Blockchain Association presses Congress for crypto tax fix as Clarity Act stalls

The Blockchain Association, a trade group representing more than 100 crypto firms, sent a letter to all four top congressional leaders on Thursday urging lawmakers to pass digital asset tax legislation while a broader market-structure bill sits stalled in the Senate.

The letter went to Senate Majority Leader John Thune, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, Speaker of the House Mike Johnson and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries. Its core argument is simple: current tax policy for digital assets is outdated, unclear and unworkable, and Congress cannot finish the job of regulating crypto without fixing it.

"Americans who use digital assets aren't asking for special treatment. They want to follow the law and pay the taxes they owe, but today's rules are often unclear and unworkable," said Lindsay Fraser, the Blockchain Association's chief policy officer.

What does the group actually want?

The letter lays out a set of principles for future crypto tax legislation rather than endorsing a single bill.

The group's asks include:

• A de minimis exemption that would shield small transactions from tax reporting
• Stronger taxpayer privacy protections
• Extending wash sale rules to digital assets, closing a gap that currently lets crypto traders harvest tax losses in ways securities traders cannot

"Congress has made progress toward clear rules for digital assets," the group wrote. "That work cannot fully succeed without a tax framework that is clear, administrable, technology-neutral, and aligned with economic reality."

Fraser framed the stakes in competitive terms in the letter. "These principles provide a path toward stronger tax compliance, greater certainty for taxpayers and businesses, and a regulatory environment that keeps the next generation of financial innovation – and the jobs it creates – in the United States," she said.

The message lands at a moment of legislative gridlock. Over the past two years, Congress has been working to pass the Clarity Act, a broad crypto market-structure bill. It stalled in the Senate last month after failing its first procedural vote, leaving the industry's flagship legislative priority in limbo.

Is there a vehicle already moving?

On the House side, yes — but it is moving slowly. The Digital Asset Tax Certainty Act passed out of the House Ways and Means Committee last month. The bill would establish clearer federal tax rules for digital assets, including a threshold that spares taxpayers from paying tax on network fees of $10 or less.

That practical detail matters. Under current IRS treatment, every fee paid in crypto can technically be a taxable disposal of property, creating a reporting burden that scales with transaction volume and makes routine on-chain activity administratively painful for ordinary users and accounting teams alike.

Lawmakers are not expected to take the bill back up until after the November elections. That timeline leaves a window of months in which the industry's tax asks have no legislative vehicle moving on the floor of either chamber.

What does this change for crypto firms and taxpayers?

In the near term, nothing by itself. A lobbying letter does not move a bill. But it signals where the industry is placing its emphasis now that the market-structure fight has hit a procedural wall in the Senate.

The operational consequences of the status quo are concrete. Without a de minimis exemption, every small payment or fee remains a potentially reportable event. Without wash sale rules applied to crypto, the disparity between digital asset and securities treatment persists in the tax code. And without privacy safeguards, the group argues, taxpayer data sits inside reporting regimes not built for it.

The Blockchain Association's pitch is also explicitly political: keeping crypto innovation, and its jobs, inside the United States depends on tax rules that companies can actually administer.

The immediate question is calendar, not policy. The Digital Asset Tax Certainty Act waits in the House, the Clarity Act waits in the Senate, and both resume — or die — after November.