Congress might finally be ready to tell its own members to stop day-trading on the taxpayer’s dime. Multiple pieces of legislation restricting stock trading by lawmakers have been advancing through the House, and the pressure to bring one to a full floor vote is building fast.

The kicker for crypto investors: one of the bills doesn’t just cover stocks. It covers digital assets too.

A buffet of bills, zero floor votes

Polls show 86% of the public supports restricting lawmakers from trading while in office. And yet, getting an actual vote scheduled has proven about as easy as getting bipartisan agreement on anything else in Washington.

Rep. Bryan Steil introduced the Stop Insider Trading Act on January 12, 2026, which would bar members of Congress, their spouses, and their dependent children from purchasing publicly traded stocks. The bill cleared committee markup just two days later on January 14, passing along party lines.

Meanwhile, the Restore Trust in Congress Act, introduced by Reps. Chip Roy and Seth Magaziner back in September 2025, has racked up 126 cosponsors in the House and enjoys bipartisan support in the Senate. A discharge petition gathered between 79 and 82 signatures by early 2026. That’s still short of the 218 needed to force a floor vote without leadership’s blessing.

Despite all this momentum, no full House vote on any stock trading ban had been scheduled as of mid-2026. House Speaker Mike Johnson has faced increasing pressure from members on both sides of the aisle, but scheduling remains in leadership’s hands.

The crypto angle nobody’s ignoring

Rep. Haley Stevens introduced the No Getting Rich in Congress Act on March 5, 2026, and this is where things get particularly interesting for the digital asset world. The bill extends trading restrictions beyond stocks, futures, and commodities to explicitly include cryptocurrency.

If this bill passes, members of Congress couldn’t trade Bitcoin, Ethereum, or any other token while serving in office.

What this means for markets and investors

Multiple members of Congress have faced scrutiny over suspiciously well-timed trades, including during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic when some lawmakers sold stocks after receiving classified briefings about the virus.

For the crypto market specifically, including digital assets in trading restrictions legitimizes crypto as a mainstream financial instrument in the eyes of federal law. It could also signal that more rigorous compliance expectations are coming for the broader crypto industry, not just for lawmakers, with potential expanded disclosure requirements or trading restrictions for other government officials, staffers, or regulators at agencies like the SEC and CFTC.

The procedural hurdles remain real. The gap between 82 signatures on a discharge petition and the 218 needed is still enormous. Watch for any movement from Speaker Johnson on scheduling, as no vote had been placed on the calendar as of mid-2026.