Crypto Groups Push Congress to Pass Mining and Staking Tax Bill

Three of the largest U.S. crypto trade associations sent a joint letter to the House Ways and Means Committee on June 21, urging passage of H.R. 9175. The bill would let miners and stakers defer taxes on rewards until they sell the assets, rather than paying tax on the fair market value at receipt.

The Blockchain Association, Crypto Council for Innovation, and Digital Chamber described the bill as a durable compromise. They pressed lawmakers to pass it without changes.

H.R. 9175, the Tax Clarity for Mining and Staking Act, was introduced by Representative Mike Carey (R-OH). It gives taxpayers an election: treat new digital assets from mining or staking as self-created property, deferring tax recognition until the point of sale. The bill also includes a technical fix for grantor trusts that hold digital assets, allowing them to receive staking rewards without losing their trust status. That matters for institutional participants managing funds through trust structures.

The push comes after more than a decade of IRS guidance that treated mined and staked coins as taxable income at the moment of creation. In 2014, the IRS issued Notice 2014-21, requiring miners to report the fair market value of mined Bitcoin as gross income immediately. In 2023, Revenue Ruling 2023-14 extended the same logic to proof-of-stake validators. Under that ruling, staking rewards are taxable when earned, creating a cash-flow problem for validators who owe tax on assets they may not sell.

The trade groups argue that forcing participants to recognize income on illiquid rewards discourages domestic validation activity and cedes ground to foreign competitors with more favorable tax treatment. Proof-of-work and proof-of-stake networks secure more than $1.7 trillion in digital assets, they noted.

The Ways and Means Committee held a full-committee hearing on digital asset taxation on June 9, the first such hearing in years. Six digital asset tax bills were on the table, including H.R. 9175.

Senator Cynthia Lummis has introduced parallel legislation in the Senate that would defer tax on mining and staking until sale, aligning in spirit with the House bill. Lummis, one of the Senate's most vocal advocates for digital asset reform, departs in January 2027. Congress faces a narrow legislative window before the August recess.

The June 21 letter was signed by Blockchain Association CEO Summer Mersinger, CCI CEO Ji Hun Kim, and Digital Chamber CEO Cody Carbone. Their unified front represents a coordinated industry push at a moment of rare legislative activity.