A proposed bill in the Philippine Congress seeks to establish a state-run bitcoin reserve, which would be inaccessible for 20 years, except for the purpose of reducing the country's growing debt burden, thereby imposing some of the strictest regulations on sovereign cryptocurrency storage to date. The Strategic Bitcoin Reserve Act, introduced by Representative Miguel Luis R. Villafuerte, instructs the central bank to purchase 2,000 BTC annually for five years, totaling 10,000 BTC.
According to the bill, 'The State shall promote economic stability, including monetary stability and the convertibility of the peso, especially during times of crisis. Given the increasing role of cryptocurrency in the global financial system, it is essential to enact measures aimed at diversifying our assets to ensure financial security.' The proposed legislation stipulates that the holdings will be locked for 20 years, during which time bitcoin can only be sold or exchanged for the purpose of retiring government debt. After the holding period ends, the central bank governor will be restricted to selling no more than 10% of the assets within any two-year period.
The country's national debt recently reached $285 billion, equivalent to 60% of its GDP. Villafuerte drew inspiration from commodity-style reserves, such as the US Strategic Petroleum Reserve or Canada's maple syrup stockpile. To ensure security, the central bank will establish geographically dispersed cold-storage facilities across the country, which will be audited quarterly through public cryptographic attestations and verified by independent third parties. The bill also requires that forks and airdropped assets be retained for at least five years and emphasizes that private ownership of BTC will not be infringed upon, with assurances that citizens' crypto holdings will not be subject to confiscation.