On September 16, the U.S. House Ways and Means Committee passed H.R.10357, the "Digital Asset Tax Certainty Act," with 38 votes in favor and 5 against. Both parties rarely stood together.
As soon as the news broke, insiders cheered.
"No tax on fees under $10!"
"Stablecoins get exemptions!"
"Trusts can now pledge assets!"
But don’t rush to celebrate. After reading through the 114-page bill, you’ll find the truly important clause was removed.
First, the good news, there is some.
One, on-chain fees under $10 per transaction are tax-exempt. From now on, when you transfer funds or pay gas, you don’t have to worry about whether or how to report that fee. But there’s a condition — people who made over 5,000 transfers last year don’t qualify.
In other words, this is for ordinary users, not for volume-trading studios.
Two, qualified U.S. dollar stablecoins enjoy wash sale rule exemptions. Stablecoin transfers become more flexible, and institutional market makers are no longer constrained.
Three, qualified trusts can pledge digital assets without affecting tax status. This is a real benefit for institutional staking products — previously, pledging through trusts could cause loss of tax qualification, but now that barrier is removed.
Together, these add up to the "certainty" in the bill’s title.
But the hidden landmine below is what really matters today.
The deferral provision for mining and staking rewards was deleted.
In June, Representative Mike Carey proposed the "Mining and Staking Tax Clarity Act," whose core was one clause: allowing miners and stakers to choose "tax upon sale, not upon receipt."
That clause was removed from the final version.
What does this mean?
If you mine 10 SOL today or receive 5 HYPE from staking — whether you sell or not, whether the price falls or not — at the moment you receive them, you must count their fair market value as income and pay tax.
You might say: then I’ll just sell them?
The problem is — many staking rewards have lock-up periods. You receive tokens but can’t move them. The tax bill arrives, but no cash does.
Cointelegraph quoted: "Without this provision, mining and staking rewards are still taxable upon receipt."
This is not theoretical. In 2022 and 2023, many miners received tax bills calculated at peak prices after the coin price crashed, holding coins that had dropped 80%, and still had to pay taxes.
History is repeating itself, but this time it’s the stakers’ turn.
The sting is yet to come.
Democratic Representative Lloyd Doggett proposed two amendments:
One required non-custodial and DeFi platforms to bear 1099 reporting obligations — rejected 12 to 28.
The other called for studying crypto mining’s impact on electricity and the environment — also rejected 16 to 25.
One demanded more transparency, the other research on impact. Both died.
Translation: what should be regulated wasn’t, what should be studied wasn’t.
The bill’s "worry" isn’t what it did wrong, but what it didn’t do.
It simplified small payments under $10 but didn’t touch miners’ and stakers’ most painful "tax upon receipt" issue. It gave stablecoins exemptions but didn’t provide cash flow relief for validators. It allowed trusts to pledge but didn’t allow individuals to defer.
Senator Steven Horsford himself said at the hearing: "This bill is not as comprehensive as I hoped; Congress needs to resolve when mining and staking rewards should be recognized as income."
Even those who voted yes admit the core problem remains unsolved.
In summary: it simplified your small payments but didn’t solve your cash flow dilemma of "tax upon receipt."
Miners and stakers are not winners today. They are the "compromised" side.
The bill still needs to pass the full House, the Senate, and be signed by the President. The House is in recess until after the midterm elections this week, and the schedule is not yet set.
But the tax law direction is clear: every token you receive is taxable income — whether you sell it or not.
$BTC$ETH$ZEC#美国加密税收与BTC储备法案获推进
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