Republican Sen. Steve Daines of Montana has released legislation that would update the U.S. tax code for digital assets, including stablecoins, network fees, staking and lending.

The Aligning Digital Assets with Principles of Taxation Act, or ADAPT Act, is sponsored by Daines and Sens. Lummis, Moreno and Tim Scott. The proposal comes as lawmakers and regulators work to establish digital-asset rules following U.S. President Trump’s assumption of office on a pro-crypto platform.

The bill lands against a tax backdrop that predates much of the industry’s growth: under long-standing IRS guidance, cryptocurrency is treated as property, meaning each sale, swap or payment can trigger a taxable gain or loss that holders must calculate and report. It is that friction the proposal aims to ease.

The Senate’s Clarity Act, a digital-asset market-structure measure, collapsed last month. The following day, the House Ways and Means Committee overwhelmingly approved legislation that would revise the tax treatment of cryptocurrency.

“Digital assets have moved into the mainstream, but the tax code hasn’t kept up,” Daines wrote on X.

Digital assets have moved into the mainstream, but the tax code hasn’t kept up. My bill would create clearer rules for stablecoins, network fees, staking and lending—while extending familiar tax rules like wash sales and constructive sales to digital assets. pic.twitter.com/W6nXSsTgvX — Steve Daines (@SteveDaines) September 30, 2026

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The bill would provide tax relief for qualifying stablecoins used in ordinary purchases. Spending a qualifying dollar stablecoin on goods or services would not trigger a gain or loss, and brokers would not be required to report those transactions. The carve-out targets the way small payments work today, when each purchase made with digital assets counts as a disposition that can create a reportable tax event, however minor the amount.

To qualify, a stablecoin would need to be issued under the GENIUS Act framework—the federal stablecoin statute signed into law in July 2025—listed on a quarterly Treasury register of coins that have remained within 3% of $1.00, and purchased by the user within 3% of $1.00.

The proposal would also treat crypto payments for network or gas fees as tax-free dispositions when the fees for an individual transaction total $10 or less. The provision would include anti-structuring rules, aimed at preventing users from splitting larger transactions into smaller ones to stay under the threshold.

For the first time, the bill would apply wash-sale rules to crypto assets. Those rules prevent investors from claiming a tax loss when they sell an asset and buy it back within 30 days. Stock investors have long been subject to the restriction—a rule on the books since 1921—while crypto traders have been able to sell at a loss and immediately repurchase the asset.

The proposed wash-sale rules would cover traded digital assets other than qualified stablecoins. Assets acquired before the legislation becomes law would be grandfathered. Staking rewards, mining rewards and regular recurring purchases would be exempt.

Tokenized versions of stocks would be treated as “substantially identical” to the underlying shares. Daines’ statement also said the bill would establish clearer rules for staking and lending and extend familiar tax concepts, including constructive-sale rules, to assets.

The ADAPT Act now goes to committee. It would need committee approval before it could proceed to a vote by the full Senate. With the House Ways and Means Committee having advanced its own tax measure last month, parallel efforts to rewrite crypto taxation are now in motion in both chambers.

The proposal was first reported by Bitcoin Magazine and was written by Mathew Di Salvo.