tl;dr
The U.S. Senate narrowly passed President Trump's reconciliation bill without key tax amendments benefiting cryptocurrency users. Pro-crypto senators, led by Senator Cynthia Lummis, sought to include provisions offering tax benefits for crypto stakers, miners, businesses, and retail users, but time ...
The U.S. Senate narrowly passed President Donald Trump’s massive reconciliation bill on Tuesday but did not include key tax amendments that would have benefited cryptocurrency users. In the frantic final hours of negotiations, pro-crypto senators and industry leaders pushed to add amendments offering long-sought tax benefits for crypto stakers, miners, businesses holding crypto stockpiles, and retail digital asset users. However, the opportunity slipped away as the clock ran out.
Sources revealed that the crypto tax provisions, led by Senator Cynthia Lummis (R-WY), were only ready over the weekend prior to the vote. This timing sparked intense activity on Monday, with Lummis promising to raise a related amendment during the marathon Senate vote-a-rama session. Crypto advocates encouraged Americans to pressure their senators to bring the amendments to the floor. Yet, by the time Vice President J.D. Vance cast the tie-breaking vote passing the bill, Lummis and her Republican allies had not secured inclusion of the crypto provisions.
One crypto policy leader described the outcome as a “missed opportunity” and lamented that time simply ran out. Nonetheless, a spokesperson for Senator Lummis expressed optimism, noting that the crypto taxation issues are now firmly on the radar of senior Republicans, particularly Senate Finance Committee Chair Mike Crapo (R-ID). Lummis has engaged in productive discussions with Crapo and other committee members and looks forward to addressing these critical tax concerns in future legislation.
Though it remains unclear which measures would have made the final amendment, experts speculate it would have included a key provision clarifying that staking and mining rewards should be taxed only when sold rather than at the time of generation. Another probable inclusion was a mark-to-market accounting provision to give companies more flexibility in reporting unrealized crypto gains, thus enhancing their balance sheets. The amendment likely would have also featured a de minimis tax exemption for small crypto transactions—allowing Americans to exclude transactions below a few hundred dollars from capital gains taxation. This exemption was regarded by many in the crypto community as a potential catalyst for broader crypto adoption in everyday payments.