At Coin Center, leaders are calling for changes to how cryptocurrency transactions are taxed in the United States. The organization says that current tax laws create significant administrative burdens for people who use cryptocurrencies for everyday activities.
Coin Center notes that, unlike traditional assets such as stocks or derivatives, cryptocurrencies are often used for regular, low-value transactions. These include interacting with applications, paying network fees, transferring value to friends and family, or participating in online community governance. According to Coin Center, treating every on-chain movement of a cryptocurrency as a taxable event similar to a securities trade can distort user behavior and undermine the purpose of open payment networks.
The group points out that this approach leads to compliance obligations that do not match the economic significance of many users' activities. In recent months, Congress has shown renewed interest in addressing how cryptocurrency transactions are taxed. Coin Center has participated in these discussions by providing testimony before both the House Ways and Means Committee and the Senate Finance Committee about the practical challenges faced by crypto users under current law.
More recently, Representatives Miller and Horsford released a bipartisan discussion draft aimed at modernizing crypto tax rules. As lawmakers consider updates to the tax code, Coin Center is outlining its specific priorities for reform.
"We have long advocated for sensible tax policy adjustments that allow for participation in crypto networks without creating a compliance nightmare for users," Coin Center stated. "The six priorities outlined below focus on easing administrative burdens for individual users, aligning crypto tax treatment with longstanding principles in other areas of tax law, and ensuring fairness and neutrality so that cryptocurrency usage is neither penalized nor privileged relative to comparable activity in the traditional economy."
