The Digital Asset Tax Certainty Act (H.R. 10357) Explained: What the 2026 Crypto Tax Bill Means for ETH Holders

All 25 provisions at a glance

Every provision the Joint Committee on Taxation scored, in bill order. “Starts” is the effective date if enacted. Revenue is JCT’s 10-year estimate for fiscal years 2027–2036 from JCX-52-26; a plus sign means the provision raises tax revenue.

Revenue colours are from the taxpayer’s side: green means a tax cut and red a tax increase. Section 6 (definitions, regulations, rules of construction) is scored inside the other provisions.

Gas fees: the $10 de minimis exemption (Sec. 101)

Today every fee you pay in ETH is a disposal of ETH. The 2024 broker regulations (Treas. Reg. §1.1001-7) treat crypto used to pay a transaction cost as sold for services, so a wallet that made 300 swaps in a year has 300 tiny gains or losses in its records, on top of the swaps themselves.

Section 101 adds a new Code section 1044: no gain or loss on crypto spent on a network fee (gas to validate another transaction) or a transaction fee (brokerage, trading or liquidity fee paid in the same type of asset you are trading) when the total for that transaction is $10 or less. The $10 is not indexed for inflation in the bill text. A fee over $10 is fully taxable, not just the excess. It applies to fees paid after December 31, 2027, and the fee’s cost is adjusted for the gain or loss you skip. It isn’t available to:

• traders, brokers and dealers in digital assets;
• businesses that batch or validate other people’s transactions;
• anyone with more than 5,000 crypto transfers in the prior year (not counting the exempt fees);
• assets under mark-to-market or the new simplified accounting.

The IRS can let these taxpayers in if that would not cause a substantial revenue loss.

On Ethereum mainnet this covers almost everything now. Using our gas price history, a typical transfer cost about $0.01 and a token swap about $0.09 in 2026. In 2021 they cost $5.11 and $32.57, so many 2021-style swaps would have been over the cap. Layer 2 fees are lower still (layer 2 fees). The JCT’s revenue estimate of −$2.37 billion over 10 years makes this the bill’s largest tax cut.

Wash sales and constructive sales (Secs. 301–302)

Section 301 extends the wash sale rule to traded crypto. If you sell ETH at a loss and buy substantially identical crypto within 30 days before or after, the loss is deferred into the new ETH’s cost. A wrapped token that is economically equivalent, such as WETH, counts. Staking and validation rewards don’t count as purchases, and neither do regular acquisitions that you report as ordinary income. Qualified stablecoins are excluded. It applies to sales after September 14, 2026, so a sell-and-rebuy you do this autumn could become a wash sale in hindsight if the bill passes as written. JCT expects it to raise $1.71 billion over 10 years.

How much this matters depends on your lots. The ETH tax-loss harvesting calculator shows the 2026 tax saving of a harvest under current law and under the bill, which ETH buyers are at a loss and the first safe rebuy date.

Section 302 applies the constructive sale rule (§1259) to crypto other than qualified stablecoins, for hedges entered after September 14, 2026. If you hold appreciated ETH and lock in the gain with a short sale, an offsetting futures or forward contract or a similar position, you would be taxed as if you had sold. Section 307(e) also brings traded crypto under the straddle rules, which defer losses on offsetting positions. Together they raise an estimated $397 million.

Stablecoins: $1 is $1 (Sec. 103)

Today a dollar stablecoin is property like any other token, so every purchase and spend has a basis and usually a gain or loss of a fraction of a cent. Section 103 covers qualified U.S. dollar stablecoins: those issued by a permitted issuer under the GENIUS Act (Pub. L. 119-27), or a foreign issuer registered with the OCC. Treasury would publish a list. The changes apply to tax years beginning after December 31, 2026 (between related parties the price must be exactly $1). Not covered: stablecoin traders and dealers, people with more than 5,000 such transactions (purchases for goods and sales at or below $1 not counted) and non-dollar filers.

Staking rewards and staking ETFs (Secs. 401–402)

Section 401 settles two questions and leaves one open. Staking, mining and similar validation income is ordinary income. It is U.S.-source for U.S. residents and foreign-source for nonresidents, with rules for foreign branches and partnerships. It does not change the timing: nothing in the JCT description moves taxation from receipt to sale. Rev. Rul. 2023-14 (income when you gain control of the rewards) therefore still applies, as does the Tax Court’s 2026 decision in Paschall. The section applies to tax years beginning after enactment. Our staking rewards tax calculator values each reward at the daily price and shows the tax.

Section 402 matters for ETF holders. A grantor trust (the structure of the U.S. spot ETH ETFs) would not lose trust status because its trustee stakes, keeps or distributes rewards, chooses which coins to stake, or borrows to meet redemptions. Today that rests on the IRS safe harbor in Rev. Proc. 2025-31, which several ETH ETFs used to start staking. Writing it into the Code would remove the risk that a future IRS withdraws the safe harbor. Active validator businesses are excluded. See which funds stake in spot Ethereum ETFs compared.

Section 307(f) lets a payer satisfy backup withholding when it pays validation rewards in tokens locked for a fixed period. JCT scores it at under $500,000 a year.

Lending, active trading, charity and gambling

• Lending (Sec. 201): the securities-loan rule (§1058) would cover traded crypto. Lending ETH under an agreement that returns identical assets, passes through every payment and entitlement (all payments, property and other entitlements, unless Treasury says otherwise) and leaves the obligations with you would not be a taxable sale. It applies to loans made after enactment. The bill text doesn’t name DeFi protocols. Whether a pool such as Aave, where you receive a different receipt token, meets the test would depend on the facts and on Treasury guidance.
• Simplified accounting election (Sec. 102): from 2028 you could elect, per asset type (ETH and its fungible or tightly linked versions), to report one net result a year. That result is sales plus the year-end value, minus purchases and the prior year-end value. Everything is short-term. On election your holdings are treated as sold at the end of the prior year. The election runs for at least 5 years, and the wash sale, constructive sale and related-party rules stop applying to that asset. It suits frequent DeFi users more than long-term holders, who would lose long-term rates.
• Traders and dealers (Sec. 202): people in a crypto trading business could elect §475 mark-to-market, as securities traders can. Positions would be valued at year end, with ordinary gains and losses outside the $3,000 capital-loss cap. It applies to tax years beginning after enactment. JCT’s +$2.33 billion makes it the largest revenue raiser.
• Charity (Sec. 204): today the IRS requires a qualified appraisal for crypto gifts over $5,000 (CCA 202302012). From 2027, widely traded crypto such as ETH and qualified stablecoins would be exempt from appraisal. Thinly traded tokens could no longer be deducted when given directly. Instead, you could sell them and donate all the proceeds within 7 days (and in the same tax year) without recognizing the gain.
• Worthless tokens (Sec. 306): a digital asset that becomes worthless would give a loss treated as a sale on the last day of the tax year.
• Gambling and prediction markets (Sec. 701, the FULL HOUSE Act): repeals the 2025 rule that allows only 90% of wagering losses to be deducted. From tax year 2026, losses would again be deductible up to your winnings. JCT estimates it costs $2.00 billion.

Form 1099-DA changes and the crypto amnesty (Secs. 501–502)

Brokers already report 2025 crypto sales on Form 1099-DA (gross proceeds), and from 2026 they add cost basis for assets bought in the same account (how Form 1099-DA works today). Section 501 would trim that for returns and statements due after December 31, 2027:

• qualified stablecoins with a basis of at least 99.5% of $1 leave basis reporting;
• disposals for de minimis fees are reported in aggregate rather than one by one;
• accounts under the simplified election get aggregate reporting.

Treasury could also allow temporary safe harbors for stablecoin basis until 18 months after its final rules.

Section 502 creates a digital asset voluntary disclosure program within one year of enactment. Participants file amended returns within 24 months and pay the tax, interest and a set penalty instead of the usual accuracy-related or fraud penalties. The penalty is charged per tax year on the underpaid tax:

The calculator above applies these rates. The IRS could waive penalties for reasonable cause, and anyone under examination (or criminal investigation, if uncertified) needs IRS consent to join.

Who pays: the JCT revenue estimate

The bill is close to revenue-neutral. Across all provisions JCT estimates +$500 million over fiscal years 2027–2036, assuming enactment on December 31, 2026. Revenue is front-loaded: the trader election and wash sales raise money early, while the fee exemption grows every year. Provisions scored at $100 million or more, from biggest tax increase to biggest tax cut:

Millions of dollars; + raises revenue (a tax increase), − loses revenue (a tax cut). JCT notes the estimates are preliminary. The figures for the introduced bill (JCX-48-26) are identical; only the effective-date labels changed.

What ETH holders can do now

• Nothing in the bill is law yet. File 2026 under current rules, but plan for the two retroactive pieces: wash sales and constructive sales after September 14, 2026.
• Harvesting losses: waiting 31 days before buying back keeps a loss safe under either outcome. The harvesting calculator gives the first safe rebuy date.
• Hedging appreciated ETH: a short or futures hedge opened now could become a taxable constructive sale if the bill passes in this form.
• Records: keep exports of every transaction, including fees. The $10 rule would only start in 2028, and you would still need fee data to prove each one was under the cap and to count your transfers against 5,000.
• Past mistakes: the amnesty doesn’t exist yet. The IRS’s existing voluntary disclosure practice and amended returns are the routes today.

Method

• Status: Congress.gov actions, cosponsors and related bills, read Oct 23, 2026. Provisions: the bill as introduced (GovInfo), the JCT description JCX-47-26 and the substitute description JCX-50-26, which only changes dates.
• Revenue: JCT JCX-52-26, transcribed for all 25 rows. The sum of the rows matches JCT’s net total in every year (2027: $367M … 2036: −$427M; total $500M). “—” means JCT shows no effect that year.
• “For ETH holders” is our editorial label (helps, costs, mixed or technical) for a typical U.S. individual holding ETH. Penalty rates come from the bill text, section 502. Gas costs come from our gas price history dataset.

Download the data (CC BY 4.0)

• CSV: all 25 provisions with effective dates, effect for ETH holders and JCT revenue by fiscal year 2027–2036 (+ net total)
• JSON: provisions, bill status, net revenue by year and the voluntary disclosure penalty rates

GrowYourEthereum. (2026). H.R. 10357 Digital Asset Tax Certainty Act: Provisions, Effective Dates and JCT Revenue Estimates [Data set]. Updated October 23, 2026. https://growyourethereum.com/guides/digital-asset-tax-certainty-act. Licensed CC BY 4.0.

<a href="https://growyourethereum.com/guides/digital-asset-tax-certainty-act">H.R. 10357 Digital Asset Tax Certainty Act: Provisions, Effective Dates and JCT Revenue Estimates</a> by GrowYourEthereum, licensed under <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY 4.0</a>.

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  author       = {{GrowYourEthereum}},
  title        = {H.R. 10357 Digital Asset Tax Certainty Act: Provisions, Effective Dates and JCT Revenue Estimates},
  year         = {2026},
  howpublished = {\url{https://growyourethereum.com/guides/digital-asset-tax-certainty-act}},
  note         = {Data set, updated October 23, 2026. CC BY 4.0}
}