<h2 id="header-0">Key Facts</h2>
<ul>
 <li>Under current US rules, each crypto swap and each gas fee paid in crypto creates a reportable tax record, and the House Ways and Means Committee says the IRS received hundreds of millions of Form 1099-DA filings, many of them for transactions under $10.</li>
 <li>The House Ways and Means Committee approved the Digital Asset Tax Certainty Act 38-5 on Sept. 16, a bill that would exempt crypto network fees of $10 or less from gain or loss starting in 2028 and extend wash-sale rules to crypto trades made after Sept. 14, 2026.</li>
 <li>South Korea's 22% tax on annual crypto gains above 2.5 million won (about $1,800) is still set to start Jan. 1, 2027, after a committee put a repeal petition and two bills to delay the tax on its agenda on Sept. 28.</li>
</ul>
Swap a token or pay gas in crypto, and you may have created a tax record, even if the amount was a few dollars. Lawmakers in South Korea and the United States are now deciding how crypto should be taxed.
A petition to delay South Korea's crypto gains tax, scheduled to begin Jan. 1, by two years <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://coinmarketcap.com/academy/article/south-korea-crypto-tax-petition-hits-50k-signatures-as-regulators-hold-firm">reached the 50,000-signature threshold</a>, triggering a committee review.
A May petition to repeal the tax also hit that mark. It sat in committee for four months, then reached the full committee's agenda on Sept. 28.
The same day, the committee put two opposition bills on its agenda that would respectively delay the tax by two and three years. The government still backs the January start.
The tax is set at <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://coinmarketcap.com/academy/article/south-korea-confirms-22percent-crypto-tax-2027">22% on annual gains</a> above 2.5 million won (about $1,800), starting Jan. 1, 2027. It covers income from selling, transferring, and lending.
American lawmakers are making proposals that reach down to small transactions. On Sept. 16, a House committee <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://waysandmeans.house.gov/2026/09/16/historic-digital-asset-tax-legislation-advances-to-keep-america-the-crypto-capital-of-the-world/">advanced</a> a bill with rules for staking, mining, and small crypto transactions.
Small crypto transactions keep multiplying as tokenized stocks and stablecoin payments gain traction. Lawmakers in South Korea and the United States are both weighing tax changes accordingly.
Under current rules, each swap and each fee paid in crypto can create a tax record. That's true even when the amount is tiny.
The sections below sort everyday actions by what they do to your tax records today and what the proposed rules would change.
This piece is not tax advice.&nbsp;
<h2 id="header-1">Do Swaps and Gas Fees Create Crypto Tax Records?</h2>
Say you swap one token for another. Then you send crypto to your own wallet and pay the gas in crypto. The IRS treats both the swap and the fee payment as digital asset transactions you must report. Paying a fee in crypto also counts as spending a little of that crypto.
Only the gas fee is <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://www.irs.gov/filing/digital-assets">reportable</a>, since a transfer between your own wallets isn't. So one transfer can still create a record.
Custodial brokers, such as exchanges, add a second record with Form 1099-DA. It <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://www.irs.gov/newsroom/final-regulations-and-related-irs-guidance-for-reporting-by-brokers-on-sales-and-exchanges-of-digital-assets">reports </a>gross proceeds on sales since 2025. It also reports cost basis, meaning what an asset cost you, for some transactions starting in 2026.
Basis shows up only for coins acquired at that broker after 2025. Coins acquired earlier or moved in from elsewhere are noncovered. Basis reporting for them is optional.
Basis is also <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-drop/rp-24-28.pdf">tracked</a> wallet by wallet. Moving coins between wallets and exchanges can leave gaps.
The House Ways and Means Committee <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://waysandmeans.house.gov/2026/09/16/historic-digital-asset-tax-legislation-advances-to-keep-america-the-crypto-capital-of-the-world/">says</a> the IRS received hundreds of millions of 1099-DA forms. Many were for transactions under $10. A $2 swap and a $20,000 swap each create a record; records follow how often you act.
<img src="https://academy-public.coinmarketcap.com/optimized-uploads/1741d7aa60a14f39b5e74bcb7cea032c.png">
Source: <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://waysandmeans.house.gov/2026/09/16/historic-digital-asset-tax-legislation-advances-to-keep-america-the-crypto-capital-of-the-world/">US House Committee on Ways and Means</a>
The 1099-DA also leaves out staking rewards. A rule that would have classified DeFi front-ends as brokers was <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://waysandmeans.house.gov/2025/04/10/president-trump-signs-ways-means-resolution-overturning-biden-administrations-burdensome-irs-defi-broker-rule">overturned</a> by Congress in 2025, so an on-chain swap can be taxable with no form from a broker at all.
<h2 id="header-2">Does the Wash-Sale Rule Apply to Crypto?</h2>
Say you swap three times a week and pay the gas in crypto each time. You also collect a staking payout every week and move coins from an exchange to your own wallet once a month, paying that fee in crypto. Under current US rules, the year looks like this:
<table class="cms-table" style="min-width: 75px;">
 <colgroup>
 <col style="min-width: 25px;">
 <col style="min-width: 25px;">
 <col style="min-width: 25px;">
 </colgroup>
 <tbody>
 <tr>
 <td colspan="1" rowspan="1">What you do</td>
 <td colspan="1" rowspan="1">Times a year</td>
 <td colspan="1" rowspan="1">Records</td>
 </tr>
 <tr>
 <td colspan="1" rowspan="1">Swaps</td>
 <td colspan="1" rowspan="1">156</td>
 <td colspan="1" rowspan="1">156</td>
 </tr>
 <tr>
 <td colspan="1" rowspan="1">Gas paid in crypto on those swaps</td>
 <td colspan="1" rowspan="1">156</td>
 <td colspan="1" rowspan="1">156</td>
 </tr>
 <tr>
 <td colspan="1" rowspan="1">Weekly staking payouts</td>
 <td colspan="1" rowspan="1">52</td>
 <td colspan="1" rowspan="1">52</td>
 </tr>
 <tr>
 <td colspan="1" rowspan="1">Monthly moves to your own wallet (gas fee only)</td>
 <td colspan="1" rowspan="1">12</td>
 <td colspan="1" rowspan="1">12</td>
 </tr>
 <tr>
 <td colspan="1" rowspan="1">Total</td>
 <td colspan="1" rowspan="1"> </td>
 <td colspan="1" rowspan="1">376</td>
 </tr>
 </tbody>
</table>
These counts are an illustration. The staking row assumes each weekly payout counts as its own receipt.
<h2 id="header-3">How Would the $10 Crypto Fee Exception Work?</h2>
The Digital Asset Tax Certainty Act, House Bill <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://waysandmeans.house.gov/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/JCT-Description-of-HR-10357.pdf">10357</a>, aims at some of that record-keeping. Republican Jason Smith of Missouri introduced it on Sept. 14.
The Ways and Means Committee approved it 38-5 two days later. A markup isn't law, however. The bill still needs the full House, the Senate, and a signature.
Its answer to the record-keeping is a de minimis exception—a threshold below which a transaction gets ignored. A network fee like gas would trigger no gain or loss at $10 or less per transfer.
The exception covers only the fee, and the swap or purchase itself remains taxable.
It generally excludes traders, brokers, dealers, and anyone with more than 5,000 transactions in the prior year, so the most active users generally fall outside it.
The exception starts late. It applies only to transactions after Dec. 31, 2027, meaning it wouldn't touch the 2026 or 2027 tax years.
The version that advanced, a <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://waysandmeans.house.gov/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/JCT-Description-of-AINS-to-HR-10357.pdf">substitute</a>, keeps the same text except for date changes.
<h2 id="header-4">A Year-End Election and a Stablecoin Rule Would Cut Trade-by-Trade Tracking</h2>
The bill holds a bigger fix: an optional election that lets you use simpler accounting for widely traded assets. Instead of tracking each trade, an electing taxpayer would calculate gain once a year for each asset type.
“Widely traded” means quoted on exchanges all of the prior year. Among other tests, the market cap must stay above $500 million at nearly all times. That figure is adjusted for inflation.
The trade-off is that all resulting gain or loss counts as short-term. The election also generally can't be revoked in its first five years.
Wash-sale rules disallow a loss if you buy a substantially identical asset within 30 days before or after the sale. They don't apply to elected assets.
A second rule covers qualified dollar stablecoins issued under the GENIUS Act. Their gain or loss would be figured at redemption value. That changes if it's unreasonable to think the price stays within 99.5% to 100.5% of it.
Small payments in those stablecoins would mostly stop producing taxable gain or loss. The rule generally excludes traders, brokers, and dealers in these stablecoins, and anyone with over 5,000 transactions.
Tokens below the $500 million line generally stay on trade-by-trade tracking, though some wrapped and pooled tokens can qualify through separate tests. The stablecoin rule would start after 2026, and the election after 2027.
<h2 id="header-5">Bill Extends Wash-Sale Rules to Crypto, Leaves Staking Timing to Current IRS Rules</h2>
The bill also adds a rule that starts before its relief does. The fee relief starts in 2028, while the wash-sale extension would apply to trades after <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://waysandmeans.house.gov/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/JCT-Description-of-AINS-to-HR-10357.pdf">Sept. 14, 2026</a>.
Today's wash-sale rule, section 1091, covers stocks and securities. Digital assets aren't expressly included. The IRS <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://www.irs.gov/instructions/i1040sd">says</a> the rule generally applies to tokenized securities, meaning digital assets that are also stock or securities for tax purposes. It hasn't addressed other crypto.
The bill would extend the rule to traded digital assets other than qualified stablecoins. <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://coinmarketcap.com/academy/glossary/staking">Staking</a> or mining acquisitions wouldn't count as a repurchase.
For sales before Jan. 1, 2028, brokers may ignore wash sales in basis reports on assets the bill newly covers. So the rule could apply more than a year before brokers must reflect it.
The bill would treat staking and mining income as ordinary income. An earlier proposal to defer tax until sale was <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://coinmarketcap.com/academy/article/crypto-tax-bill-house-committee-38-5-vote">dropped from the version that advanced</a>.
Current IRS rules already tax rewards as income once you gain control of them. A later sale then creates a capital gain or loss. In December 2025, 19 House members <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://carey.house.gov/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/Rep.-Carey-IRS-Crypto-Tax-Staking-Letter.pdf">asked</a> the IRS to review that treatment.
<img src="https://academy-public.coinmarketcap.com/optimized-uploads/36fabb5acc664dcb86c7197a907a5f62.png">
Caption: Excerpt from the letter
Source: <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://carey.house.gov/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/Rep.-Carey-IRS-Crypto-Tax-Staking-Letter.pdf">House.Gov</a>
<h2 id="header-6">Under Today's Rules, Using Crypto More Often Means More Tax Records</h2>
More activity still means more records. The bill would ease small fees and offer a year-end method for widely traded assets.
The swap, staking income, and <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://coinmarketcap.com/academy/glossary/wash-trade">wash sales</a> would still leave work. The fee exception also generally leaves out the most active users.
The House is on break until after the November elections. The official record, updated Sept. 23, shows no action since the committee vote. In the Senate, Steve Daines <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://www.daines.senate.gov/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/GAI26594-CURRENT.pdf">introduced</a> his own bill on Sept. 30. It would start the $10 fee exception after 2026, a year before the House version, and generally exempt payments in qualified dollar stablecoins from gain or loss.<tweet-embed url="https://x.com/CoinMarketCap/status/2105687493668450331"></tweet-embed>
<h3 id="many-korean-investors-say-they-would-trade-less-at-home-once-the-tax-starts">Many Korean Investors Say They Would Trade Less at Home Once the Tax Starts</h3>
Market participants in Korea worry that the tax could push trading demand overseas.&nbsp;
Individuals made up 99.9% of users at domestic crypto service providers in a regulator survey, <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://en.sedaily.com/finance/2026/09/28/korea-ranks-no-2-globally-in-crypto-holdings-as-tax-looms">according </a>to the Seoul Economic Daily. In a Tiger Research <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://reports.tiger-research.com/p/2027-korea-crypto-tax-eng">survey</a> of 2,423 investors, 73.1% said they would likely use domestic exchanges less once the tax starts.&nbsp;
Of those, 88% said they might use global exchanges or personal wallets more. Tiger Research estimates that trading volume at the three largest domestic exchanges would fall 30% next year.

How Is Crypto Taxed? Even a $2 Swap Leaves a Record

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