U.S. Crypto Groups Push Congress to Pass Staking and Mining Tax Bill Without Changes
A coalition of major crypto industry organizations is calling on Congress to pass a bill that would overhaul how the IRS taxes mining and staking rewards, urging lawmakers to advance the legislation without amendments that could weaken its core provisions. The push centers on H.R.
A coalition of major crypto industry organizations is calling on Congress to pass a bill that would overhaul how the IRS taxes mining and staking rewards, urging lawmakers to advance the legislation without amendments that could weaken its core provisions.
The push centers on H.R. 9175, the Tax Clarity for Mining and Staking Act, filed on June 8, 2026 by Rep. Mike Carey (R-OH), publicly announced on June 10, and referred to the House Ways and Means Committee. On June 9, the day between filing and public announcement, the committee held a Full Committee Legislative Hearing on Digital Asset Taxation; it was that hearing that prompted the industry coalition's coordinated call to pass the bill without changes. The Blockchain Association, the Crypto Council for Innovation, the Digital Chamber, and Stand with Crypto have all publicly backed the bill, which addresses a long-standing complaint from validators and miners about being taxed on newly created tokens before they ever sell them.
What the Bill Would Change
Under current IRS guidance, codified in Rev. Rul. 2023-14, miners and stakers must report newly received tokens as ordinary income at the moment they receive them, regardless of whether they sell. The industry calls this the "phantom income" problem: a validator earns staking rewards, owes taxes on their dollar value that day, and may still be holding depreciating tokens months later with no cash to cover the bill. H.R. 9175 would give taxpayers the option to treat those rewards as self-created property, deferring any tax liability to the point of actual sale. The bill does not eliminate the tax obligation; it shifts when that obligation is triggered.
The bill also includes a fix for institutional investors. Grantor trusts holding digital assets would be able to receive staking rewards without forfeiting their tax-exempt status, a technical change that matters for fund structures used by family offices and institutional managers. This provision carries particular significance for South Asian institutional crypto fund managers operating U.S.-structured vehicles through the Mauritius-to-U.S. fund structuring corridor widely used by Indian family offices, a group that has seen grantor trust complications limit participation in American staking vehicles.
Rep. Carey framed the problem in straightforward terms. "Mining and staking rewards are taxed under rules that fail to reflect underlying tech realities and diverge from core tax principles," he said in a statement on his congressional website. Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith (R-MO) added that current law "creates confusion and needless risk for those justly compensated for marketplace functionality."
Why Industry Groups Want No Amendments
The "unchanged" qualifier in the industry groups' position is pointed. A discussion draft circulating in the same seven-bill package, put forward by Rep. Steven Horsford (D-NV) under the title End Digital Assets Tax Shelter Act, would move in the opposite direction by restricting certain digital asset tax structures. Analysts suggest that industry advocates are concerned that amendments folding in that draft's language could undermine the self-created property election at the heart of H.R. 9175.
The legislative picture around Horsford is notable for its internal tension. He is also a co-sponsor, alongside Rep. Max Miller (R-OH), of the Digital Asset PARITY Act (H.R. 8899), a bipartisan companion bill introduced May 19, 2026 that provides a separate five-year deferral mechanism. Horsford simultaneously backing a pro-deferral measure and authoring a restrictive discussion draft reflects the genuine disagreement within Congress over how far digital asset tax relief should extend.
The seven bills are standalone drafts at this stage and will likely need attachment to a broader legislative vehicle, such as a budget reconciliation package, to reach a Senate vote. Industry groups are treating this committee-level moment as a structurally meaningful opportunity. Sen. Cynthia Lummis (R-WY) attempted to attach similar staking and mining tax relief to unrelated spending legislation in 2025 without success; the current Ways and Means Committee path, backed by dedicated hearing support and bipartisan co-sponsorship on related measures, represents a stronger vehicle.
Alison Mangiero, policy head at the Crypto Council for Innovation, put the stakes plainly: "Getting the tax treatment of digital assets right is essential to compliance, to everyday use, and to keeping this activity and its revenue in the United States." Cody Carbone, CEO of the Digital Chamber, welcomed the June 9 Full Committee Hearing and called for the bill to advance without changes that would dilute its core provisions.
The Global Stakes
The U.S. currently accounts for roughly 37.5 percent of global Bitcoin mining hashrate, approximately 400 exahashes per second, according to Hashrate Index data for 2026. Russia sits at 16.4 percent and China at 11.7 percent. Those three countries together control about two-thirds of global mining capacity, making U.S. policy decisions structurally important to the entire sector.
For validators, Ethereum staking currently yields approximately 3.5 to 4.2 percent annually. At current network scale, that translates to billions of dollars in annual rewards that could be eligible for deferred tax treatment under the proposed election.
Regional Implications
The bill's passage would widen an already significant policy gap between the U.S. and several emerging crypto markets. In India, staking and mining income is taxed as ordinary income at receipt, followed by a 30 percent capital gains rate on any subsequent sale, with no ability to offset losses. India also imposes a 1 percent tax deducted at source on crypto transactions, and beginning in fiscal year 2025-26, exchanges are mandatorily reporting all user transaction data to the Income Tax Department, tightening enforcement across an already punitive framework. That combination has pushed Indian Web3 developers and staking operators toward jurisdictions including the UAE, Singapore, and Portugal. A U.S. model based on deferred realization would further validate the policy design that Indian industry groups, including WazirX and CoinDCX, have long lobbied New Delhi to adopt.
In South Africa, validators currently face ordinary income tax at rates up to 45 percent on rewards at receipt, and as of March 2026, all exchanges are required to feed transaction data directly to the South African Revenue Service under the OECD's CARF reporting framework. South Africa's 2026 Budget did raise the individual annual capital gains exclusion to R50,000 from R40,000, a modest acknowledgment of pressure on crypto participants but one that does little to address the receipt-time taxation structure. The U.S. bill's optionality model sits in direct contrast to that mandatory, receipt-time approach. Ethiopian miners, who have built the continent's largest mining operation on surplus hydroelectric power (around 27.5 exahashes per second, ranking eighth globally), could face tougher competition for institutional capital if U.S. tax clarity accelerates domestic investment in American mining operations.
Elsewhere on the continent, Nigeria's Investment and Securities Act 2025 designates the Securities and Exchange Commission as sole crypto regulator and classifies digital assets as securities, with a new tax framework active from January 1, 2026. That framework has created compliance costs and legal uncertainty that advocates say are pushing operators toward clearer regimes. In Kenya, a grassroots staking economy has emerged without a settled regulatory framework, and local advocates have pointed to U.S. policy signals as practical and rhetorical support for their own lobbying efforts. For both countries, clarity on the U.S. side would sharpen the contrast between American openness and domestic regulatory ambiguity.
What Comes Next
The seven-bill package represents the first crypto tax legislation advanced at the committee level in U.S. history, following stablecoin regulation through the GENIUS Act, signed in 2025, and a House-passed market structure bill still awaiting a full Senate vote. Whether H.R. 9175 moves as a standalone measure or gets absorbed into a larger spending package will determine its timeline. Industry groups are pushing for speed, but the path to a Senate floor vote remains uncertain.