The US Treasury proposes new rules that would treat crypto exchanges more like stockbrokers, requiring them to report gross proceeds to the IRS starting in 2026
including DAOs and certain wallet providers—or to create them... Richard Rubin / @richardrubindc : One could be cynical/clever and note the incentive for Congress to purport to raise revenue by enacting difficult-to-administer tax hikes that IRS punts forward. The score for 2024-25 counted toward the bill paying for itself. What happens after that happens after that. Jerry Brito / @jerrybrito : It's almost 300 pages long and complicated. Doesn't seem to be completely bad or completely good. We at Coin Center are digesting it and will have more to say in the coming days. Miller / @millercwl : There is a lot in here and this is just an initial take... we'll be going through it throughout the day. I encourage people to read this proposal and submit comments because it gets to core issues of open access and decentralization relevant to the entire technology. Emily Wilkins / @emrwilkins : US Treasury and IRS out with a new proposed rule today on taxing crypto and digital assets. Would require brokers to report sales and exchanges - say it's similar to rules for reporting securities. https://home.treasury.gov/... @nc_blockchain : North Carolina Congressman @PatrickMcHenry, Chair of House @FinancialCmte, issues strong statement against today's Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on #digitalasset reporting requirements from the Infrastructure Investment & Jobs Act issued by @USTreasury & IRS. #crypto #dex Richard Rubin / @richardrubindc : New from us: The long-awaited crypto tax regulations are here. https://www.wsj.com/... LinkedIn: Nik Fahrer : The IRS dropped proposed regs for digital asset 1099 reporting this morning. It's 282 pages long, so I'm still digesting the info, but here's some quick hits: … Forums: r/CryptoCurrency : New tax laws enforcing 1099's for DeFi users. Msmash / news.slashdot.org : US Tackles Crypto Tax Mess
Context & Ripple Effects
The proposal follows an earlier reported delay to crypto tax-reporting requirements, underscoring how difficult it has been to translate statutory reporting goals into operational rules for digital-asset businesses.
By extending a stockbroker-style reporting model to crypto exchanges—and potentially to DAOs and some wallet providers—Treasury is testing where conventional tax intermediaries begin and decentralized software or governance arrangements fall outside that role.
First-order effects
- Crypto exchanges would need to prepare to collect and report customers’ gross proceeds to the IRS beginning in 2026 if the proposal is adopted.
- DAOs and certain wallet providers face immediate uncertainty over whether their services would be classified as reportable broker activity under the proposed framework.
Second-order effects
- Platforms and wallet providers would have to reassess customer-identification, transaction-recordkeeping, and product-design choices; firms that can clearly avoid the broker definition may gain a compliance-cost advantage.
- The proposal puts pressure on the industry to distinguish custodial intermediaries from decentralized services, making the rule’s treatment of DAOs and wallets a central competitive and legal boundary.
Third-order effects
- If implemented broadly, standardized third-party reporting could make crypto transactions more legible to tax administration and further align regulated crypto platforms with conventional financial intermediaries.
- The unresolved treatment of decentralized actors points to a longer-running policy divide: regulation may increasingly hinge on functional control over transactions rather than a company’s formal legal structure.
The trend: Crypto regulation is moving from broad statutory mandates toward detailed rules that classify digital-asset services by their intermediary functions.