Congressman Buys Up To $850K In Bitcoin In 2025: Late Disclosure, Close Trump Ties Wave Red Flags

A congressman has disclosed buying Bitcoin BTC/USD on four occasions in 2025, with some of the trades happening past the 45-day window, adding to the recent calls to ban members of Congress from buying and selling stocks and other investments.

What Happened: A bill that would ban members of Congress from buying stocks and options may not apply to cryptocurrency purchases, which could be good news for members who have bought Bitcoin, meme coins and Bitcoin ETFs.

Rep. Brandon Gill (R-Texas), a close ally of President Donald Trump, is the latest member of Congress to disclose buying cryptocurrency.

Gill disclosed the following Bitcoin purchases, with their transaction dates listed below:

Jan. 29, 2025: $100,000 to $250,000 BTC
Feb. 27, 2025: $100,000 to $250,000 BTC
May 13, 2025: $100,000 to $250,000 BTC
May 18, 2025: $50,000 to $100,000 BTC

In total, Gill has added between $350,000 and $850,000 in Bitcoin to his investment portfolio, with the trades tracked by Benzinga's Government Trades page.

The big problem with the disclosure is that Gill didn't disclose the January and February purchase until now, which is far beyond the 45-day window members of Congress have to make disclosures.

"Congressman Gill bought $850k worth of Bitcoin this year, $BTC. Also broke the law reporting this late," Congresstrading tweeted.

Gill's trades are mostly close to being even with the current price of Bitcoin as the leading cryptocurrency trading at over $100,000 on Jan. 29, May 13 and May 30. The exception would be the trade on Feb. 27, which was made when Bitcoin traded between $83,144.96 and $87,000.78 on the day.

The timing of Gill's trades is drawing more attention, given his close ties to Trump. The Jan. 29 trade was shortly after Trump's executive order for the U.S. to be a leader in digital assets and the Feb. 27 purchase was just ahead of Trump announcing a "strategic Bitcoin reserve."

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Why It's Important: Members of Congress have received fines of $200 in the past for not disclosing their trades on time, an amount that has helped push the call for a ban of Congress’s trading activity.

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Other members of Congress have made questionable trades in cryptocurrency like Bitcoin and Bitcoin ETFs around Trump announcements, which could prompt calls for a ban on buying and selling cryptocurrency for Congress members as well.

Right now, the proposed P.E.L.O.S.I. Act does not mention cryptocurrency.

Benzinga recently polled readers on the trading activity of members of Congress.

“Should members of Congress be allowed to invest in cryptocurrency?” we asked. Here are the results:

No, they shouldn’t be able to invest in cryptocurrencies: 48%
Yes, as long as they disclose: 30%
Yes, but through ETFs and not actual cryptocurrencies: 15%
Yes, they don’t need to disclose: 8%

The poll found that nearly half of voters said that members of Congress shouldn’t be able to invest in cryptocurrency. Only 30% supported the current method of allowing them to invest as long as they disclose.

Eight percent said let Congress members buy and sell cryptocurrency without needing to disclose.

Ranking third was yes to investing, but doing so through ETFs like the iShares Bitcoin ETF Trust IBIT.

Investing in cryptocurrency such as Bitcoin has become more mainstream for members of Congress, but the public could view investments in “meme coins,” especially some obscure cryptocurrencies, as questionable.

Rep. Mike Collins (R-Ga.) previously disclosed buying Ski Mask Dog SKI/USD. The crypto spiked after the disclosure went viral on social media and Collins bought more later.

Trump has been supportive of a potential ban on members of Congress buying and selling stocks and options. Trump has not mentioned banning cryptocurrency trades, which comes as the president has his own Official Trump Coin TRUMP/USD and has been supportive of the cryptocurrency sector.

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