According to a Periodic Transaction Report filed yesterday, October 7, 2021, Senator Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.) bought Bitcoin worth $50,001-$100,000. Her most recent purchase, which was on August 16, was made through the Bitcoin broker River Financial. Lummis first started buying Bitcoin in 2013. CNBC was the first to report the news.
Government officials must disclose any transaction above $1K
Senior government officials, including members of the US Congress and Senate who earn more than $119,554 a year have to disclose certain financial transactions under the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act of 2012 (STOCK Act).
These include sale, purchase, or exchange of any bond, stock, future, commodity, and other securities worth more than $1,000.
Previously, Senator Lummis worked as Wyoming’s state treasurer. Her son helped educate her about the king of crypto’s potential as a value store. She began buying it when it was trading for around $320 in 2013.
Lummis slams stablecoins
She may support Bitcoin, but stablecoins are decidedly out of her favor. In a speech on the Senate floor, Lummis said they had to be backed in cash and in full and this had to be audited on a regular basis, adding that stablecoins lacked transparency.
This reflected some concern in the crypto community about stablecoins. More specifically, there’s no way of proving a given coin is pegged 1:1 to a sovereign fiat currency and they must take the issuer’s word for it.
Lummis’ speech focused mainly on the potential development of a CBDC (central bank digital currency) in the US. Lummis added:
Americans must have confidence that a CBDC is not being used for surveillance purposes … we cannot allow a CBDC to become a panopticon, as will soon be the case with China’s CBDC.
The position of the biggest stablecoin issuers
Circle and Tether, the two biggest stablecoin issuers, have commented that their products were backed by a combination of commercial papers, short term securities, cash, and cash-like products.
Commercial papers are a form of unsecured, short-term debt commonly issued by companies to finance their payrolls, payables, and inventories.
Earlier this year, Circle attested that its reserves consisted mainly of highly liquid money market funds and cash. Tether announced that about half of its reserves were in commercial papers.
Both of these reports differ from full audits. The auditing firm only verified the data provided by Circle and Tether. Lummis suggested a full audit, which would be a first for stablecoin issuers.
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