Crypto Tax Push Intensifies as Blockchain Association Lobbies Congress

On Thursday, the Blockchain Association sent a letter to leaders in the Senate and House, urging Congress to enact bipartisan digital asset tax legislation. It marked the group's first comprehensive tax advocacy since the Clarity Act's Senate defeat last month.

Signed by Chief Policy Officer Lindsay Fraser and sent to Majority Leader John Thune, Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, Speaker Mike Johnson and Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, the letter contends that the regulations for the 67 million Americans owning digital assets “were written for a different era.”

Alongside the letter, the association launched TaxClarityforAmerica.com, a site designed for constituents to reach their representatives.

The requests are familiar to followers of the tax debate: a de minimis exemption for small transactions, stablecoins treated as cash, taxation of mining and staking rewards when sold rather than when received, broker reporting confined to entities that custody customer assets, and wash sale rules that prevent loss harvesting without affecting routine trades.

The letter also includes a safe harbor for foreign traders using U.S. exchanges, an option for mark-to-market accounting, and eligibility for R&D credits in blockchain development. Missing from the letter is any endorsement. Two bills are under consideration, but the association did not name either.

Where the tax bills stand

The House took the first step. A day after the Clarity Act's Senate failure, the Ways and Means Committee approved the Digital Asset Tax Certainty Act, H.R. 10357, a 114-page measure from Chairman Jason Smith (R-MO). It exempts network fees below $10 from capital gains reporting, except for taxpayers who executed over 5,000 transfers in the previous year, and applies wash sale and constructive sale rules to digital assets. Qualifying dollar stablecoins are not subject to the wash sale rule.

The package omitted the industry's top priority. Rep. Mike Carey's Tax Clarity for Mining and Staking Act, H.R. 9175, which would have allowed miners and stakers to defer taxes until sale, appeared in an early discussion draft but was absent from the committee's September 14 text. Instead, the bill treats validation rewards as ordinary income, taxable upon receipt. Rep. Steven Horsford (D-NV), who had suggested a five-year cap on deferral, supported the package and noted it leaves the issue for future work.

In June, the Blockchain Association, Crypto Council for Innovation and Digital Chamber had requested the committee pass that bill unchanged. The committee did the opposite.

The Senate has its own proposal. On September 30, Sen. Steve Daines (R-MT) introduced the ADAPT Act, cosponsored by Sens. Cynthia Lummis, Bernie Moreno and Tim Scott. It exempts from gain or loss purchases made with GENIUS Act stablecoins, establishes the same $10 fee threshold, and applies wash sale rules with grandfathering for existing holdings and exclusions for mining and staking rewards. The bill is in committee.

Lummis's earlier bill, S. 2207, which includes a $300 per-transaction de minimis exemption capped at $5,000 annually, has been in the Finance Committee since June 2025.

Neither the House nor Senate bill includes the exemption for small bitcoin purchases that the industry highlighted at Bitcoin 2026. The House bill's $10 threshold applies to fees, not the purchase amount. The Senate bill's spending exemption covers stablecoins, not bitcoin.

The Bitcoin Policy Institute and other groups have said that any de minimis rule should include bitcoin, and Thursday's letter requests a "meaningful" exemption without specifying an amount.

Awkward timing

Congress is on recess until after the November 3 midterms. Upon return, lawmakers face a lame-duck session lasting just weeks, and crypto tax legislation contends with government funding and other priorities leadership might advance before the 119th Congress concludes.

Lummis, the Senate's most prominent advocate for digital asset taxes, is retiring in January 2027.

The failure of the Clarity Act influences everything. That market structure bill passed the House 294-134 in July 2025, then languished in the Senate for over a year as the banking lobby clashed with the crypto industry over stablecoin yield and Democrats sought ethics provisions targeting the Trump family's crypto projects.

The cloture vote on September 15 failed 49-50. No Democrat voted in favor, and Republicans Susan Collins, Josh Hawley and Jerry Moran opposed it. Sen. Thom Tillis changed his vote to allow a motion to reconsider, keeping the bill alive in name only.

With market structure legislation stalled, the industry has redirected lobbying efforts toward achievable goals. Tax is a clear contender: the House package advanced from committee with bipartisan support, and the wash sale provisions generate revenue, giving tax writers incentive to attach them to a larger bill. Punchbowl News reported on Thursday that the association's unwillingness to endorse either bill indicates the industry seeks more than Congress has offered.

Meanwhile, regulators continue to fill the void. The OCC on Wednesday issued its final rule under the GENIUS Act, while the SEC and CFTC have been shaping market structure policy through rulemaking and enforcement without a statute.