CLARITY Act Stalls: How Crypto Is Taxed in the US Today

The CLARITY Act, the Senate's attempt at a federal framework for digital assets, just failed a key procedural vote, and for you as a filer the practical answer is simple: nothing about how crypto is taxed in the US changes today. The rules you filed under last year still apply, and a crypto tax calculator or your own spreadsheet still has to follow them. What the stall does change is the political picture, and it's worth understanding why it happened.

What happened to the CLARITY Act

Anthony Scaramucci, founder of SkyBridge Capital, told Cointelegraph at SALT London that Donald Trump's crypto business interests and memecoin launches derailed the legislation. In his telling, they cost the bill the Democratic votes it needed. Asked whether the memecoin activity was the only reason the bill didn't pass, he answered with two words: "Singular reason."

The vote that fell short

The remarks follow the Senate's procedural vote on Sept. 15. The motion drew 49 votes in favor and 50 against. Because the motion needed 60 votes to advance, the margin against it in raw numbers was a single vote, but the gap to the threshold was eleven. That distinction matters. A simple majority isn't enough in the Senate for most legislation, so a bill like this needs a meaningful block of opposition-party support to move at all.

The bill itself was meant to set up a federal regulatory framework for digital assets. That's market structure: who regulates which tokens, how exchanges and intermediaries are overseen, and where the lines fall between agencies. It isn't a tax bill, and it wasn't the vehicle for changing how gains are calculated or reported. We'll come back to that, because it's the single most important point for individual filers.

Scaramucci's explanation: memecoins and ethics

Scaramucci said the memecoin launches shortly before the January 2025 inauguration undermined bipartisan momentum that had built after the 2024 election. Democrats who had become more receptive to crypto regulation, he said, pulled back after those launches.

He also pointed to a second fight: ethics restrictions. According to Scaramucci, lawmakers were "trying to put real teeth into the ethics provision," while the White House did not want to sign it. The bill had run into disagreements over provisions restricting government officials' crypto interests. Scaramucci was careful to say both sides bore responsibility for the setback, so this isn't a one-party story even in his own account.

These are his views, offered in an interview. They are one participant's read on a political dispute, not a finding by a regulator or a court, and you should treat them that way.

The wider context behind the stall

Scaramucci isn't the only voice pointing at conflicts of interest. The source reports several other threads that help explain why the ethics language became such a sticking point.

Senators, committee chairs and watchdogs

In July, five Democratic senators raised concerns about potential conflicts of interest, citing worries that Trump's financial ties could influence crypto policy. House Financial Services Committee Chair French Hill, a Republican who has been a leading voice on crypto legislation, also acknowledged that Trump's crypto businesses had complicated efforts to pass legislation.

In August, the consumer advocacy group Public Citizen put numbers on the issue. It pointed to largely unrealized losses across Trump-related crypto ventures, including $3.2 billion associated with the Official Trump (TRUMP) memecoin. The group also said Trump earned $635 million in memecoin licensing fees in 2025, citing his financial disclosure. Those are the group's figures drawn from its reading of a public disclosure, and we're reporting them as such rather than vouching for them independently.

What Scaramucci says could still happen

Despite the legislative setback, Scaramucci was upbeat on one front. He said the SEC's approach under Chair Paul Atkins could help tokenization reach "escape velocity," meaning enough adoption that a future SEC chair would find it hard to stop or slow the industry. He added that it was too early to know whether adoption would reach that point before the next administration.

That's a forecast, not a fact, and it cuts both ways. Regulation by agency posture can move quickly, but it can also be reversed by the next person in the chair. Legislation is slower and harder to pass, but it's far more durable. The stall leaves the market leaning on the first kind of rule-making for now.

How is crypto taxed in the US today

This is the part that affects your return, and it's unchanged by anything above. The CLARITY Act was about market structure, not tax. So the existing framework stands.

The core rules still in force

The IRS treats digital assets as property, not currency. That principle comes from IRS guidance first issued in 2014 and carried forward since. In plain terms, it means that when you dispose of crypto, you generally have to work out whether you made a gain or a loss. Disposing includes more than selling for dollars. It can also include swapping one token for another, and spending crypto on goods or services.

The gain or loss is the difference between what you received, measured in US dollars at the time, and your cost basis, which is generally what you paid including fees. If you held the asset for a year or less, the result is typically a short-term gain or loss. If you held it longer than a year, it is typically long-term, which generally carries different rates. Income-type events, such as getting paid in crypto for work, are generally treated as ordinary income measured at fair market value when you receive it.

Your Form 1040 also asks a digital asset question near the top. You answer it for the tax year, and it applies whether or not you owe anything. Individual transactions generally flow through Form 8949 and then Schedule D. If you want the authoritative wording, read the IRS's own digital asset pages and form instructions rather than any summary, including ours.

What the stall does not change

If you were hoping the market structure bill would bring a de minimis exemption for small purchases, a wash sale rule change, or new staking guidance, none of that arrived with this vote, and none of it was the subject of the reporting we're drawing on. We aren't going to speculate about provisions that the source doesn't describe. If you plan around a possible future rule, you're planning around something that doesn't exist yet. File on current law.

One related thread is worth watching. Industry groups have been pressing Congress on the tax side separately. We covered the Blockchain Association's push for crypto tax clarity while the big bill stalls, and it shows that tax and market structure travel on different tracks.

What this means for you as a filer

A political stall is easy to read as a reason to wait. For taxes, waiting is rarely the right call. Here's how to think about it in practical terms.

If you trade or swap tokens

Every swap is a potential taxable event, and the more you trade, the more lines your crypto tax report has. The honest challenge for active traders isn't the rule, it's the record-keeping: dates, quantities, dollar values at the time, fees, and which units you sold. A crypto tax calculator or crypto tax software can help you calculate crypto taxes across many transactions, but it's only as good as the data you give it. Missing cost basis, transfers between your own wallets that look like sales, and exchange exports that don't match are the usual culprits.

Before you rely on any output, check three things. Do your starting balances reconcile with what you actually hold? Are transfers between your own wallets marked as transfers, not disposals? Does the cost basis method you're using match what you can defend if asked? Those checks matter more than which tool you pick.

If you mostly buy and hold

Buying crypto with dollars and holding it is generally not a taxable event by itself. You still need to answer the digital asset question on your return correctly, and you should keep purchase records so your basis is provable years later when you do sell. Many people only discover a basis problem at the moment of sale, which is the worst time to reconstruct it.

If you earned crypto or got paid in it

Wages, freelance payments, and similar income received in crypto are generally income when received, at fair market value. Keep a record of the date, the amount, and the dollar value you used. That value then becomes your basis in those coins for any later sale.

If you have past mistakes to fix

If you've missed reporting in earlier years, you aren't alone, and there's movement on how those cases may be handled. See our coverage of the proposed IRS voluntary disclosure program for crypto for what's been reported so far. Treat it as a development to watch, not a program you can count on today, and consider speaking with a qualified tax professional before deciding how to proceed.

Why the politics still matter to your wallet

It would be wrong to say the stall has no consequences. It just doesn't hit your tax bill directly.

Regulatory uncertainty is a cost

Without a federal framework, the question of which agency oversees which token stays contested. That affects which products get launched, which platforms operate in the US, and what protections you have if a platform fails. Those are real risks to your holdings, even if they aren't tax rules.

Reporting is likely to keep tightening on its own track

Information reporting by brokers and platforms has been developing under separate rules from market structure legislation. For you, the safest assumption is that the IRS will increasingly see what you did on regulated platforms. That makes accurate self-reporting more important, not less. If an exchange sends a form and your return doesn't reconcile with it, expect questions.

A checklist for the next filing season

• Export full transaction histories from every exchange and wallet you've used, including ones you've stopped using.
• Reconcile transfers so your own movements aren't counted as sales.
• Confirm cost basis for every disposal, and document the method you used.
• Separate income events (mining, staking rewards, payment for work) from investment disposals.
• Answer the Form 1040 digital asset question accurately.
• Run your numbers through a crypto tax calculator and sanity-check the totals against your own records before you file.

If you're trying to work out how to file crypto taxes for the first time, the order above is a sensible way to work: collect, reconcile, classify, calculate, then report.

Frequently asked questions

Did the CLARITY Act change how crypto is taxed in the US?

No. The bill didn't pass the Senate procedural vote, and it was a market structure proposal, not a tax bill. Existing IRS treatment of digital assets as property continues to apply.

What was the Senate vote on the CLARITY Act?

On Sept. 15, a procedural motion received 49 votes in favor and 50 against. It needed 60 votes to advance, so it fell short.

Why does Scaramucci say the bill failed?

He told Cointelegraph that Trump's memecoin launches and crypto business interests cost the bill Democratic support, calling it the "singular reason." He also cited a dispute over ethics provisions that the White House opposed, and said both sides share responsibility. These are his views, not an official finding.

Should I wait for new rules before filing my crypto taxes?

No. You file under the law as it stands for the tax year in question. A bill that hasn't passed has no effect on your return, and delaying can lead to penalties and interest if you owe tax.

Do I need a crypto tax calculator to file?

It isn't required, but with more than a handful of transactions, a calculator or crypto tax software can save time. Whatever you use, verify balances, transfers and cost basis yourself, because the output depends on your inputs.

Source: Cointelegraph Regulation