Drafting Laws and ‘Hodling’: U.S. Congress Discusses Cryptocurrency Disclosure

U.S. lawmakers have been ramping up their efforts to regulate bitcoin and other digital currencies. Recently, advocacy groups who focus on government transparency have been growing concerned about politicians drafting laws while not disclosing their interests in cryptocurrencies.

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Ethics and Government Transparency Groups Want Politicians to Fully Disclose Digital Currency Holdings
Over the past few months, U.S. regulators and appointed lawmakers have been researching and drafting regulatory guidelines for digital assets like bitcoin. Last year the Colorado Democrat Jared Polis and Arizona Republican David Schweikert initiated the Congressional Blockchain Caucus. The caucus was created to help bureaucrats develop regulatory policies towards cryptocurrencies and their blockchain networks. Both Schweikert and Polis established the Cryptocurrency Tax Fairness Act, while other U.S. lawmakers have been also drafting legislative rules for digital assets.

According to a recent report, cryptocurrency advocacy among elected politicians concerns members of the Sunlight Foundation, a government transparency think-tank, the Office of Government Ethics, and other transparency groups.

“Whether a member of Congress has holdings of bitcoin is relevant to our understanding of where someone’s interests might lie,” Alex Howard the Sunlight Foundation’s deputy director explains in an interview.