Trump Running Mate J.D. Vance Has Held Bitcoin Since 2021

By Stacy Elliott

Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH), who last month became former president Donald Trump's running mate, has disclosed that he still holds between $101,000 to $250,000 worth of Bitcoin in his 2023 annual financial disclosure.

The Bitcoin disclosure, which Vance notes is held in a Coinbase account, isn't new. The Republican senator also reported holding between $101,000 to $250,000 in BTC on his 2022 annual report and his 2021 candidate disclosure when he was running for his Senate seat.

There's a wide discrepancy in the value of his assets because federal laws require U.S. lawmakers to specify a range for their assets, not the exact value.

If he did buy his Bitcoin in 2021, when the Bitcoin price fluctuated between $30,000 and $60,000, he could be sitting on substantial unrealized gains. Vance first reported owning Bitcoin during his 2021 Senate race, but hasn't revealed when he first purchased BTC.

The Bitcoin holdings make up a small portion of the senator's $4 million to $11 million total assets, which includes his home, a brokerage account, and college savings plans for his three children.

It also appears that Vance submitted his disclosure on the last possible day. He submitted a request for an extension in April and was given until August 13—90 days after the usual May 15 deadline—to file.

J.D. Vance and crypto

The Ohio senator has gotten a "strong" rating for his support for crypto from lobbyist group Stand With Crypto, in part because he voted in favor of SAB 121, or Staff Accounting Bulletin No. 121, which would have allowed American banks to hold crypto assets.

In June, he also shared a tweet from Cameron Winklevoss saying that the Bitcoiner and Gemini co-founder had donated $1 million worth of Bitcoin to Donald Trump's campaign. Vance has also sided with other pro-crypto legislators like Sens. Cynthia Lummis (R-WY) and Bill Hagerty (R-TN) in criticizing the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's (SEC) enforcement efforts against crypto companies.

Meanwhile, Vance's running mate Trump has been making big promises in hopes of winning votes from crypto holders.

During his speech at the Bitcoin conference in Nashville, Trump said that he would "fire Gary Gensler." But the SEC boss's term is set to run through 2026 and U.S. presidents don't have the authority to eject SEC chairs without cause.

Trump has also said that he wants to turn the U.S. into the "Bitcoin superpower of the world," which includes keeping all the BTC that the U.S. government currently holds.

Blockchain analytics platform Arkham Intelligence, which tracks and labels wallets, estimates the U.S. government controls at least $12.8 billion worth of crypto assets—and $12.4 billion of it is Bitcoin. But almost all of those assets are being held because they were seized from shuttered exchanges, like Silk Road.

Trump's penchant for mentioning Bitcoin and the broader crypto industry has been inconsistent. On Monday night during an interview with Tesla CEO Elon Musk that was broadcast on Twitter, neither the interviewer nor the interviewee mentioned crypto once.

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