U.S. Senator Steve Daines has introduced a 56-page digital asset tax bill that would exempt certain stablecoin payments from capital gains taxes while bringing several other crypto activities under clearer tax rules.
The proposed ADAPT Act would generally prevent taxpayers from recognizing gains or losses when using qualifying US dollar stablecoins to buy goods and services. It would also apply wash-sale and constructive-sale rules to digital assets and establish tax treatment for activities such as staking, mining, lending and network fees.
Digital assets have moved into the mainstream, but the tax code hasn’t kept up. My bill would create clearer rules for stablecoins, network fees, staking and lending—while extending familiar tax rules like wash sales and constructive sales to digital assets. pic.twitter.com/W6nXSsTgvX
— Steve Daines (@SteveDaines) September 30, 2026
The bill, formally called the Aligning Digital Assets with Principles of Taxation Act, represents Daines’ effort to create a broader tax framework for the cryptocurrency industry. Daines, a Republican from Montana and a member of the Senate Finance Committee, has been working on digital asset taxation for more than a year.
The stablecoin provision is one of the central elements of the proposal. Under the bill, people using regulated US dollar stablecoins for everyday purchases would generally not have to recognize a capital gain or loss on those transactions, provided the conditions set out in the legislation are met.
The proposal would also provide relief from broker information reporting for qualifying consumer transactions. However, the exemption would not apply to traders and dealers.
Source: daines.senate.gov
The bill comes as lawmakers in Congress continue to work on how the tax system should treat crypto payments. The House Ways and Means Committee approved its own Digital Asset Tax Certainty Act on Sept. 16. That legislation also seeks to reduce tax complications around routine digital asset transactions.
Daines’ proposal would extend wash-sale rules to digital assets. These rules generally restrict investors from claiming a tax loss when they sell an asset and acquire a substantially identical asset around the same period.
The bill would also extend constructive-sale rules to digital assets, although regulated stablecoins would be excluded from that provision. The changes are intended to bring crypto transactions under tax rules that already apply to certain traditional financial assets.
The legislation goes beyond trading and payments. It would establish rules for determining the source of income from activities such as staking and mining. The proposed rules would consider factors including the recipient’s residence and, in some mining situations, the location of computing equipment and personnel.
Another provision would extend existing securities-lending tax treatment to certain digital asset loans. Qualifying transactions could avoid immediate tax recognition under the proposed framework.
The bill also includes a limited exemption for digital assets used to pay network, transaction or gas fees of $10 or less. Traders, dealers and certain high-volume users would not qualify for this relief.
Eligible digital asset traders and dealers could also elect mark-to-market accounting, under which qualifying positions are generally valued at fair market value for tax purposes.
The proposal further addresses charitable donations of widely traded digital assets and staking activities involving certain tax-exempt organizations and investment vehicles. It also establishes definitions for terms such as digital assets, regulated stablecoins, staking, mining, tokenized assets and bridged assets.
The bill is still a legislative proposal. It would need to pass both chambers of Congress and be signed into law before its provisions could take effect. Several provisions would apply to transactions or tax years after Dec. 31, 2026, while some rules would have separate effective dates.
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