The trading activity of members of Congress is closely followed by investors as the buying and selling of stocks can come based on alleged information. Now investors have to follow the trading activity of Congress members when it comes to meme coins.
What Happened: A trading disclosure by Rep. Mike Collins (R-Ga.) caught the attention of social media as he disclosed buying two cryptocurrencies this week following his recent trading activity of buying and selling cryptocurrency.
Collins disclosed that he bought $2,000 to $30,000 worth of meme coin Ski Mask Dog SKI/USD based on two transactions of $1,000 to $15,000 in size. The congressman also disclosed buying Aerodrome AERO/USD, a cryptocurrency he has purchased before.
The disclosures can be found on the Benzinga government trading page for Collins.
Several of the most well-known social media accounts that track congressional trading activity tweeted about the unusual purchase.
- “Congressman @RepMikeCollins bought crypto ‘Ski Mask Dog’ $SKI two days ago. The coin is up +210% in the last seven days,” Congresstrading tweeted.
- “Just came across one of the wildest trades I’ve seen. U.S. Representative Mike Collins just bought up to $30K of a cryptocurrency called ‘Ski Mask Dog’. It appears to have a market cap of less than $100M,” QuiverQuant tweeted.
- “Look at this. US politician Michael Collins buys up to $15,000 of $AERO crypto and up to $15,000 of SKI MASK DOG crypto. Unusual,” Unusual Whales tweeted.
While all three tweets attracted interest on social media, it was the tweet from Unusual Whales that caught the attention of Collins, who replied to the tweet with a meme of Pepe the Frog, well-known in the crypto community thanks to the meme cryptocurrency Pepe PEPE/USD.
Collins confirmed the purchase with Decrypt.
“I liked the coins, so I bought them,” Collins told Decrypt. “Washington and Wall Street have stigmatized emerging technology in the crypto ecosystem for far too long, and it’s about time that we start treating the industry with the respect it deserves.”
When asked about meme coins and if they need to be disclosed by members of Congress for trading activity, Collins said yes.
“Meme coins should certainly be treated as any other asset, digital or otherwise.”
Did You Know?
Why It’s Important: Collins isn’t new to disclosing buying and selling cryptocurrency with past disclosures showing his trading of Ethereum ETH/USD, Aerodrome, Velodrome VELO/USD and The Graph GRT/USD.
Collins’ purchases of Ethereum have been larger in recent disclosures compared to the meme coin he recently bought. The congressman has also disclosed selling some of the cryptocurrencies in the past, which could make the recent meme coin buy one to watch in case he later shows he sold it after the recent gains.
Members of Congress have previously disclosed buying Bitcoin BTC/USD, Ethereum and Dogecoin DOGE/USD. Sometimes they also disclose more unusual purchases like former Rep. Madison Cawthorn (R-N.C.) buying the Let’s Go Brandon meme coin.
Aerodrome trades at $1.83, up 27% in the past seven days and up 14% over the past 24 hours. The cryptocurrency hit a new one-month high of $1.95 earlier today.
Ski Mask Dog, which began trading earlier this year, now has a market capitalization of more than $230 million. The meme coin has soared in value and is up 76% over the past 24 hours, likely due in part to Collins’ disclosure.
The meme cryptocurrency currently trades at $0.241 at the time of writing, hitting a new all-time high of $0.2551 earlier Wednesday.
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