Blockchain Association Asks Congress for Crypto Tax Overhaul, Names No Bill

Sixty-seven million Americans hold digital assets under tax rules that, in the Blockchain Association's telling, "were written for a different era." On Thursday, October 22, the trade group asked Congress's top four leaders to fix that with bipartisan digital asset tax legislation. It is the group's first broad push on taxes since the Clarity Act failed in the Senate last month. It did not endorse a specific bill, and the timing is awkward: Congress is in recess until after the November 3 midterms.

The letter went to Senate Majority Leader John Thune, Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, House Speaker Mike Johnson and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries. Chief Policy Officer Lindsay Fraser signed it on behalf of a group that represents more than 100 firms.

"Americans who use digital assets aren't asking for special treatment. They want to follow the law and pay the taxes they owe, but today's rules are often unclear and unworkable,"

Lindsay Fraser, Chief Policy Officer, Blockchain Association

The association paired the letter with a new site, TaxClarityforAmerica.com, built for constituents to contact their representatives.

What the letter asks for

The wish list is broad. It calls for a de minimis exemption (a threshold below which small transactions are not taxed or reported), cash treatment for stablecoins, and taxation of mining and staking rewards at sale rather than at receipt. It also seeks broker reporting limited to firms that hold customer assets, wash sale rules that close loss harvesting without catching everyday transactions, a safe harbor for foreign traders on U.S. exchanges, a mark-to-market election, and R&D credit eligibility for blockchain development. The letter also asks Congress to protect taxpayer privacy.

Notably, the letter asks for a "meaningful" de minimis exemption without putting a figure on it, and it names no bill.

"That work cannot fully succeed without a tax framework that is clear, administrable, technology-neutral, and aligned with economic reality."

Blockchain Association

Where the legislation stands

The letter says Congress "has made progress toward clear rules for digital assets," but the market-structure effort has stalled. The Clarity Act failed a Senate cloture vote on September 15, 49-50, and Sen. Thom Tillis switched his vote so he could file a motion to reconsider. The setback has reached the association's own leadership: CEO Summer Mersinger stepped down after the Clarity Act failed to advance.

On the tax side, the House Ways and Means Committee approved the Digital Asset Tax Certainty Act, H.R. 10357, from Chairman Jason Smith, a day after the Clarity vote failed. It exempts network fees under $10 from capital gains reporting and extends wash sale rules to digital assets. It omits the mining and staking deferral from Rep. Mike Carey's H.R. 9175 and treats validation rewards as ordinary income taxable on receipt, the opposite of what the association now requests.

In the Senate, Sen. Steve Daines introduced the ADAPT Act on September 30, and it sits in committee. Sen. Cynthia Lummis's S. 2207 has been in the Finance Committee since June 2025.

Little room to move

Neither chamber's bill includes a de minimis exemption for small bitcoin purchases. The House $10 threshold covers network fees, and the Senate exemption covers stablecoins. Punchbowl News reported that the association's refusal to back either bill signals the industry wants more than Congress has produced.

The calendar is the larger constraint. The House bill is not expected to return until after the elections, and the lame-duck session will be short, with crypto taxes competing against government funding. Lummis retires in January 2027, which takes the sponsor of S. 2207 out of the Senate.

The letter reads less as a push for a particular vote than as an effort to set the terms of the next round, with the post-election window as the likely opening.