Netherlands Sets 36% Tax on Crypto Gains, Sweeping Bitcoin Holders In

Crypto News

A global push to tax unrealized gains is moving from theory toward law, and the world’s richest holders of paper wealth — Bitcoin (BTC) included — are squarely in the frame. The debate sharpened after Elon Musk became the first trillionaire on June 12, with a fortune built almost entirely on unsold stock that no government currently taxes until it is realized. Lawmakers in three jurisdictions are now testing variations of an annual levy on assets that have appreciated but never been sold. Our reading of the policy arc: the same logic that targets a trillion-dollar equity stake also reaches large altcoin and Bitcoin positions sitting near an all-time high.

South Korea delivered the latest flashpoint this week, as ruling-party lawmakers and labor groups proposed folding unrealized gains on stocks and real estate into the income-tax base. The forum-stage proposal landed amid a heavy Seoul selloff that local traders began calling “Black Tuesday,” underscoring how quickly a tax signal can reprice an entire market. No statutory text has been finalized, so the scope and rate remain unconfirmed. What is confirmed is the direction: a major Asian economy is openly weighing taxation of paper profits, a structure that would, if extended to digital assets, capture Bitcoin appreciation long before any holder converts a position to cash.

The Netherlands has already moved furthest. On February 12, the Lower House of the Dutch Parliament passed the Box 3 Actual Return Act, applying a flat 36% levy on annual paper gains across stocks, bonds and crypto. The law targets a 2028 start and still requires Senate approval. The explicit inclusion of crypto matters: it would tax year-over-year Bitcoin and altcoin gains on a mark-to-market basis, whether or not the holder sells. For a Dutch investor sitting on appreciated coins, the official legislative text means a tax bill could arrive purely because the portfolio rose in value over the calendar year.

The Dutch measure has not gone unchallenged. On February 25, the finance minister stated the act could not proceed as drafted and would require amendments, an early sign that the 36% headline rate may soften before implementation. Coalition negotiations under Prime Minister Rob Jetten are reportedly preparing a round of concessions ahead of the 2028 target date. For now the framework is law in one chamber but not the other, and the final treatment of crypto gains remains open. We flag this as a confirmed legislative passage paired with an unconfirmed final rate — a distinction that matters for any Bitcoin holder modeling future liabilities in the European Union.

In the United States, Senator Ron Wyden has reintroduced the Billionaires Income Tax, backed by more than 20 cosponsors. The bill would tax tradable assets — chiefly publicly listed stocks such as Alphabet and Adobe — annually at market value, taxing the gain each year rather than at sale. The stated purpose, per the bill text, is to require billionaires to pay annually by removing tax-planning strategies that let the ultra-wealthy defer indefinitely. Liquid digital assets held by qualifying taxpayers would plausibly fall under the same mark-to-market design, extending the annual-valuation principle from equities into the crypto column of a billionaire’s balance sheet.

Underlying all three proposals is the so-called “buy, borrow, die” playbook that lawmakers are explicitly trying to dismantle. The mechanism is simple: hold appreciating assets such as stock or Bitcoin, borrow against them at low cost to fund spending, and avoid ever realizing a taxable sale — with the cost basis ultimately stepped up at death. Because borrowing is not a taxable event and unrealized gains go untaxed, holders like Musk can access enormous liquidity while reporting little income. An annual mark-to-market tax breaks the chain by treating yearly appreciation itself as the taxable trigger, regardless of whether a single share or coin is ever sold.

Tying these threads together, COINOTAG’s reading is that wealth-tax policy is converging on a single principle — taxing appreciation, not realization — and crypto is increasingly written into the text rather than left as an afterthought. The timing is delicate. Our aggregate market data shows the Fear & Greed Index at 15/100, deep in Extreme Fear, while Bitcoin dominance stands at 70.2% and total crypto market capitalization sits near $1.72 trillion. A levy on unrealized gains lands hardest in a market already defensive and concentrated in Bitcoin. The Dutch official filing is the only one carrying a hard 36% rate today; the Korean and US versions remain proposals, and we will track each statute against primary legislative sources rather than headlines.