What to know:
- Senator Dave McCormick has put as much as a million dollars of his own money into bitcoin this year, as his committee is poised to work on crypto legislation.
- McCormick's financial disclosures show regular investments pouring into the Bitwise Bitcoin ETF.
U.S. Senator Dave McCormick, the former chief executive of massive hedge fund Bridgewater Associates, is putting his own cash into bitcoin (BTC) as the committee he's on is at the tip of the spear for a legislative effort to regulate the digital assets industry.
McCormick has made repeated recent investments in the Bitwise Bitcoin ETF worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, according to disclosures this week. Because of the ranges used in such lawmaker disclosures, the latest amounts invested last month can only be said to be between $310,000 and $700,000.
The new investment follows McCormick's disclosure of as much as $450,000 in the Bitwise ETF in February, potentially bringing his total investment closer to a million. His investments represent the bulk of bitcoin investing in Congress this year. Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Georgia Republican, invested a much smaller amount, favoring BlackRock's iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT).
The Republican senator from Pennsylvania, who has held a series of high-profile government posts throughout his career, is new to the Senate and was put on the Senate Banking's Committee's subcommittee that deals with digital assets. That's the group of lawmakers likely closest to the coming action on crypto legislation that's expected to move this year.
As a Senate candidate last year, the former hedge fund exec argued America needed to lead on crypto. He said during the subcommittee's first digital assets hearing in February, "This Congress must work alongside President Trump to pass bipartisan digital asset legislation that will guide the future of innovation and secure a robust economic future for the U.S."
While his bitcoin stake is outpacing other lawmakers, he's been putting the bulk of his investments in municipal securities in recent months, the disclosures show.