US House Committee Advances Digital Asset Tax Bill as Senate CLARITY Act Stalls

The US House Ways and Means Committee passed the Digital Asset Tax Certainty Act with bipartisan support on Wednesday, advancing legislation aimed at reshaping the federal tax treatment of digital assets.

The bill advanced in a 38-5 vote and covers stablecoins, mining and staking, digital asset lending, transaction fees and other crypto-related activity.

Among its provisions, the bill would establish special tax treatment for qualifying dollar-pegged stablecoins and certain crypto lending agreements, extend wash-sale rules to widely traded digital assets and establish new rules for mining and staking income.

Source: Ways and Means Committee

The legislation would also create a de minimis exemption for certain crypto transaction fees, allowing taxpayers to avoid recognizing gains or losses when digital assets are used to pay qualifying network or transaction fees of $10 or less.

The committee’s approval sends the bill to the full House of Representatives for consideration.

Related: Coinbase faces greater fallout from CLARITY Act setback: Saxo

CLARITY Act failure shifts focus to regulators

The committee vote comes a day after the Senate failed to advance the CLARITY Act, a broader market structure bill that would establish a federal regulatory framework for digital assets and clarify the respective roles of the Securities and Exchange Commission and Commodity Futures Trading Commission.

The cloture motion failed 49–50 on Tuesday, falling short of the 60 votes needed to advance the legislation to debate on the Senate floor.

Senator Cynthia Lummis, chair of the Senate Banking Subcommittee on Digital Assets and a lead sponsor of the legislation, blamed Democrats for the bill’s failure following the vote.

“For over a year, they presented demands and the second we met them, they made new demands and moved the goal posts,” Lummis said in a post on X, adding that Democrats had voted against proposed consumer protections and restrictions on politicians’ personal crypto investments.

With the bill’s failure to advance in the Senate, SEC Chair Paul Atkins signaled Wednesday that the agency would continue moving forward on crypto regulation under its existing authority.

“With or without legislation, we will act decisively within the SEC’s statutory authority to deliver certainty for American investors and for the entrepreneurs shaping our technological future,” Atkins said in a post on X, adding: “Stay tuned.”

Source: Paul Atkins

CFTC Chair Michael Selig echoed Atkins, saying the agency would move ahead using its existing statutory authority despite the Senate vote.

“The CFTC is locked in and ready to ship its rules for the new frontier of finance,” Selig said in a Wednesday post on X, adding that Americans “deserve regulatory clarity, legal certainty, and consumer protections in crypto asset markets.”

Source: Mike Selig