TLDR
A key US House tax-writing committee has set a Wednesday markup to debate the Digital Asset Tax Certainty Act, a sweeping crypto tax bill.
- The Ways and Means Committee will review the 114-page Digital Asset Tax Certainty Act, covering fees, stablecoins, mining, staking, lending and trading rules.
- The bill offers a $10 de minimis exemption for some crypto fees, but extends wash-sale rules to digital assets and keeps mining and staking rewards taxable when received.
- This markup is an early step; amendments, HouseSenate negotiations, and the stalled CLARITY market-structure bill will determine if crypto users see net relief or tighter constraints.
Deep Dive
1. What The Bill Does
On Wednesday at 10 a.m. Eastern, the House Ways and Means Committee plans to mark up the Digital Asset Tax Certainty Act, H.R. 10357, introduced by Chair Jason Smith.
A markup is the stage where committee members debate the bills text, vote on amendments, and decide whether to send it to the full House. It is not yet a vote to enact the law.
The proposal addresses several crypto tax topics in one package: network and transaction fees, U.S. dollar stablecoins, mining and staking income, digital asset lending, trading, and broker reporting, plus a voluntary disclosure program for past non-compliance.
2. De Minimis Relief Versus New Constraints
The headline change is a de minimis exemption for small fees. Paying qualifying blockchain network or trading fees of $10 or less in crypto would no longer require recognizing gains or losses on that fee, easing reporting for routine gas and exchange charges. Heavy users, such as accounts with more than 5,000 transfers a year or certain professional traders and brokers, are excluded.
For eligible dollar-pegged stablecoins, small moves around the one-dollar peg would use redemption value as tax basis, preventing tiny price wiggles from creating taxable events. At the same time, the bill extends stock-style wash-sale rules to digital assets, limiting the ability to harvest losses and immediately rebuy the same or substantially identical token.
Mining and staking rewards remain taxable as ordinary income when received or under the taxpayers control; a previously floated deferral until sale did not make it into this draft. A Joint Committee on Taxation estimate cited in one analysis suggests that easier small-fee and stablecoin treatment could be outweighed by stricter trading rules, raising roughly $500 million in net federal revenue through 2036.
Everyday users could face fewer headaches for small fees and stablecoin payments, but active traders, miners and stakers still need robust recordkeeping and should expect less tax advantage from aggressive loss-harvesting strategies.
3. Next Steps And Uncertainty
Even if the committee approves the bill, it must still clear the full House, the Senate, and get the Presidents signature before any changes take effect. Key provisions, including fee exemptions and simplified annual accounting, are slated to start in 2028, leaving several tax years under current rules.
The markup also happens alongside broader market-structure debates. The CLARITY Act, which would divide oversight between the SEC and CFTC, recently failed a key Senate cloture vote, underscoring that crypto legislation can stall even after years of work. That increases the odds that detailed tax guidance will matter more in the near term while market-structure questions remain unresolved.
Committee amendments could change the $10 threshold, adjust who qualifies for relief, or revisit mining and staking treatment. Industry groups are likely to push hard on those details, and any compromise will shape how friendly the final regime is to different segments of the crypto market.
Conclusion
This markup signals that U.S. lawmakers are finally engaging with practical pain points in crypto taxation, trading modest relief on small fees and stablecoins against tighter rules on trading and validator income. The bill is still at an early stage, so the real impact depends on how the text changes in committee, whether it advances through Congress, and how it interacts with stalled market-structure legislation. For now, crypto users should treat it as a serious but uncertain attempt to simplify everyday usage while closing perceived tax loopholes.
CoinsKid.Com