Coinbase’s vice president of tax, Lawrence Zlatkin, testified before the House Ways and Means Committee on June 9, 2026, calling for sweeping changes to how the U.S. tax code treats digital assets. The hearing centered on six standalone bills aimed at updating rules for mining, staking, charitable donations, broker reporting, and transaction-level taxation.
Zlatkin argued that federally regulated stablecoins pegged to the U.S. dollar should be treated at par for tax purposes, eliminating the need to track minuscule capital gains or losses on routine stablecoin payments. He said the current system creates paperwork without meaningful tax revenue. He also backed a proposal by Congressman Rudy Yakym to waive tax reporting on gas fees of up to $10 and urged a broader de minimis exemption for small purchases made with Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies, so consumers would not need to calculate taxable gains on low-value crypto transactions.
On mining and staking, Coinbase endorsed legislation from Congressman Mike Carey that would let validators defer tax on block rewards until the assets are sold, comparing it to a farmer who pays tax only at harvest and sale. Addressing wash-sale rules, Zlatkin agreed they should apply to crypto but warned that the industry lacks a shared data infrastructure to monitor 24/7 cross-platform trading, and asked for an 18- to 24-month implementation runway to build necessary software and avoid IRS audit surges.
The testimony comes amid broader regulatory debates. In March, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong denied lobbying against a Bitcoin tax exemption, insisting he had advocated for a de minimis rule for BTC. Industry players including Ripple and Paradigm have also weighed in on stablecoin oversight and market-structure bills.
