Madison Cawthorn Failed to Properly Disclose up to $950K in Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana Trades

A new financial disclosure from Rep. Madison Cawthorn (R-NC) shows he was late in reporting up to $950,000 in cryptocurrency transactions that included Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana.

The North Carolina congressman’s crypto trades included the anti-Joe Biden token “Let’s Go Brandon” (LGB), the native token of the Request Network (REQ), and the token for automated trading platform Kryll (KRL). 

He also reported that he realized a capital gain of at least $200 on a partial sale of his KRL holdings on March 24.

As it stands, the STOCK Act does not require members of Congress to be precise when reporting what they buy or sell, so the actual value of Cawthorn’s crypto transactions ranges from $290,000 to $950,000.

Cawthorn has not responded to a request for comment from Decrypt.

The report, which Cawthorn filed on Wednesday, details transactions that occurred from January until the end of March. The STOCK Act allows members of Congress up to 45 days to disclose stock, bond, and commodity transactions of $1,000 or more.

The law was updated by the Committee on Ethics in 2018 to specify that members of Congress must include cryptocurrencies in all financial disclosures. 

There’s been growing pressure to ban members of Congress from owning stocks at all. In January, a bipartisan group of 27 U.S. House members sent a letter to Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy.

“There is no reason that members of Congress need to be allowed to trade stocks when we should be focused on doing our jobs and serving our constituents,” the letter says. “Perhaps this means some of our colleagues will miss out on a lucrative investment opportunity. We don’t care. We came to Congress to serve our country, not turn a quick buck.”

Since then, there have been efforts to track crypto held by people in Congress, including the crowdsource project Bitcoin Politicians. The website currently lists a “Yes” for seven members of Congress, but it hasn’t been updated to reflect Cawthorn’s Bitcoin holdings.

In an earlier disclosure, filed with the House of Representatives May 27, Cawthorn disclosed the purchase of up to $265,000 worth of Ethereum (ETH) and up to $250,000 worth of the “Let’s Go Brandon” token at the end of December. On New Year’s Eve, he sold a portion of his “Let’s Go Brandon” holdings and realized a capital gain of at least $200.