The BITCOIN bill

In the closing hours of this session of Congress, Sen. Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.) has released language for her bill that would require the United States government to buy a million bitcoin.

Why it matters: At this moment, the bill, S. 4912, seems unlikely to win passage, but it's more likely a bid to expand the so-called Overton window of how the U.S. government might think about cryptocurrency.

• The Overton window is the notion that certain things can be conceptualized as politically feasible, if unlikely, while things outside the window are just impossible.

The window moves, and sometimes an attention-getting piece of legislation can be part of the moving.

Catch up fast: The senator previewed the measure in Nashville last month at the Bitcoin industry's biggest annual conference, with the first eye-catching facet of the bill being its name: ''Boosting Innovation, Technology, and Competitiveness through Optimized Investment Nationwide Act of 2024.''

• That is, the BITCOIN Act of 2024.

Zoom in: It requires that 200,000 BTC be purchased per year over five years and that they be held for 20 years.

• It provides for storage procedures such that all the BTC won't be in one wallet.
• It further requires that BTC lawfully seized by the U.S. government go into the reserve.

Friction point: That last point is also what former President Trump promised to supporters at Bitcoin 2024, but it's drawn criticism from former prosecutors concerned about forfeiture law.

• Sales of seized assets typically go, at least in part, toward compensating victims of crime, they argue.

With regard to purchases, Lummis found a couple of funding streams, as we previously reported.

• A major part of the funding would come from the issuance of gold certificates, capital created by recognizing the fair market value of gold held by the U.S. government.
• Gold certificates are now only used between Fed banks.

What they're saying: "The global financial landscape is rapidly evolving, with digital assets playing an increasingly significant role in the world economy," the bill's text says, at the top of its findings.

💭 Our thought bubble: If enacted, we hope these wallets require multiple signatures, and that those keys are stored carefully but also in a distributed way.

What we're watching: Who co-sponsors the legislation; Congress.gov shows none so far.