top of page
4Artboard 3_2x_edited_edited.png

The UK’s home for tokenised equity. Independent news, insight and resources for founders raising capital, investors deploying it, and the firms supporting both — as the regulation, infrastructure and opportunity converge.

USA House Tax Writers Take Up Seven Digital Asset Bills

  • Writer: Shawn Jhanji
    Shawn Jhanji
  • Jun 12
  • 3 min read

The first Ways and Means crypto tax hearing in years.


None of this is law yet. This was a discussion hearing, not a markup or a floor vote, and the questions from lawmakers made clear the package is still a work in progress. There was no sign of settled bipartisan agreement. The path to enactment still runs through committee markup, a House vote, the Senate, and a presidential signature, and any of those stages could reshape or stall the bills. Why this matters from a UK desk Tax is not the glamorous end of digital asset policy. It is, however, one of the quiet forces that decides where capital and companies choose to sit. A founder tokenising equity, a fund holding digital securities, or a platform settling onchain all care a great deal about whether the tax treatment is predictable. Uncertainty is itself a cost, and it tends to push activity toward whichever jurisdiction removes it first.

The US House Ways and Means Committee, the body that writes American tax law, held a full legislative hearing on digital asset taxation on 9 June 2026. It was the committee's first such hearing in years, and it came with seven discussion drafts already circulating. Chairman Jason Smith framed the stakes plainly, arguing that America needs clear tax rules to stay, in his words, the digital asset capital of the world.


The drafts try to fix problems that have nagged at the sector since the IRS first classified cryptoassets as property back in 2014.


One would create a de minimis exemption, removing the need to report tiny transactions. A related draft exempts network gas fees under ten dollars, capped at five thousand transactions a year, which is aimed squarely at the absurdity of logging a taxable event every time someone moves a few pounds of tokens. Another tackles the double taxation of mining and staking, where proceeds are currently taxed both when received and again when sold.


A draft from Representative Jodey Arrington would extend established anti-abuse rules, including wash sale provisions, so that digital asset investors are treated like investors in any other asset. A final proposal opens a two year voluntary disclosure window, letting holders self report past unreported income without facing future criminal liability.


None of this is law yet. This was a discussion hearing, not a markup or a floor vote, and the questions from lawmakers made clear the package is still a work in progress. There was no sign of settled bipartisan agreement. The path to enactment still runs through committee markup, a House vote, the Senate, and a presidential signature, and any of those stages could reshape or stall the bills.


Why this matters from a UK desk


Tax is not the glamorous end of digital asset policy. It is, however, one of the quiet forces that decides where capital and companies choose to sit. A founder tokenising equity, a fund holding digital securities, or a platform settling onchain all care a great deal about whether the tax treatment is predictable. Uncertainty is itself a cost, and it tends to push activity toward whichever jurisdiction removes it first.


That is the real signal here. The United States is treating tax clarity as a competitiveness lever, not just an administrative tidy up. The framing is explicit: clear rules to attract and keep digital asset activity on American soil.


For the UK, which has been building its own architecture through the FCA and Bank of England joint vision on tokenisation and the Digital Securities Sandbox, the tax question is the less discussed companion to all that market structure work. Getting the trading and settlement rules right matters. So does making sure the tax treatment of tokenised assets and onchain securities does not quietly send issuers elsewhere.


The detail of seven American draft bills will not survive contact with the legislative process unchanged. The direction of travel is the part worth marking. Major economies are now competing to be the cleanest, clearest place to build with digital assets, and tax is becoming part of that contest rather than an afterthought to it.


Key takeaways

  • The House Ways and Means Committee held its first digital asset tax hearing in years on 9 June 2026, with seven discussion drafts on the table.

  • Proposals include a de minimis exemption, relief for small transactions and gas fees, a fix for double taxed mining and staking, extended anti-abuse rules, and a voluntary disclosure window.

  • Nothing is enacted. This was a discussion hearing, lawmakers raised real concerns, and bipartisan agreement is not yet in place.

  • The wider signal is that the US now treats tax clarity as a tool to compete for digital asset activity, a point UK policymakers building their own tokenisation framework will be watching.

Sources: Crypto Council for Innovation, Ways and Means hearing wrap, US House Ways and Means Committee press releases; CoinDesk policy coverage.

Comments

bottom of page