The Pursuit of Happiness (but also Weed and Crypto)
From 2021
Weed
The House and Senate have tried to decriminalize marijuana many times in the past 2 years. With notable Senators like Cory Booker and now-VP Kamala Harris sponsoring iterations of the Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment and Expungement (MORE) Act in 2019(1, 2).
Actually, the Democrat-controlled House passed this bill on December 4, 2020. However, the Republican-controlled Senate did not allow a vote on it.
Now in 2021, with a Democratic House, Senate and White House, hopes have been reignited for this bill to become law. Recent rumours suggest the bill may make an appearance on the Senate floor, especially with Senate Leader Chuck Schumer being a vocal advocate.
Decriminalizing weed at the federal level would bring federal cannabis legalization one step closer to becoming a reality. There are many advocates for weed in Congress, and some of these individuals even have financial stakes in the game.
US House Members:
It looks like the 3 Top House members who’ve made the biggest purchases in the weed industry are:
- Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-NC) with $MO buys
- Rep. John Yarmuth (D-KY) with a cross section of the industry
- Rep. Brian Mast (R-FL) with $TLRY and $APHA buys
Meanwhile in the US Senate:
Crypto
The whale really didn't want to write this post. But it looks like it is time.
Elected officials are now getting into crypto.
The list is very small as of April 17th, and is only from one representative, Mark Green. Here is the full data at the moment:
| Whale View | Ticker | Reporter | Type | Amount | Transaction Date | Filed At |
| View | DOGE | Mark Dr Green | Purchase | $1,000-$15,000 | 2021-04-14 | 2021-04-14 |
| View | XLM | Mark Dr Green | Purchase | $1,000-$15,000 | 2021-04-13 | 2021-04-13 |
| View | EOS | Mark Dr Green | Purchase | $1,000-$15,000 | 2021-04-13 | 2021-04-13 |
| View | ETC | Mark Dr Green | Purchase | $1,000-$15,000 | 2021-04-13 | 2021-04-13 |
| View | DOGE | Mark Dr Green | Purchase | $1,000-$15,000 | 2021-04-01 | 2021-04-01 |
| View | CELO | Mark Dr Green | Purchase | $1,000-$15,000 | 2021-03-16 | 2021-03-16 |
| View | BAT | Mark Dr Green | Purchase | $1,000-$15,000 | 2021-03-16 | 2021-03-16 |
The whale searched also for these respective companies in the attached image, but no House member had any holdings in 2020-2021 thus far disclosed.
With Coinbase's recent IPO, The whale imagine more congressional members will be entering crypto markets in a big serious way. Reminder, Keyll Loeffhler was CEO of Bakkt/ICE, which was a digital wallet for cryptocurrencies.
Mark Green bought the crypto recently, starting last month with BAT. He has then since bought a lot more cryptocurrency in rapid succession. His returns are pretty great:
Mark Green made 500% on his dogecoin investment turning 15k into $74503 (as of April 17th, 5pm PST). His Ethereum classic investment netted him $29135 from 15k, nearly 100% return. His secondary Dogecoin investment netted him a 250% return (15k to $36585), and his BAT investment netted him a 50% return (15k to $21914). His other investments are both up +10% in a month as well. So far, he is trading crypto incredibly well!
Once again, it is too early to tell what this means for congress. Congress generally loves investing in banks. However if members are beginning to enter cryptocurrencies, it may mean that they will soon enter regulation in a stronger way. We often see members who have positions in a certain stock try to pass, force legislation to benefit their own holdings. It will be interesting to see how this all develops given Powell's insistence the fed is looking at a digital dollar given China, inflation, and Janet Yellen now being part of the Whitehouse's hopes to "regulate" cryptocurrencies.
Let's follow the flow and see where things go.
A Second congressman in mid May of 2021, Barry Moore, has bought crypto:
Barry Moore, from Alabama, has bought 15k of DOGE, 15K of ethereum, and 45k (max) of ADA.