House Judiciary Chair Bob Goodlatte Owns as Much as $80,000 in Bitcoin: Report
Featured Image from Flickr/Gage Skidmore
Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-VA), the chair of the House Judiciary Committee is set to become the first member of Congress to disclose his bitcoin holdings, Sludge reports.
According to a June 18 memo issued by the House Ethics Committee, lawmakers were required to reveal any digital token holdings above $1,000 publicly. The lawmakers were instructed to include the identity of such holdings in their annual financial disclosure reports and report any purchase or sales of cryptocurrencies that exceeds $1,000 within 45 days. The new rule will reveal members of Congress who have been drawn into the crypto investment craze which is still distrusted by some banks and institutional investors in the U.S.
Goodlatte’s annual financial disclosure, which was filed on May 10 — before the memo went into effect — revealed the congressman’s holdings of between $17,000 and $80,000 worth of bitcoin, bitcoin cash, and ethereum. Since the new rule stipulates a 45-day transaction reporting coupled with next year’s annual financial disclosures, several members of Congress are likely to reveal cryptocurrency holdings.
Goodlatte’s son, Bobby Goodlatte Jr., is an angel investor in American digital assets platform Coinbase. The specific details of his investment are not in the public domain, but he is quite bullish about the prospects of bitcoin.
Possible names of other congresspeople who could publicly disclose their crypto holdings include Rep. Jared Polis (D-CO), whose net worth is an estimated $122 million. Polis is one of the co-founders of the Congressional Blockchain Caucus, which has Goodlatte as a member. Through the Congressional Blockchain Caucus, Polis and his group have introduced legislation to encourage adoption of the blockchain technology for government services including an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act, where it seeks to promote the use of blockchain for applications in the military.
Other members of Congress who have given their vote of confidence to blockchain includes Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA), who believes in the transformative power of the technology. Warner, who was an early investor in cell phones thinks the market capitalization for the sector could hit a jaw-dropping $20 trillion.
“I think we may be on top of something that is transformational,” Warner said at a hearing for the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee earlier this year.
CCN.com has reached out to Rep. Goodlatte’s office for comment and will update the article upon receiving a reply.
Featured Image from Flickr /Gage Skidmore
