House Committee Opens Crypto-Tax Markup as Market-Structure Bill Stalls

Frank Joaquin

Date: September 16, 2026

The House Ways and Means Committee is scheduled to consider the Digital Asset Tax Certainty Act today, opening a narrower legislative route one day after the Senate rejected comprehensive market-structure legislation.

The committee’s official schedule lists the markup for 10 a.m. Eastern Time, while the complete 114-page proposal is available through the House Ways and Means Committee.

The bill would establish simplified treatment for qualifying blockchain fees of $10 or less. Under the proposal, paying a small transaction or network fee would not automatically require recognition of a capital gain or loss.

That exemption would not apply to users who completed more than 5,000 transfers during the previous year. The limitation is designed to prevent high-frequency commercial operations from using a retail-oriented reporting exception.

The legislation also addresses stablecoin transactions, mining and staking income, charitable contributions, digital-asset lending, wash-sale rules and broker reporting. Treasury and the Internal Revenue Service would need to issue detailed implementation rules.

The proposal does not resolve whether a digital asset is a security or commodity. Its focus is tax administration: when income or gains are recognized, how transactions are documented and which entities must report information.

Committee approval would move the proposal forward but would not make it law. The bill would still require approval by the House and Senate and the president’s signature.

TOKEN RECON ASSESSMENT

The tax bill now becomes a test of whether Congress can advance targeted crypto legislation after the failure of a much broader regulatory package.

The small-fee exception could eliminate an impractical recordkeeping burden. Other provisions would expand conventional tax and anti-abuse rules into digital-asset activity.

Watch amendments during the markup, stablecoin treatment, the timing of staking-income recognition, broker definitions and whether the legislation can attract bipartisan Senate support.