Latest news with #Lummis
Forbes
09-07-2025
- Business
- Forbes
Lummis Crypto Tax Reform Bill Could Transform U.S. Digital Asset Rules
WASHINGTON - SEPTEMBER 21: Sen. Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyo. (Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty ... More Images) The U.S. digital asset industry has been operating under a tax code that wasn't built for the blockchain era. A lack of clear definitions, inconsistent treatment, and outdated frameworks has made compliance not just burdensome—but risky. And not just for retail investors, but for institutions, developers, and even regulators trying to keep up. Case in point: the way digital assets are taxed compared to securities and commodities. Stepping into this regulatory gap is Senator Cynthia Lummis (R-WY), a longtime Bitcoin advocate and one of the most consistent crypto-focused voices on Capitol Hill. On July 3, 2025, Lummis introduced a standalone digital asset tax reform bill that, if enacted, could mark a pivotal moment in harmonizing how digital and traditional financial assets are treated under the Internal Revenue Code (IRC). Her proposal follows the removal of similar provisions from the broader 'One Big Beautiful Bill Act' during the House amendment process, a result that prompted Lummis to reintroduce them independently to preserve momentum behind digital asset tax clarity. 'We cannot allow our archaic tax policies to stifle American innovation,' said Lummis in a press release. 'My legislation ensures Americans can participate in the digital economy without inadvertent tax violations.' The bill outlines several key reforms aimed at modernizing tax treatment for digital assets. Here is a closer look at its major provisions and what they could mean for legal, financial, and compliance professionals navigating this evolving policy landscape. A Statutory Definition for Digital Assets Section 1 of the bill amends Section 7701 of the IRC to introduce a formal definition of 'digital asset.' Under the proposal, a digital asset is defined as a 'digital representation of value which is recorded on a cryptographically secured distributed ledger,' with carve-outs for representations of traditional financial assets and real-world property. This definitional clarification addresses a long-standing challenge across regulatory bodies: multiple federal agencies currently operate with differing classifications of digital assets. Establishing a consistent statutory definition offers a shared foundational reference point across regulatory domains and could reduce ambiguity in compliance frameworks moving forward as well as industry-wide clarity. Tax Treatment of Digital Asset Lending The legislation expands Section 1058 to cover 'specified assets,' a new term that includes both traditional securities and actively traded digital assets. As a result, lending arrangements involving qualifying digital assets would no longer trigger a taxable event at the moment of transfer, provided that certain conditions are met. This change seeks to address a long-standing disincentive for capital formation and liquidity in tokenized markets. Under current rules, lending crypto (even temporarily) can trigger immediate—often onerous—tax consequences, even when no economic benefit has been realized. Accordingly, the proposed update aims to remove barriers that, as explained by Lummis, have 'discouraged legitimate lending markets and created artificial barriers to capital efficiency.' Wash Sale Rule Extension for Digital Assets A separate provision revises Section 1091 to apply the 30-day wash sale rule to digital assets. While this change would close a known tax-loss harvesting strategy used by some crypto investors, it brings digital assets into alignment with long-standing treatment of securities. Notably, the bill includes exceptions for dealers and for transactions involving payment stablecoins, which are defined elsewhere in the bill. This signals a targeted application of tax parity principles while accounting for practical differences in asset function. Lummis's bill would ensure tax neutrality between asset classes while maintaining appropriate exceptions for legitimate business activities. Mark-to-Market Accounting for Traders and Dealers The bill also creates a new Section 475(g), allowing traders and dealers in specified digital assets to elect mark-to-market treatment. This election would allow taxpayers to recognize gains and losses based on fair market value at year-end, similar to rules already available to securities and commodities traders. For high-frequency trading firms, hedge funds, and crypto-native trading platforms, the bill's mark-to-market provision could significantly reshape how gains and losses are recognized for tax purposes. If adopted, digital asset dealers and traders would be allowed to treat holdings as if they were sold at fair market value at year-end, which would mirror the treatment already available to securities and commodities traders. This shift would bring long-overdue consistency to how digital asset income is reported and allow firms to claim losses more accurately in volatile markets. Adjustments for Mining, Staking, and Charitable Contributions The legislation proposes additional reforms in areas that have generated ongoing uncertainty: Each of these provisions reflects attempts to align digital asset taxation with functional and operational realities in the Web3 ecosystem. Administrative Oversight and Anti-Abuse Provisions The bill includes several regulatory safeguards, authorizing the Treasury Secretary to issue guidance on wallet segregation, mixed-transaction treatment, basis adjustments, and broker reporting. It also anticipates the need for anti-abuse rules to prevent manipulation of the new exclusions or accounting elections. These provisions suggest that while the bill aims to simplify and clarify, it does not forgo regulatory rigor. Instead, it reflects an attempt to balance innovation and integrity within a modernized tax framework. Temporary Reforms with a Built-In Sunset Each major provision in the bill, including those related to lending, staking, wash sales, and de minimis exemptions, features a sunset date ten year of December 31, 2035. This temporal limitation suggests that lawmakers view the proposed reforms as transitional measures, subject to revision as markets, technology and regulatory experience evolve and results inform future lawmaking. For businesses and tax professionals, however, the sunset clause could introduce long-term planning uncertainty and regulatory risk. This underscores the importance of continued stakeholder engagement during the rulemaking and review process. While the Lummis proposal is still in its early stages and its passage is far from certain, it represents a notable effort to modernize digital asset taxation by aligning it with long-standing rules in the traditional financial sector. Taken together, the provisions signal a broader shift in how lawmakers are approaching digital asset regulation to prioritize clarity, neutrality, and administrative feasibility. For legal, financial, and compliance professionals, this bill provides an important window into the direction of U.S. tax policy. As digital assets become more integrated into capital markets and everyday commerce, the ability to interpret and navigate these evolving rules will remain a key strategic competency.
Coin Geek
08-07-2025
- Business
- Coin Geek
Cynthia Lummis digital asset tax bill seeks capital gain reforms
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready... United States Senator Cynthia Lummis (R-WY) has introduced 'comprehensive digital asset tax legislation' that would provide, amongst other measures, exemptions on gains from digital asset transactions, an end to the so-called 'double taxation' of digital asset miners and stakers, and greater parity with how other asset types are treated. On July 3, Senator Lummis—a prominent supporter of the digital asset space and chair of the Senate digital assets subcommittee—published a bill to amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to reform the treatment of digital assets, which the Wyoming Republican claimed would 'generate approximately $600 million in net revenue during the 2025-2034 budget window.' The legislation proposes several tax reforms to benefit the digital asset space, whilst bringing the asset class more in line with the treatment of other securities and commodities in certain areas . 'In order to maintain our competitive edge, we must change our tax code to embrace our digital economy, not burden digital asset users,' said Lummis. 'This groundbreaking legislation is fully paid-for, cuts through the bureaucratic red tape and establishes common-sense rules that reflect how digital technologies function in the real world.' She added that U.S. lawmakers 'cannot allow our archaic tax policies to stifle American innovation, and my legislation ensures Americans can participate in the digital economy without inadvertent tax violations.' Tax exception for small transactions First on the list of changes would be a 'de minimis exclusion' from taxation for digital asset gains or losses of $300 or less, with a $5,000 yearly total cap—unless 'the sale or exchange is for cash or cash equivalents' (including payment stablecoins), property used in active trade or business, or property held for income production. 'This provision recognizes the impracticality of tracking every small digital asset transaction, such as buying coffee with Bitcoin, which creates enormous compliance burdens for ordinary users,' said a press release from Lummis' office, published last July 3. 'The $300 threshold strikes a reasonable balance between tax compliance and practical usability of digital assets as a medium of exchange.' This proposal aims to boost the market for small digital asset transactions and payments, and would be especially beneficial to micropayment markets. Mining and staking Another significant proposal in the bill aims to end the controversial 'double taxation' of digital asset miners. Under the IRS's existing rules, a U.S. taxpayer who successfully mines digital assets must treat the 'fair market value' of the recently created assets as gross income at the moment it is 'created'—meaning, the creation of the asset triggers a taxable event. However, when the miner later sells or exchanges those assets, a second taxable event occurs on any appreciation or loss over the original value at the time of sale. In other words, digital asset miners are effectively being taxed twice on the same assets under current U.S. tax rules—first at creation and then again at disposition. Lummis seeks to end this double taxation by amending the rules to make mining and staking income not recognized until the sale or disposition of the produced assets (the second taxable event), and treat it as ordinary income when recognized. 'This aligns the taxation of mining and staking rewards with the actual realization of economic benefit, rather than forcing recognition based on volatile and often uncertain fair market values at the time of receipt,' said the press release. 'The approach prevents cash flow problems where taxpayers owe taxes on assets they haven't sold and may not be able to liquidate easily.' Aligning with other asset classes Further notable changes proposed by the bill include expanding securities lending rules to include digital assets, which prevents a result where temporarily lending digital assets would trigger immediate tax consequences and potentially discourage legitimate lending markets in digital assets—a situation that Lummis described as 'absurd.' Another reform involves closing an 'unfair loophole' where digital asset investors could engage in tax-loss harvesting strategies—whereby an investor sells an asset at a loss to offset capital gains taxes—unavailable to traditional securities investors. This can be done for gaming capital gains tax, but also as a form of 'wash trading,' in which a trader sells a security at a loss and buys a 'substantially identical' security within 30 days before or after the sale—a practice that can be used to mislead investors into believing that trading volumes for a security are higher than they really are. Senator Lummis' bill proposes adding digital assets to an IRS rule that bars taxpayers from deducting from their taxable income losses that result from wash trades of securities; an exception was included for dealers and hedging transactions. The bill would also allow dealers and traders in digital assets to elect 'mark-to-market treatment,' also known as 'fair value accounting,' whereby the balance sheet shows assets at their fair market value, which may be higher or lower than cost. 'This provides digital asset dealers and traders with the same tax treatment available to their securities and commodities counterparts, eliminating arbitrary discrimination based on asset type,' said Lummis' announcement. Lastly, the proposed legislation would exempt actively traded digital assets from 'qualified appraisal' requirements for charitable contributions, thus removing 'an unnecessary bureaucratic barrier that has discouraged charitable giving of digital assets.' Based on the current IRS rules, donations of non-cash assets—whether commodities, securities, or digital assets—valued at more than $5,000 generally require a 'qualified appraisal' to prove that the stated value of the assets is accurate. However, publicly traded securities are exempt, as their fair market value can be readily determined from the current trading price. According to Lummis' bill, digital assets should also be exempt, as they often have readily determinable fair market values through active trading. Removing this requirement, suggested the Senator's press release, would encourage philanthropy while recognizing that actively traded digital assets should be treated similarly to publicly traded securities for valuation purposes. The tax reform bill will now head into the long U.S. legislative process, beginning with debate and subsequent vote in the Senate, at an as-yet-unspecified time in the next few months. Watch: Reggie Middleton on DeFi, booms/busts & crypto regulation title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen>
Coin Geek
08-07-2025
- Business
- Coin Geek
Congress preps July crypto push; crypto bank charters all rage
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready... U.S. legislators are gearing up for a frenzied push to pass digital asset legislation this month, while crypto firms race to secure national banking charters. On Wednesday, July 9, the U.S. Senate Banking Committee will hold its latest hearing on digital asset market structure regulation. The hearing, titled 'From Wall Street to Web3: Building Tomorrow's Digital Asset Markets,' will feature testimony from Ripple Labs CEO Brad Garlinghouse, Blockchain Association CEO Summer Mersinger, Paradigm partner Dan Robinson, and Jonathan Levin from blockchain analysts Chainalysis. The Senate has yet to introduce its market structure legislation, having released only a set of 'principles' detailing its priorities. However, a discussion draft is expected to arrive shortly before the hearing and is expected to resemble the Responsible Financial Innovation Act introduced in 2022 by Senators Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) and Cynthia Lummis (R-WY). That bill, like the companion legislation in the House of Representatives (CLARITY Act), would hand primary responsibility for regulating digital assets to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), with a lesser role for the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The CFTC reports to the Senate Agriculture Committee, which will require its hearings and input into the legislative sausage-making. CLARITY has successfully completed two House committee markup sessions, but the bill will get renewed attention starting July 14, kicking off what the House has christened 'Crypto Week.' This will involve House consideration of CLARITY as well as the Senate's recently approved stablecoin legislation (GENIUS Act) and Rep. Tom Emmer's revived Anti-CBDC Surveillance State Act. House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA) expressed optimism that all three bills will make it to the floor for a vote by the full House next week. Assuming the vote is in the affirmative, GENIUS would head to President Trump's desk to be signed into law. Successful votes on CLARITY and CBDCs would send both of those bills to the Senate, and GENIUS sponsor Sen. Bill Hagerty (R-TN) said he looked forward to 'working with my colleagues to move the CLARITY act through the Senate in short order.' The House appears to have folded on its previously stated plan to harmonize GENIUS with its own stablecoin bill (STABLE), choosing instead to fast-track GENIUS in keeping with Trump's stated wishes. Whether that means the Senate is prepared to return the favor and accept CLARITY with minimal revisions remains to be seen. Hot tax break summer Meanwhile, Lummis isn't finished convincing her colleagues to pass crypto-specific tax reform. Despite watching her tax amendments fail to attach themselves to Trump's 'big, beautiful' spending bill, Lummis has now introduced a standalone bill to 'amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to reform the treatment of digital assets.' The bill would eliminate taxes on capital gains resulting from individual crypto sales, exchanges, or dispositions totaling less than $300, with a cumulative cap of $5,000 per year, after which no more free rides are allowed. The bill would also classify digital asset lending agreements as 'generally not taxable events,' effectively lumping tokens with existing securities lending rules. Block reward miners would no longer have to recognize mining income until the tokens generated by their activities are sold or disposed of. Similar policies would apply to digital asset staking, based on the belief that assets shouldn't be taxed until their owner enjoys the actual realization of economic benefit. There are other aspects, but it's unclear whether Lummis has the juice to push her bill through the Senate Finance Committee. Lummis appears to be treating her 'fully paid-for' bill as a discussion draft, stating at the time of its release that she welcomes public comments on its language. Back to the top ↑ Trump crypto ventures shaking things up On America's birthday, the Trump family's decentralized finance (DeFi) project World Liberty Financial (WLF) announced that it had opened voting on a proposal to make its 'governance' token WLFI tradable for the first time. The plan was first disclosed at last month's Permissionless conference by WLF Co-Founder Zak Folkman. As of now, WLFI holders lack the ability to do anything with their tokens other than vote on WLF proposals. But that prohibition appears about to end, given the current state of the voting. The proposal notes that some WLFI supply (30%, according to the WLFI' gold paper') was allocated to 'early supporters,' and 'a portion of these tokens will be eligible to be unlocked upon launch of tradability.' There will be a 'second vote … to determine the unlock and release schedule' of the remaining tokens. Timing and 'any eligibility requirements for unlock' are TBD. However, 'founders, team, and advisor tokens will not be unlocked initially … to demonstrate long-term commitment to the project and alignment with the success of the protocol.' Said advisors include Justin Sun, founder of the TRON network, who became a WLF advisor after buying $75 million worth of WLFI shortly after the token's launch. WLF describes the tradable vote as 'a defining moment,' noting that a 'yes' vote means 'WLFI's governance framework will enable more token holders to participate directly in protocol decisions. This includes voting on emissions, ecosystem incentives, and future treasury actions.' While WLFI was WLF's first baby, its website was recently designed to focus almost solely on USD1, the dollar-denominated stablecoin WLF launched this spring. On July 7, Justin Sun announced the launch of USD1 trading pairs on his DeFi platform. The first three pairs are USDT (Tether), TRON's native token TRX, and NFT, the APENFT Foundation token, which is the primary token for trading non-fungible tokens (NFTs) on TRON. Meanwhile, the $TRUMP memecoin, the president launched exclusively on the Solana network a couple of days before his inauguration in January, is now coming to TRON. On July 7, the company behind $TRUMP (GetTrumpMemes) teased the token's arrival, a move that was swiftly echoed by Sun, although neither party offered details on an expected timeline for the TRON debut. Back to the top ↑ Survey says… whatever you want it to say Despite the brazen profit-taking of some of Trump's ventures, the general public doesn't appear to care. At least, according to a survey commissioned by Cedar Innovation Fund, a pro-crypto' dark money' Group whose backers are uneager to declare themselves publicly. The survey, involving 1,000 voters in mid-June, found that 57% had heard 'nothing or not that much' about Trump making big bank off his $TRUMP memecoin. An even larger slice (60%) was largely unfamiliar with the fact that Trump is making millions from other crypto ventures like WLF. Cedar, which helped defeat crypto critic Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) in the 2024 election, is no shrinking violet, having recently issued a pointed statement to Senate leaders urging them to 'avoid political games' and pass GENIUS post-haste. Cedar claims the results of its survey show Democrats 'aren't breaking through' with the American public in their efforts to paint Trump as a crypto grifter. However, a different survey from around the same period by the progressive group Data for Progress found very different results. In this poll, 62% of respondents wanted Congress to amend GENIUS to include language preventing Trump and his family from 'personally benefiting' from crypto projects. Back to the top ↑ Secret Service crypto wallet filled to bursting The list of Trump-linked crypto ventures has grown so extensive that individuals could be forgiven for not knowing which of his crypto pitches are legit. On July 2, the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia filed a civil complaint seeking to seize nearly 40,400 USDT it claims are part of over $250,000 fraudulently obtained by scammers posing as Steve Witkoff, a longtime friend of the president, WLF co-founder, and co-chair of Trump's inaugural committee. By changing one letter in an email address, the government says the perpetrators imitated a legitimate address to solicit donations to the bogus inaugural fund. This scam worked to perfection on December 26, 2025, obtaining a total of $250,300 in USDT from a single donor. While the bulk of these funds was immediately transferred to 'numerous' other digital wallets, Tether was able to freeze 20,336 USDT in a wallet flagged by the government, while the Binance digital asset exchange was able to freeze another 20,024 USDT that the apparently Nigerian-based perp transferred to their account. Presumably, the U.S. government intends to return the seized tokens to their rightful owner, which isn't always a given. On July 5, Bloomberg reported that the U.S. Secret Service's Global Investigative Operations Center (GIOC) has amassed a haul of nearly $400 million worth of tokens seized as the proceeds of crime over the past decade. That nine-figure sum apparently includes the $225.3 million the Secret Service and FBI recovered in June from a money laundering network linked to crypto investment fraud schemes. 'Much' of the GIOC's nine-figure sum reportedly resides in a single cold-storage wallet, a perhaps risky gambit should an absent-minded purge suddenly leave GIOC staff sifting through a landfill like that sad sack Brit. Speaking of the government's digital wallets, July 22 will mark 180 days since Trump issued an executive order establishing the President's Working Group on Digital Assets (aka 'crypto council'). The Group, chaired by Trump's 'AI & Crypto Czar' David Sacks, was given 180 days in which to recommend regulatory and legislative proposals, including details on the president's Strategic Bitcoin Reserve and the U.S. Digital Asset Stockpile, which Trump announced in March. It's unclear whether this report will ever be made public. The administration previously directed the Treasury Department to submit a report on all the digital assets currently held by government agencies—the tokens that will make up the Reserve/Stockpile—but later hedged that the government was under no obligation to share this report with the public. Back to the top ↑ Ripple seeks bank charter On July 2, Ripple became the latest digital asset firm to announce plans to pursue a U.S. national bank charter from the Treasury Department's Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC). From his X account, CEO Brad Garlinghouse said the plan was intended to boost trust in RLUSD, the stablecoin Ripple issued last December. Garlinghouse said Ripple had also applied for a Federal Reserve master account (via Ripple's Standard Custody & Trust Company subsidiary). Garlinghouse said a master account 'would allow us to hold $RLUSD reserves directly with the Fed and provide an additional layer of security to future proof trust in RLUSD.' Just days before Ripple's announcement, another stablecoin issuer, Circle (NASDAQ: CRCL), announced its bank charter application. Circle said part of the appeal of a charter would be the ability to self-custody the fiat reserves backing the $62 billion in USDC tokens. Pure stablecoin issuers have limited revenue-generating capacity, relying on interest on the Treasury bills and other fiat assets backing their circulating stablecoins. Any opportunity to cut costs—including by settling payments directly and thus cutting out the banking middlemen—needs to be taken. At present, only one digital asset firm, Anchorage Digital, has been approved for a national bank charter. Back to the top ↑ Backward, it spells a phonetic 'robbery' Also in the banking charter hunt is Erebor, a proposed tech-focused bank backed by some major Silicon Valley luminaries. The Financial Times first reported on the venture, which is backed by Peter Thiel and his Founders Fund, Palantir co-founder Joe Lonsdale, and Palmer Luckey, co-founder of Anduril, another high-tech military contractor. Erebor's backers reportedly want the bank to fill the role formerly played by Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), which collapsed in March 2023. The idea is that Erebor would cater to tech companies focused on digital assets, AI, defense, and manufacturing, while also banking the individuals who work at or invest in these firms. Erebor's filing states it intends to become 'the most regulated entity conducting and facilitating stablecoin transactions.' Jacob Hirshman, a former Circle adviser, has been tipped as Erebor's co-CEO alongside Owen Rapaport, co-founder/CEO of Aer Compliance, a crypto trading pre-clearance and post-trade monitoring solutions company. The irony here is high, as SVB's failure is believed to have been sparked by a run on its deposits led by Thiel's Founders Fund. Thiel claimed innocence at the time, noting that he'd left $50 million of his own funds at SVB. However, it's worth noting that Thiel's net worth is over $20 billion, making that sacrifice a lot easier to take. At any rate, Thiel got his $50 million back when the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) rode to SVB's rescue. USDC issuer Circle was the biggest beneficiary of this bailout, having left $3.3 billion in a single SVB account that was insured only up to $250,000. Not everyone is convinced that granting tech/crypto firms access to national bank charters and Fed master accounts is a good thing. Bloomberg's Paul Davies issued an op-ed on Monday warning that the 2023 failures of SVB and similar banks (Silvergate, Signature) were in part due to their focus on 'economically sensitive industries that are highly correlated to each other, and they lacked diversification of funding.' Davies goes on to describe that narrow focus as 'a bad business model' that is 'much more significant in explaining the 2023 failures than depositor fears about unrealized losses on bonds, or the role of social media in transmitting panic … Circle, Erebor and the rest look like they're running straight back toward this bad business model trap.' Back to the top ↑ Watch: Teranode is the digital backbone of Bitcoin title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen="">
Yahoo
04-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Elon Musk issues stark one-word warning on skyrocketing $36T debt
Elon Musk issues stark one-word warning on skyrocketing $36T debt originally appeared on TheStreet. Billionaires, including the world's wealthiest man Elon Musk, couldn't stop reacting as the U.S. national debt hits record high. As per the Treasury Department, the U.S. debt stood at $36.2 trillion on June 3. "Scary," the tycoon reacted on X. Musk's one-word response to the monumental debt encapsulates what nearly everyone has been feeling. The tech tycoon isn't the only billionaire worried about the precarious condition. Tyler Winklevoss, who co-founded the Gemini crypto exchange along with his twin brother Cameron Winklevoss, also reacted to the development. The billionaire crypto entrepreneur, however, seemed to offer a rather unique way out of the condition: Buy bitcoin Though Winklevoss's advice is quite uncommon, it is not entirely new. Even Sen. Cynthia Lummis (R-WY), a political heavyweight in the crypto circle, thinks on similar lines. Lummis, a leading pro-crypto voice in the U.S. Senate, is well-known for her BITCOIN Act that, once legislated, will codify President Donald Trump's March executive order to establish a strategic Bitcoin reserve. Sen. Lummis thinks Bitcoin is the solution to the soaring national debt too. On March 27, she shared the stage with Strategy (Nasdaq: MSTR) founder Michael Saylor when she claimed: If it [Bitcoin] is held for 20 years, pursuant to the best modeling available, we can reduce our national debt by half. The views of the likes of Winklevoss and Sen. Lummis regarding Bitcoin's viability to resolve the debt crisis haven't found any wide support so far. Nonetheless, Trump has emerged as a strong supporter of Bitcoin during his second term. As per Bitcoin Treasuries, the U.S. holds most Bitcoin — 198,012 BTC worth $21 billion at the time of writing — among all the countries. As per Kraken, Bitcoin was trading at $105,704.14 at press time. Elon Musk issues stark one-word warning on skyrocketing $36T debt first appeared on TheStreet on Jun 3, 2025 This story was originally reported by TheStreet on Jun 3, 2025, where it first appeared. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
The Hill
03-07-2025
- Business
- The Hill
Senate Republican unveils digital assets taxation package
Sen. Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.) unveiled new legislation Thursday updating tax rules for cryptocurrencies, as Congress continues to move toward establishing a comprehensive regulatory regime for digital assets. 'In order to maintain our competitive edge, we must change our tax code to embrace our digital economy, not burden digital asset users,' Lummis said in a statement. The crypto tax package would establish a de minimis rule for digital assets, exempting small transactions under $300 from taxes, in addition to exempting crypto lending from taxes and deferring taxes on income generated from crypto mining and staking until tokens are sold. It would also apply the typical 30-day wash rule to digital assets, removing a loophole that has allowed crypto investors to sell tokens at a loss and then quickly buy them up again while still claiming a tax deduction. Crypto dealers and traders would also be eligible for mark-to-market treatment under the rules. This means that crypto holdings, like securities holdings, could be considered as if they were sold at market price at the end of the year for tax purposes, allowing individuals to claim losses that can then be deducted from their taxes. Lummis underscored Thursday that the Congressional Joint Committee on Taxation estimates the bill would generate about $600 million through 2034. 'This groundbreaking legislation is fully paid-for, cuts through the bureaucratic red tape and establishes common-sense rules that reflect how digital technologies function in the real world,' she said. 'We cannot allow our archaic tax policies to stifle American innovation, and my legislation ensures Americans can participate in the digital economy without inadvertent tax violations,' Lummis added. The Wyoming Republican indicated earlier this week that she hoped to get crypto tax provisions into President Trump's sweeping tax and spending bill. However, the legislation ultimately passed out of the Senate on Tuesday without the measures. Despite being left out of the reconciliation bill, the crypto tax package enters the fray at a moment when Congress is particularly receptive to digital assets legislation. The Senate passed a bill last month to establish a regulatory framework for stablecoins. Meanwhile, House panels have advanced both stablecoin legislation and legislation divvying up oversight of the broader crypto market between two financial regulators. The lower chamber is expected to take up the crypto bills later this month.
