United States Senator and vocal supporter of Bitcoin and blockchain technology Cynthia Lummis, a Republican from Wyoming, purchased Bitcoin (BTC) worth between $50,001 and $100,000 on Aug. 16.
The material was made public as part of the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act, or STOCK Act, which forbids profiting from nonpublic knowledge. The STOCK Act, which was signed into law in April 2012 by former President Barack Obama, is intended to fight insider trading.
Lummis’ purchase was revealed outside of the law’s 45-day reporting timeframe, according to CNBC. According to a spokeswoman, the reporting delay was caused by “a filing error.”
Lummis made the purchase less than two weeks after she and several senators attempted to change President Joe Biden’s infrastructure plan to include a pro-crypto amendment.
Senators Mark Warner and Kyrsten Sinema supported the bipartisan measure, which aimed to make bitcoin tax reporting easier for miners and wallet providers.
Lummis’ amendment was controversially omitted from the Senate’s infrastructure package, which was enacted on Aug. 10. Senator Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania, a Republican, called the bill “badly defective” because it imposes an “unworkable” tax reporting mandate on certain cryptocurrency companies.
According to the most recent update on Oct. 1, the bill, named the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, has yet to be voted on by the House of Representatives owing to postponed proceedings.
Lummis’ purchase of Bitcoin is unsurprising considering her pro-crypto position. As previously reported by Cointelegraph, the Wyoming senator expressed interest in buying the dip as Bitcoin’s price dropped below $30,000.
Although it’s unclear whether she possessed Bitcoin at the time, the senator told Fox News in June that “as soon as it lowers a little bit, I’m going to purchase some more.”
