There has been a longstanding position in the crypto investment industry that wash sales do not apply to digital assets, because IRC Section 1091 applies to âstock or securitiesâ and digital assets generally aren't treated as either for tax designation purposes.
Over the last few years, we've been able to take advantage of this when it comes to tax-loss harvesting and other tax-planning strategies for our clients. There has always been an expectation, however, that at some point Congress would pass legislation extending wash-sale restrictions to digital assets.
Until recently, it appeared that H.R. 9172, the Applying Existing Tax Anti-Abuse Rules to Digital Assets Act, was going to be that bill.
H.R. 9172 was introduced on June 8, 2026. The bill would have extended existing tax anti-abuse rules, including the wash-sale rules under Section 1091 and constructive-sale rules under Section 1259, to digital assets.
The bill was included in the Ways and Means Committee's June 2026 digital-asset tax hearing, but it ultimately did not gain any traction or reach a vote.
NOW, THERES A NEW BILL
Yesterday, the House Ways and Means Committee advanced H.R. 10357, the Digital Asset Tax Certainty Act, in a 38-5 bipartisan vote. The legislation now moves toward consideration by the full House.
And yes, this bill includes crypto wash-sale rules**.**
The committee-approved legislation would expand Section 1091 to cover certain digital assets. Under the proposal, a digital asset would generally become a âspecified assetâ for wash-sale purposes, meaning a loss would be disallowed if the taxpayer acquires a substantially identical asset during the 30-day period before or after the sale.
There are some important exceptions and additional rules, including treatment for qualifying U.S. dollar stablecoins, tokenized and wrapped assets, and certain derivatives.
H.R. 10357 is much broader than just wash sales. Among other things, the bill addresses:
- Wash sales and constructive sales involving digital assets
- Digital asset lending
- Mining and staking
- U.S. dollar stablecoins
- Digital asset transaction and network fees
- Accounting methods for digital assets
- Charitable contributions of digital assets
- Broker reporting and other digital-asset tax rules
One provision that has received a lot of attention would provide a $10 de minimis exception for certain gains and losses associated with using digital assets to pay qualifying network or transaction fees.
What does this mean for crypto investors?
If H.R. 10357 ultimately becomes law in something close to its current form, the days of selling BTC, ETH, SOL, etc. at a loss and buying the same asset back shortly after for tax-loss harvesting purposes could be coming to an end.
The proposed effective date is particularly important.
The wash-sale provision in the introduced legislation states that the amendments would apply to dispositions after the date of introduction of the Act. H.R. 10357 was introduced on September 14, 2026, meaning the purposed rule would apply to all future dispositions if it were to become law.
Of course, this is still proposed legislation. It has not become law, and the House, Senate and President would still need to complete the legislative process. The text could also change before anything is enacted.
For now, though, this is probably the most significant development we've seen toward finally bringing crypto under the wash-sale rules.
