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Sen. Lummis Pushes $300 Crypto Tax Break in Senate

Senator #CynthiaLummis is pushing for a small-transaction tax exemption on $BTC purchases as the Senate works through a broader digital asset market structure bill. The Wyoming Republican said the House Ways and Means Committee and Senate Finance Committee are both reviewing a proposed $300-per-transaction threshold that would exempt small #crypto payments from capital gains #tax.

Lummis first introduced the idea as a standalone bill in July 2025. That proposal set the exemption at $300 per transaction, with a $5,000 annual cap. The goal is to let $BTC function as an everyday payment method without triggering a taxable event on each use.

She framed the core policy question in a CNBC interview on Wednesday. The issue, she said, is deciding when selling $BTC should count as a capital gains event and when it should be treated the same as spending fiat currency. That distinction matters for how widely $BTC can be used for routine purchases. #Bitcoin

The Senate Banking Committee had scheduled a markup of the broader market structure bill in January. Chairman Tim Scott of South Carolina postponed that meeting without setting a new date. The delay followed Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong's statement that his exchange could not support the legislation as currently written, pointing to language around tokenized equities.

The bill in question, the #CLARITYAct, passed the House of Representatives in July 2025. It has since stalled in the Senate over several unresolved issues. Disputes remain over the division of responsibilities between U.S. financial regulators, how stablecoin yield should be treated, and concerns about potential conflicts of interest.