The United States House of Representatives took a step toward creating specific tax rules for digital assets. The Ways and Means Committee approved on September 16, by 38 votes to 5, the Digital Asset Tax Certainty Act (H.R. 10357), sending the text, already amended, for possible floor consideration. The bill covers stablecoins, mining, staking, crypto lending, network fees and rules against artificial tax-reduction strategies.
The most relevant impact, however, is not only in the number of topics covered. The text tries to replace part of the tax treatment created for traditional assets with rules specific to crypto, reducing some operational frictions while closing other advantages currently available to investors. The consequence is a more predictable framework, but not necessarily a more permissive one in all areas.
The US$ 10 exception is more limited than an exemption for small payments
One of the most visible changes creates an exception for certain network and transaction fees of up to US$ 10. Under the proposal, the taxpayer would not recognize gain or loss when disposing of a digital asset to pay a qualified fee within that limit. The rule would cover, for example, certain network fees, brokerage fees, trading fees and liquidity fees.
This eliminates a specific source of complexity: under current treatment, using an appreciated cryptocurrency to pay a transaction's own fee can constitute a disposition of the asset and require calculating gain or loss.
But the measure is narrower than a general exemption for small purchases. The text does not establish that any payment of up to US$ 10 made in crypto is no longer taxable. The exception is tied to the asset used to pay certain fees associated with the transaction. There are also restrictions for brokers, dealers, traders, companies that validate transactions for third parties and, under certain circumstances, users with more than 5,000 transfers in the previous year.
If approved in its current form, this section would apply to dispositions after December 31, 2027. The Joint Committee on Taxation estimates that the change would reduce federal revenue by approximately US$ 2.37 billion between 2027 and 2036, which gives a sense of the volume of taxable events that Congress is trying to remove from the system.
Stablecoins get treatment closer to money, but with limits
The bill also creates specific rules for qualified dollar-denominated stablecoins. In certain transactions, the tax basis would be tied to the token's redemption value, with specific margins designed to accommodate small fluctuations around parity with the dollar.
The mechanism reduces the need to calculate small gains and losses from minimal fluctuations of a stablecoin designed to be worth US$ 1. For payments and settlement, this change may be operationally more important than a nominal tax reduction: it simplifies the accounting needed to treat an asset that economically functions as a digital equivalent of the dollar.
The text also brings some digital asset lending operations closer to existing rules for securities lending and provides specific treatment for certain stablecoin loans. These provisions show that the bill does not treat stablecoins merely as another category of cryptocurrency, but tries to incorporate them into tax structures already used in traditional financial operations.
Bill reduces some burdens and closes another crypto tax advantage
H.R. 10357 also expands the rules on wash sale to traded digital assets, with exceptions such as qualified dollar stablecoins. These rules restrict the ability to sell an asset at a loss to obtain a tax deduction and quickly repurchase an economically equivalent position.
This is one of the parts in which the bill brings crypto closer to the rules applicable to stocks and other financial instruments. The Joint Committee on Taxation estimates that extending wash sale rules to digital assets would increase federal revenue by approximately US$ 1.71 billion between 2027 and 2036.
The design helps explain the broader logic of the legislation: Congress is not merely proposing to ease crypto taxation. Some rules reduce compliance costs or recognize characteristics specific to digital assets; others eliminate differences that today allow more favorable treatment than that granted to traditional financial assets.
Staking and mining still have a central question unanswered
For mining and staking, the text establishes that income from digital asset validation activities be treated as ordinary income and creates rules to determine whether that income is considered from U.S. or foreign source. It also allows certain trusts to stake without automatically losing their treatment as a trust for tax purposes.
The main controversy, however, remains: when staking or mining income must be recognized for tax purposes.
An earlier version included a form of deferral, but that provision did not remain in the text that advanced in committee. Democratic Representative Steven Horsford, one of the lawmakers involved in the proposal, said during the proceedings that the package establishes treatment as ordinary income, but leaves the question of the timing of recognition unresolved.
This gap is relevant because the timing of recognition determines not only when the tax is due, but also which asset value should be used as a reference. In staking, tokens can be received continuously and vary significantly in price before being sold.
Thus, the bill would increase certainty about what type of income is being generated, without ending the debate about when that income becomes taxable.
The next test is turning committee consensus into legislation
The 38 to 5 vote shows broad support within the Ways and Means Committee, but the bill is not yet law. The text was only ordered favorably for consideration by the House and would still need to pass the full chamber, advance in the Senate and receive presidential approval.
The calendar also matters. The House is expected to leave Washington until after the November elections, which could shift a potential vote to the period after the election. In parallel, the sector's attention should turn to the Senate Finance Committee and to possible equivalent proposals or changes in the Senate.
The concrete signs to watch now are therefore the inclusion of H.R. 10357 on the floor agenda, the treatment the Senate will give to the same issues and any attempt to resolve the tax timing of mining and staking.
If these steps advance, the most important effect of the Digital Asset Tax Certainty Act will not simply be reducing taxes on crypto. It will be beginning to define which characteristics of digital assets justify specific rules and in which situations Congress intends to treat them the same way as traditional financial instruments.
