As Congress debates new regulations around artificial intelligence and cryptocurrency, lawmakers’ stock portfolios have surged in recent years toward investments in these sectors.
A tracker of the top 50 lawmaker holdings from the financial data platform Unusual Whales shows over $270 million invested directly in top tech stocks, with tens of millions more invested indirectly through market-tracking funds.
It is a level of consolidation that mirrors trends seen in the larger market, with tech far and away the favored sector among lawmakers: 7 of the 8 most popular individual stocks seen in the data are technology companies.
Nvidia (NVDA) is a bipartisan favorite, with about $43 million in lawmakers’ accounts. Other tech giants, including Apple (AAPL), Alphabet (GOOG), and Microsoft (MSFT), also have tens of millions of dollars each in investment.
This represents a significant shift from recent years, when the proportion of tech holdings was much lower and was primarily seen in Democrats’ portfolios.
Cryptocurrency holdings have also grown significantly in recent years, a trend particularly evident among Republicans. Increased investments in bitcoin (BTC-USD) and crypto-adjacent companies reflect heightened interest among Republicans in Trump-friendly areas of the technology sector writ large.
Dan Weiskopf is the co-portfolio manager of two ETFs that mirror Republican and Democratic portfolios. He notes that the Republican side of the aisle as a whole has become markedly more tech-focused and that Bitcoin has been a particular growth area — even requiring a rebalancing of his fund.
“It’s clearly bigger,” he said of Republican interest in Bitcoin. “There’s no question about that.”
The buying of bigger companies is another trend among lawmakers that has reshaped the fund in recent years.
“I haven’t seen a lot of buying in small caps,” he noted.
Issues before Congress in both sectors
The trading trends coincide with ongoing congressional action to regulate both sectors, with cryptocurrency taking center stage this summer.
The crypto industry is pushing a bill that would establish a regulatory framework for digital assets, called the CLARITY Act. It could see a vote later this summer despite colorful opposition from at least some banking leaders.
Congress is also set to debate AI legislation in the coming months, most notably President Trump has waded deep into the tech sector, making millions of dollars worth of trades in “Magnificent Seven” stocks, as well as in companies he has publicly criticized.
Trump’s portfolio has garnered pointed criticism for trading in Intel (INTC) after the US government took a 10% stake in the firm. The president’s account also bought Dell (DELL) earlier this year, with the president encouraging Americans to “buy a Dell” just a few days after one such purchase.
Trump’s accounts are managed by his company, the Trump Organization, which says the trades are overseen by third-party financial institutions without any input from Trump or his family.
But this overlap between stock trading and official duties is exactly why some advocates argue for a ban, though progress has stalled on Capitol Hill in recent years.
Weiskopf’s ETFs were launched in 2023 in part to highlight the conflict of interest inherent in lawmaker trading, and he is skeptical that any action will be taken.
“They’re going to make a lot of noise about bills to prevent each other from trading, but I don’t think it’s going to go very far,” he said in an interview.
For now, lawmakers (and investors in these NANC and GOP ETFs) are seeing strong returns for 2026.
The ETF tracking GOP holdings has outperformed the broader market, up about 16.5% year to date at the end of the trading day on Friday . Democratic portfolios have meanwhile gained but more closely tracked the S&P 500.
Ben Werschkul is a Washington correspondent for Yahoo Finance.
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