2021-9-22 19:47 |
Key takeaways
U.S. Congress’ split disposition towards cryptocurrencies raises concerns among market participants. Bitcoin proponent, James Loop goes digging into the financial disclosures of Congress members. His findings revealed only three Congress members have ever disclosed that they hold Bitcoin.The United States is a key base for innovation and adoption in the cryptocurrency industry. According to data from Crunchbase, there are at least 1,135 organizations founded in the U.S. that provide various cryptocurrency-related services.
Despite the broad adoption of the asset class by the country’s citizens, the government is still divided on opinions about the growing cryptocurrency industry. This can be seen in the U.S. Congress where members of Congress are split between those who support and those who do not support Bitcoin, the most prominent cryptocurrency.
This polarised disposition of Congress has been a pain point for Bitcoiners. Bitcoin market participants have pointed out several issues that emanate from the fact that there are still members of Congress who have not shown themselves to fully understand Bitcoin.
The sentiment is that Congress members who do not fully understand the asset, having not used it, should not be responsible for making laws about it. Additionally, market participants also think it will be a conflict of interest if members of Congress who oppose Bitcoin are found to be holding Bitcoin or if those who support it do not own any.
Jameson Lopp, the co-founder, and chief technology officer of Casa – a leading provider of Bitcoin self custody solutions, has gone digging into the United States Senate Financial Disclosures portal. The investigation was carried out to identify Congress members who have declared holdings of cryptocurrencies, and Bitcoin in particular, in their portfolios.
His findings paint a dismal picture as the majority of the members of Congress who have been vocal in supporting Bitcoin have not held the asset at all according to their financial disclosures for the year ending 2020.
According to his findings, only 3 Congress members have disclosed that they own Bitcoin. The now-retired Representative Bob Goodlatte of Virginia was the first Congressman to disclose the ownership of Bitcoin, doing so in 2017 even before laws were passed to make disclosure mandatory. According to his disclosure, he owned between $1,000 and $15,000 of Bitcoin at the time.
Among currently seated Congress members, only Senators Cynthia Lummis and Pat Toomey have reported Bitcoin holdings in their portfolios in 2020. Senator Lummis reported owning $100,000 – $250,000 of bitcoin in 2020 making up between 0.6% and 2.75% of her net worth. Similarly, Senator Pat Toomey reported purchasing $1,001 – $15,000 of GBTC in June 2021. The GBTC investment is between 0.01% and 0.7% of his net worth.
The sleuth however concedes that he did not have the time and resources to go through the financial disclosures of all 535 congressional members. Nonetheless, it is telling that of the ones he checked, even members of caucuses in Congress that are affiliated to cryptocurrency and members that have drafted bills that will provide clarity for the industry do not hold Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies as their financial disclosures show.
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