Brazilian congressman introduces bill for national bitcoin reserve

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As US politicians renew their push to create a national bitcoin reserve, one Brazilian congressman has put forward a similar proposal. 

Eros Biondini on Monday proposed establishing a bitcoin sovereign strategic reserve, known as ResBit. The plan calls for the country’s central bank to gradually acquire bitcoin until the cryptocurrency makes up 5% of Brazil’s national reserves, according to local reports.  

With Donald Trump headed back to the White House, Republican Senator Cynthia Lummis — who introduced legislation to form a strategic bitcoin reserve at the Bitcoin 2024 conference in Nashville last summer — said she plans to reintroduce her bill. 

“It’s gaining momentum,” Lummis told the Washington Examiner earlier this week. “The group that we need to focus on it is here on Capitol Hill — the members of the House and Senate.”

Lummis’s bill suggests the Treasury purchase 1 million bitcoins over a five-year period, to be held for a minimum of 20 years. 

Biondini’s bill cites the work of other countries — like the US and El Salvador — that have been “adopting innovative strategies to integrate cryptocurrencies to national financial management” in recent years, per a translated copy of the bill text. 

While Lummis has touted the bitcoin reserve as a solution to the growing national deficit, the proposal in Brazil claims a bitcoin investment would help establish financial sovereignty and increase economic development in the region. 

The details of the plans are similar, though. Both bills specify that the bitcoin should be held in cold storage and transactions must be publicly reported. Brazil’s proposal, however, does not specify a point in time when the bitcoin could be sold. 

Even with Trump and his new pro-bitcoin views on Lummis’s side, I think the US is a long way from getting this bill signed into law. But stranger things have happened. 

Polymarket odds on Tuesday showed a 25% chance Trump announces a bitcoin reserve within his first 100 days in office.

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