, the model sovereign holder in most write-ups, is a net seller: Arkham-tracked wallets fell from about 13,000 BTC in October 2024 to about 3,100 BTC by May 2026, with roughly $207 million moved to exchanges this year, while Druk Holding says it does not recall selling (coindesk.com/markets/2026/05/16). Pakistan's reserve remains an announcement about seized coins with no disclosed holdings.
What to watch: whether ARMA reaches a House floor vote, where the operative clause is the 20-year hold rather than any purchase; the Texas custody award and first transfer out of IBIT, which would be the first spot bitcoin ever bought by a US government entity; and the next Arkham-flagged movement of federal coins to an exchange, the practical test of whether "never sell" survives without a statute. Until then, sovereign bitcoin demand in 2026 is measured in single-digit millions, and the largest tracked state holder is selling.