The cryptocurrency market has witnessed a rally of sorts in February with the price of Bitcoin BTC/USD passing $54,000 and hitting levels not seen since November 2021.
One member of Congress missed out on additional profits by selling three leading cryptocurrencies at the start of the month.
What Happened: The trading activity of members of Congress has come under attack as several trades can be linked to potential conflicts of interest that could benefit elected officials.
Members of Congress are free to buy and sell stocks, options and cryptocurrencies as long as they properly disclose the transactions in a timely manner.
Representative Shri Thanedar (D-Mich.) recently disclosed selling positions in Bitcoin, Ethereum ETH/USD and Litecoin LTC/USD. Here's a look at the trades and missed profits.
As shared by CongressTrading on X, Thanedar reported the following transactions, which all occurred on Feb. 5.
Bitcoin: sold $150,000 to $250,000 BTC
Ethereum: sold $100,000 to $250,000 ETH
Litecoin: Sold $15,000 to $50,000 LTC
Trading disclosures of Thanedar on QuiverQuant also show that the representative sold positions in several leading Magnificent 7 stocks in February, including Alphabet Inc, Microsoft, Tesla, Apple and Amazon. Thanedar also sold Class B shares of Berkshire Hathaway in February.
Related Link: Move Over Bitcoin ETF — This Congressman Has Been Buying Ethereum
Missed Profits: The prices of Bitcoin, Ethereum and Litecoin are up since Thanedar exited his positions. While it's unknown what his entry price was or if the trades were profitable, one can calculate how much he potentially missed out on in additional profits by not “hodling” the cryptocurrency.
Bitcoin traded between $42,264.82 and $43,494.25 on Feb. 5 and trades at $57,554.86 at the time of writing.
Ethereum traded between $2,270.07 and $2,334.68 on Feb. 5 and trades at $3,248.85 at the time of writing.
Litecoin traded between $66.71 and $68.13 on Feb. 5 and trades at $74.29 at the time of writing.
By using the minimum trading amount of each cryptocurrency in the disclosure ($250K, $100K, $15K) and the highest price for each cryptocurrency on Feb. 5, here are the lowest amount of each cryptocurrency that Thanedar likely sold and how much that position would be worth today.
Bitcoin ($250,000): 5.7479 BTC, $330,819.58
Ethereum ($100,000): 42.8324 ETH, $139,156.04
Litecoin ($15,000): 220.1673 LTC, $16,356.23
A conservative estimate is Thanedar's sale of $365,000 or more in cryptocurrency would be worth $486,331.85 today. This means that the Congressman missed out on potential profits of more than $120,000 and an additional gain of 33.2%.
Photo: Shutterstock
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