Crypto's second U.S. lobbying front — tax policy — sees industry push on mining, staking

Top U.S. crypto lobbying groups united to ask that the U.S. House of Representatives embrace a bill that gives digital assets miners and recipients of staking rewards an option for deciding when to take a tax hit on the new assets — either when they're first obtained or when the holders ultimately unload the cryptocurrency.

The policy outlined by one of several crypto tax bills currently contemplated by the U.S. House Ways and Means Committee, the Tax Clarity for Mining and Staking Act offered by Representative Mike Carey, should be advanced in Congress, according to an industry letter addressed to the Republican chairman and senior Democrat of the tax panel dated Sunday.

"The tax code should not force Americans who help secure decentralized networks to sell assets before they can reasonably monetize them simply to satisfy an immediate tax obligation," said Summer Mersinger, CEO of the Blockchain Association, in a statement alongside her counterparts at the Digital Chamber and the Crypto Council for Innovation, who joined to send the letter that advocated the legislation get advanced as-is.

While the top focus of the industry remains the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act that would establish a full U.S. regulatory regime for crypto activity, its second priority has been on crypto taxation, which was the central thrust of a June 9 committee hearing discussing several bills, including the legislation from Carey, an Ohio Republican.

Democrats on the committee revealed some concerns about how this bill would be utilized by the industry in practice, and outside critics such as the Revolving Door Project argued that crypto mining firms — including American Bitcoin, in which President Donald Trump's sons Eric and Donald Jr. have a significant stake — could defer taxes indefinitely while still getting a financial benefit from their holdings.

The industry letter countered that the bill "does not provide unlimited deferral or full parity with all forms of self-created property; instead, it ensures income is recognized while avoiding immediate taxation before taxpayers can monetize the asset."

Crypto tax policy has been approached by a number of legislative efforts over the years. The latest House bills remain at a fairly early stage of the process, while the current congressional session is facing its final months, so it's uncertain what their viability is at this stage.

The Senate's crypto bandwidth is taken up at the moment with the Clarity Act, which is still in heavy negotiations even as the final days tick down toward a make-or-break moment. Crypto insiders are pinning their hopes on it arriving to the Senate floor by mid-July, though a number of its most contentious provisions haven't yet been definitively worked out.