Published: August 27th, 2025
The Philippines government has tabled a bill to create the country's first Strategic Bitcoin Reserve, a move that would see its central bank buy up 10,000 BTC over five years, then lock it down for twenty years.
The proposed law was sponsored in the country's parliament by representative Miguel Luis Villafuerte, who called on the island nation's central bankers to manage the crypto reserve under strict trust and reporting rules.
Titled the Philippines Strategic Bitcoin Reserve Act, if passed, the bill would authorize yearly purchases of 2,000 BTC, with sales authorized after 20 years. Sales would only be allowed to pay off government debt.
If it makes it through a Philippines senate vote, the law would make the country one of Asia's first countries to mandate a sovereign Bitcoin reserve by statute.
‘The growing importance of Bitcoin as a measure of financial and economic power makes it vital for our country to make these legislative moves,’ Villafuerte said in an address introducing the bill. He added that a ‘stockpile of strategic digital assets like Bitcoin would be in the national interest and strengthen financial security.’
Other Asian nations embracing crypto for treasury purposes include Bhutan, which has amassed large holdings of BTC and ETH through hydropower-backed crypto mining. Pakistan has also floated the idea of a sovereign cryptocurrency reserve.
Unlike nations like Germany and America, which built up informal BTC reserves from criminal asset seizures, the Philippine bill directs the central bank to purchase Bitcoin regularly on a fixed schedule.
The chief executive of a major London wealth management firm said in March 2025 that the UK government should consider building up a strategic reserve of Bitcoin as an inflation hedge, and a mechanism to give the government more options when it comes to currency markets.
In a statement on the company website, deVere Group CEO Nigel Green, said ‘the time has come for Britain to take the idea of a strategic Bitcoin reserve seriously.’
His call was prompted by signals that the USA is considering similar moves, with Wyoming Senator Cynthia Lummis's recent proposal that America's Treasury and Federal Reserve should work together and gather one million Bitcoins over the next five years to form a strategic reserve.
The idea would position BTC as a major inflation hedge and a new tool for sustaining America's leading position in the global financial system.
‘As the race for financial innovation and sovereignty heats up, the UK can't be seen as a laggard,’ Green writes. Bitcoin's enforced scarcity, decentralized nature, and relative immunity to inflation pressures has already degraded the legitimacy of fiat currencies.
Keeping a government Bitcoin hoard could strengthen the UK's fiscal strategy and provide a hedge against currency devaluation and market volatility.
Though gold is the established sovereign wealth asset for most governments and central banks, Bitcoin has the advantage of being easily transferable, Green notes. Because its inherently digital, more and more individuals and institutions are adopting it as a store of value.
The G20's fiscal watchdog had a different message in July 2024 when it warned of wider systemic risk if the activities of crypto firms weren't reined in.
The Financial Stability Board (FSB) said that the continuing fallout from recent crypto catastrophes demands that financial regulators obtain greater oversight of the industry. The agency's newly published global regulatory framework for crypto assets was strongly influenced by last year's crypto failures, specifically the collapse of FTX and Terra.
To grapple with those risks, the FSB listed nine core recommendations for financial regulators as they attempt to control how crypto companies and markets operate. The agency also revised its guidance on regulatory rules for stablecoins.
The recommendations, which incorporate industry and investor feedback gathered during a public consultation on the topic, said there must be greater cross-border collaboration between national and international agencies, mandatory disclosures for traders and investment firms, and more stringent governance for crypto issuers.
The FSB said its suggestions had become ‘more robust’ in the aftermath of recent crypto events and now incorporate a push for stronger safeguarding of client assets, as well as measures to mitigate conflicts of interest.
‘The large-scale failures we've seen over the last 18 months spotlight how volatile crypto assets can be and point to structural vulnerabilities that could damage investors large and small,’ the Zurich-based agency said in a statement. ‘They also demonstrate how quickly failure in one part of the crypto-asset ecosystem can turn into contagion and contaminate other parts.’
The agency added that it expects more spillover of crises to occur as the crypto and traditional finance worlds become more intertwined.
Despite FSB warnings, the UK normalized crypto activity in September, when the country's new Financial Services and Markets Act officially became the law of the land. The bill recognized crypto trading as a regulated and legitimate financial services activity.
The UK reform bill, which was given Royal Assent by King Charles, was described in a Westminster press release as having the potential to give Britain's economy ‘a rocket boost.’
While traditionalists may look at the wave of crypto enforcement actions taking place across the globe with distress, many experts believe that well-regulated markets for digital assets could open the door to more widespread adoption.
Under the UK law, cryptocurrency trading is now subject to regulations designed to protect investors, levelling the playing field by adding transparency, standard definitions, and risk mitigation to crypto trades.
The Act defines digital assets as ‘cryptographically secured digital representations of contractual rights or underlying value,’ and labels them as regulated financial products, investments, or instruments.
The Treasury press release noted that the goal of the law was to regulate how crypto assets are traded and held in custody and ensure their safe adoption in the country. It was touted by then Prime Minister Rishi Sunak as a much-needed modernisation of Britain's financial-services dependent economy.
