Lawmakers in the US House are advancing a package that would reduce everyday tax friction for certain digital asset activity while still producing a modest net gain for the Treasury.
On September 16, 2026, the House Ways and Means Committee is scheduled to consider H.R. 10357, the Digital Asset Tax Certainty Act.
The measure consolidates months of earlier drafts into a single rewrite of how the Internal Revenue Code treats cryptocurrencies, stablecoins, network fees, loans, and related transactions.
The Joint Committee on Taxation projects that the bill would raise roughly $500 million in additional federal receipts on a net basis from fiscal 2027 through 2036.
That figure already accounts for provisions that both increase and decrease revenue.
Relief for qualifying dollar-pegged stablecoins and small transaction costs would cost the government money; those losses would be more than offset by tighter trading rules that close a long-standing gap between crypto and traditional securities.
Under current law, the IRS generally treats most digital assets as property.
Every sale, swap, or payment—even a few cents of blockchain “gas”—can trigger a capital-gain or capital-loss calculation. The new legislation would ignore gains or losses when digital assets are used solely to pay network or transaction fees of $10 or less.
The exclusion is limited; it does not create a general exemption for purchases of goods or services with Bitcoin or other volatile tokens.
Qualifying US dollar stablecoins that stay tightly pegged would receive more favorable treatment so that small price drifts do not generate taxable events when the tokens are spent like cash.
Revenue would be recovered primarily by applying wash-sale restrictions to traded digital assets other than those same qualifying stablecoins.
Today an investor can sell Bitcoin at a loss and immediately repurchase it while still claiming the loss.
Stocks and securities have long been subject to a 30-day waiting period; the bill would extend a similar discipline to crypto.
Additional provisions would expand mark-to-market accounting for dealers and traders whose activity rises to the level of a trade or business, clarify the tax treatment of digital asset lending, and allow certain investment trusts to stake assets without losing their tax status.
The package also addresses past non-compliance through a limited voluntary-disclosure program and sets sourcing and character rules for mining and staking income, treating validator rewards as ordinary income.
Industry observers note that an earlier proposal to let miners and stakers defer tax until tokens are sold was dropped from the consolidated text.
Supporters argue the combination of simpler rules for payment-oriented activity and closer alignment with securities-market anti-abuse standards will encourage legitimate use of digital assets without opening new loopholes.
Critics point out that ordinary users who spend Bitcoin or ether on everyday purchases will still face the same property-tax paperwork they have known since 2014.
It now remains to be seen if the committee advances the bill, and whether it can move through the full House and Senate before the current session ends, remains an open question. The legislation represents the most comprehensive attempt yet to give digital-asset taxation a clearer statutory foundation while producing a small but positive score for the federal budget.