Members of Congress are often seen as lagging far behind social trends. But apparently that’s not the case with cryptocurrencies.
Eight legislators or their immediate family members have bought or sold digital currencies over the last year, according to a CNBC analysis based on congressional financial disclosures and information from Capitol Trades database.
Lawmakers disclose their trades in ranges. Using the midpoint, the bets from the eight members started at a low of $1,000 and rose to a high $100,000, CNBC reports. Those trading crypto included seven Republicans and one Democrat.
Bitcoin saw the most action: $229,000 worth of trades, according to CNBC. Then came ether with $40,000 of trades. Joke currency dogecoin also got in on the action to the tune of $32,000.
Other cryptocurrencies traded by the Congress people included cardano, stellar, celo, chainlink, basic attention token and EOS.
Multiple senators and representatives have introduced bills to ban or restrict congressional trading of stocks. But it’s not clear how they feel about cryptocurrencies.
Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) is sponsor of one of the bills forbidding stock trading. But he’s not so sure about digital currencies.
“Members of Congress shouldn’t buy and sell corporate stocks here. I fought against that practice for a decade,” he said Tuesday, according to CNBC. “Crypto is more complicated than that.”
Bitcoin has surged the past few weeks, rising 26% since Jan. 21 to a recent quote of $44,006.
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