Senator Daines Drafts Bitcoin (BTC) Tax Bill Exempting Fees Under $10

Senate Draft Targets Small Transactions

US taxpayers would stop reporting a taxable gain on every small crypto transaction if a Senate draft circulated this week becomes law — an obligation that today falls on anyone who sells, swaps or spends digital assets. Senator Steve Daines, a Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, distributed the draft of a comprehensive digital-asset tax bill covering Bitcoin (BTC) and other cryptocurrencies to stakeholders this week, and his office expects formal introduction next week. The document runs 13 sections, with the official bill name and sponsor line still blank — signs that the text is not yet final. Its central relief: holders who use qualifying US dollar stablecoins to buy goods or services would recognize no gain or loss on the sale or exchange. The draft text restricts eligibility to tokens acquired at a price within 3% above or below $1 that meet requirements the US Treasury Department publishes monthly. Network fees receive parallel treatment: when the combined fees attached to a single transaction total $10 or less, no gain or loss is recognized. If enacted, that rule would apply to asset dispositions after December 31, 2027. The draft also tightens loss harvesting. Wash-sale rules that already bind stock investors would extend to crypto — a loss is limited when the taxpayer acquires a substantially identical asset within 30 days before or after the sale — and positions engineered to capture a sale's economic effect without disposing of the asset would fall under constructive-sale treatment, a change relevant to leveraged contract trading desks. Dealers and certain businesses could elect mark-to-market accounting, valuing holdings at fair value each year instead of tracking every individual disposal.

House Bill Cleared Committee 38-5

The Senate draft arrives as a parallel House effort moves through committee. A comprehensive House bill, the Digital Asset Tax Certainty Act, was introduced on September 14 and referred to the House Ways and Means Committee, covering stablecoin payments, transaction fees, mining and staking among its tax questions. On September 16, the committee approved the bill 38-5 with bipartisan support — rare cross-party movement on crypto legislation, though committee approval does not guarantee floor time. No vote is scheduled in the full House before the midterm elections, so further consideration slips to after the vote. The Senate draft carries additional provisions aimed at specific market activities. Qualifying crypto lending would no longer be treated as a taxable sale when stated conditions are met. Investment funds that stake holdings — committing assets to secure proof-of-stake networks and earning rewards — would not lose their tax status for staking alone, a question central to the tokenomics design of many chains. Donations of widely traded crypto would receive relief from certain appraisal requirements. For everyday users, the fee carve-out addresses a compliance problem that has grown with on-chain activity: most fees are paid to node operators, and each payment is today a separate reportable disposal that must be cost-basis matched — a burden disproportionate to the amounts involved. Loss limitation closes a gap traders have used for years: crypto was never covered by the wash-sale rule, so positions could be sold and immediately rebought to book a tax loss while keeping exposure. Daines is set to leave office at the end of the current term and intends to present a crypto tax framework before departing, his office said. Introducing before the midterms, he argues, preserves a window for the Senate to take up the bill in the session between the election and the new Congress. Readers tracking the market in real time can follow live spot and futures prices on Binance.

Lame-Duck Window After Midterms

For now, the obligation remains prospective: none of the draft's provisions binds a single taxpayer today. The operative date is set in the document itself — the fee exemption reaches dispositions after December 31, 2027, and the stablecoin carve-out depends on Treasury's monthly designation of qualifying tokens. In COINOTAG's reading, the sequencing matters more than any single section: a House bill cleared committee 38-5, and a Senate Finance Committee member has now put a full tax framework on the table before the midterms. The duty it would create — stablecoin-spend relief, sub-$10 fee tracking retired, wash-sale limits applied — would fall on US taxpayers and on dealers electing mark-to-market, and only after both chambers pass identical text.