Blockchain Association Petitions Congress for Crypto Tax Overhaul Across 10 Principles

The Blockchain Association asked congressional leadership on Oct. 22 to enact bipartisan tax legislation for digital assets, presenting a framework of 10 principles designed to modernize US fiscal policy ¹. The trade association, which represents more than 100 member companies, sent the formal letter to House Speaker Mike Johnson, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, Senate Majority Leader John Thune, and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer ¹.

Signed by Chief Policy Officer Lindsay Fraser, the correspondence noted that roughly 67 million Americans own or use digital assets under tax frameworks designed for legacy financial systems ¹. The group contended that regulatory efforts to structure domestic digital asset markets cannot succeed without tax statutes that are administrable, technology-neutral, and reflective of underlying economics ¹. While current guidance establishes general rules for crypto taxes in the US, industry participants argue that statutory revisions are required to resolve persistent reporting frictions ¹.

The Proposed Tax Principles

The association's 10-point framework—originally released on Feb. 24 during a Capitol Hill legislative fly-in—calls for several structural changes to the Internal Revenue Code ¹:

• Implementing a de minimis exemption for small transactions and treating stablecoins as cash equivalents to remove Form 1099-DA reporting burdens ¹.
• Ensuring non-taxable treatment for transfers between a user's own wallets, smart-contract interactions, and cross-chain bridging where ownership remains unchanged ¹.
• Restricting broker-reporting obligations strictly to entities that hold or custody user assets, excluding non-custodial developers ¹.
• Deferring taxation on mining and staking rewards until the recipient disposes of the underlying tokens ¹.
• Permitting digital assets to be held within retirement accounts and extending standard wash-sale rules to crypto assets without establishing punitive conditions ¹.

The principles also advocate for an elective mark-to-market regime, research-and-development tax credits for blockchain development, an exemption from appraisal requirements for charitable gifts of widely traded tokens, and safe-harbor protections for non-US persons trading on domestic venues ¹.

The lobbying effort arrives as digital asset proposals encounter mixed momentum on Capitol Hill ¹. In September, the House Ways and Means Committee approved the Digital Asset Tax Certainty Act, a proposal that would exempt crypto used for network or transaction fees valued at $10 or less from capital gain or loss calculations beginning in 2028 ¹. However, broader legislative efforts remain stalled in the Senate, where the Clarity Act failed to clear a 60-vote procedural hurdle on Sept. 15 following partisan disputes regarding ethics restrictions linked to President Donald Trump's crypto ventures ¹. At the time of writing, $BTC traded at $81,514 and $ETH stood at $2,393 as market sentiment remained neutral.