As per new rules requiring members of Congress to disclose cryptocurrency holdings, at least one of the House is now known to have invested in digital assets.
How Many in Congress are Hoarding Cryptos?
Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-Va) is reported to have stated that he owns amounts of Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, and Ethereum.
The rules requiring the disclosure of digital assets were passed in late June of this year by the U.S. House Ethics Committee. They state that all members of the House must report their cryptocurrency holdings in much the same way that they do any other financial assets.
This makes the U.S. system similar to that of Australia. There, the register of members’ interests requires that cryptocurrency holdings are declared by those serving in government.
In addition, the new U.S. rule change requires members to report transactions using digital currencies within 45 days. This is consistent with the laws governing the disclosure of any other transactions made by members of Congress.
According to a report in news publication Sludge, Goodlatte is the only member of the U.S. government who has come forward about his digital currency investments. He holds somewhere between $17,000 and $80,000 worth of cryptocurrency. The disclosure of his digital currency holdings was actually made before the new rules came into force. It states that he mostly owns Bitcoin, but also has smaller amounts of both Bitcoin Cash and Ethereum.
It’s likely that Goodlatte’s decision to buy digital assets was inspired by his son, Bobby Goodlatte Jr. He has previously invested in the massive crypto brokerage Coinbase and has engaged in bullish price speculation in the past too. However, precise details of this investment or whether he discussed the topic of cryptocurrencies with his father at all are unclear.
Even though Goodlatte is the only confirmed member of Congress to own cryptocurrencies, more are expected to disclose their holdings in the near future.
Several members are thought likely to have invested in the space. These include: Rep. Jared Polis (D-Colo.), Greg Gianforte (R-Mont.), David Schweikert (R-Ariz.), and Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.). Each has publicly attested to the potential of blockchain technology or cryptocurrencies in the past.
In fact Warner has even gone as far as a to claim that the entire digital currency sector could expand to a massive $20 trillion market capitalisation by 2020. During a hearing of the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee this year, he stated:
“I think we may be on top of something that is transformational… If we have the same rate of increase the next two years that we’ve had the last couple of years, we’d be at north of $20 trillion [market capitalization] caught up in this area by 2020.”