Blockchain Association Presses Congress on Crypto Taxes, Citing 67 Million U.S. Holders

Blockchain Association’s Tax Demands

The Blockchain Association sent a letter to congressional leadership on Thursday asking Congress to pass bipartisan digital asset tax legislation, the group’s first broad push on taxes since the Clarity Act failed in the Senate last month. The document, signed by Chief Policy Officer Lindsay Fraser and addressed to Senate Majority Leader John Thune, Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, Speaker Mike Johnson and Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, argues that the rules covering the 67 million Americans who hold digital assets were written for a different era. Fraser said users of digital assets are not asking for special treatment and want to comply and pay what they owe, but that current rules are unclear and difficult to apply. The asks are familiar from the industry’s earlier lobbying: a de minimis exemption for small transactions, cash treatment for stablecoins, the asset class that now anchors much of the PayFi sector, taxation of mining and staking rewards at sale rather than receipt, broker reporting limited to firms that hold customer assets, so self-custody through a crypto wallet stays outside broker rules, and wash sale provisions that close loss harvesting without catching everyday transactions. The letter adds a safe harbor for foreign traders on U.S. exchanges, a mark-to-market election and R&D credit eligibility for blockchain development. What it does not contain is an endorsement: two tax bills are in play, and the association named neither. The group paired the letter with TaxClarityforAmerica.com, a site built for constituents to contact their representatives.

House Bill, Senate Bill, Same Gap

The House moved first. One day after the Clarity Act failed its Senate cloture vote, the Ways and Means Committee approved the Digital Asset Tax Certainty Act, H.R. 10357, a 114-page package from Chairman Jason Smith (R-MO). It exempts network fees under $10 from capital gains reporting, with a carve-out for taxpayers who made more than 5,000 transfers in the prior year, and extends wash sale and constructive sale rules to digital assets, with qualified dollar stablecoins exempt. The provision the industry wanted most was stripped: Rep. Mike Carey’s Tax Clarity for Mining and Staking Act, H.R. 9175, which would have let miners and stakers defer tax until they sell, appeared only in an early discussion draft and was gone from the text released on September 14. Instead the bill classifies validation rewards earned on a Layer 1 blockchain protocol as ordinary income, taxable on receipt. Rep. Steven Horsford (D-NV), who had proposed a five-year cap on the deferral, voted for the package and said the question remains open. The Senate version, the ADAPT Act, introduced September 30 by Sen. Steve Daines (R-MT) with Sens. Cynthia Lummis, Bernie Moreno and Tim Scott as cosponsors, exempts purchases made with GENIUS Act stablecoins from gain or loss, sets the same $10 fee threshold and applies wash sale rules with grandfathering for existing holdings and mining and staking exemptions. It sits in committee. Lummis’s earlier bill, S. 2207, with a $300 per-transaction de minimis exemption capped at $5,000 a year, has been stuck in the Finance Committee since June 2025. Neither chamber’s bill covers the small bitcoin purchases the industry made a centerpiece at Bitcoin 2026: the House threshold touches fees, not purchases, and the Senate spending exemption covers stablecoins, not bitcoin. For context, the Clarity Act passed the House 294-134 in July 2025, then stalled in the Senate, where cloture failed 49-50 on September 15; no Democrat crossed over, Republicans Susan Collins, Josh Hawley and Jerry Moran voted no, and Sen. Thom Tillis switched his vote only to file a motion to reconsider.

Why Timing Works Against the Ask

The letter we reviewed makes its case on compliance grounds, but the calendar it faces is unforgiving. Congress is in recess until after the November 3 midterms, and when members return, the lame-duck session is measured in weeks, with crypto taxes competing against government funding on leadership’s list. The refusal to back either bill is itself a signal of positioning: the industry wants more than the $10 fee carve-out and the stablecoin exemptions now on offer, and the House package’s wash sale provisions, which raise revenue and would end the loss harvesting strategies that flourished after the last bull market turned, give tax writers a reason to attach them to a larger vehicle. Personnel risk compounds the timing: Lummis, the Senate’s loudest voice on digital asset taxes, retires in January 2027. In the gap left by the Clarity Act’s collapse, regulators keep moving on their own, with the OCC issuing its final GENIUS Act rule on Wednesday and the SEC and CFTC setting market structure policy through rulemaking and enforcement absent a statute.