FOLLOW US

Congress is closely watching cryptocurrencies; but this time, many see it as an investment opportunity. 

Eight lawmakers or their families have traded cryptos over the past year with investments starting from $1,000 to as high as $100,000, according to a CNBC analysis.

Seven republicans traded cryptocurrencies including Senator Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania. Only one Democrat reported a transaction, Rep. Marie Newman of Illinois, according to the same analysis.

The most popular cryptocurrency among lawmakers was Bitcoin, with trades totaling $229,000, including through an ETF. In the second place comes Ether, with a total of $40,000. Lawmakers even got involved with meme-based cryptos trading about $32,000 of Dogecoin. Members of Congress also traded altcoins such as Cardano, Stellar, Celo, Chainlink, Basic Attention Token, and EOS. 

“Members of Congress shouldn’t buy and sell corporate stocks here. I fought against that practice for a decade,” Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio said. “Crypto is more complicated than that.”

“Given that crypto has become a meaningfully sized asset class, maintaining a well-diversified investment portfolio now means owning some crypto,” Toomey’s spokeswoman said. “To that extent, crypto makes up a very modest portion — less than 1% — of his overall investment portfolio.”