Making America the Crypto Capital of the World: Ensuring Digital Asset Policy Built for the 21st Century
House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Oversight
2025-07-16
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Source: Congress.gov
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All right, good morning, everybody. And for those of who were complaining about the 9 AM start, I'm actually part of the group that wants us to start at 8 AM. So we'll see how this is going to go. This was the compromise time. Shall we get ourselves going? But before I tap the pretend gavel, I'm going to try to say this two or three times. And I even said it in the back of the room. For many of us who've been around this for a while, I think I hold the record of being the very first person to use the word Bitcoin in the congressional record. I think it was 2011, Ron Paul's monetary oversight subcommittee in financial services. And no one had any idea what I was talking about, but I had like a wired article about it. And here we are a decade plus later. Now our job in this committee, I'm going to say it two or three times, I'll say it as part of the opening statement, we're the tax writing committee. We're going to try to figure out now as the committees with the regulatory oversight, financial services, the Senate companion, make the rules, we now have to figure out how it fits into the tax structure. And I will beg for most of our members, the witnesses, help us on the tax regulatory the the the recognition of an asset recognition of gain rule set um if someone really really really wants to spend their time going back and forth on the regulatory aspect i do suggest they ask for a transfer to the financial services committee So let's have at this. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to the Oversight Committee of the Ways and Means for the 119th Congress. We're actually trying to focus on ensuring digital asset policy for this century.
Thank you for joining us for this discussion. While much of today's hearing will be focused on examining this evolving industry and discussing potential policy solutions within the committee's jurisdiction, it also is important to note the complex relationship between digital assets, traditional assets, and how we equalize and create a sense of fairness in its tax and our side of the rules so we don't create also artificial arbitrages. Even today, more and more companies are exploring ways to use crypto assets in their treasury management and their hedging book. This is something we have a great interest in, and so help us understand both those management strategies and how they will also fit into a tax regime. Currently, the Internal Revenue Service Code defines crypto as a property, not currency. However, there are very few additional rules specific to digital assets, leaving many stakeholders often confused when it comes to the tax complications. That is our fixation here. Help us create at least Our understanding, so the brilliant staff sitting behind us, both on the left and the right, can actually help us build the rules, the code, and what the future looks like so we have stability. So if innovation is going to come, that innovation isn't coming because it's a tax leakage or there's an arbitrage there. We're really trying to make sure we understand what we're doing here. And equally as important, we must use today's hearing to learn more about what Congress can do to help retain the leadership of this evolving industry, these digital assets, into keeping them in this country.
Also, aligning the tax code with regulatory certainty all but ensures America becoming and remaining the crypto capital of the world. I look forward to the discussion. Often when I have the benefit of sitting in the chair, I'm going to do something slightly differently. I'm going to save my questions to the end because sometimes there's one of the beautiful things about this committee is we have some folks who are actually somewhat more technical on this subject area. So I will ask all of you to be at your A game as we sort of go through this. So I'm going to introduce our witnesses and then let's have at it. You don't want to introduce your witness. Now you want to, no, Ms. Wolf.
Thank you, Mr. I want to thank all of our witnesses for being here today. The timing of this hearing and this week's floor activity is not lost on me, House Democrats or American people for that matter. We are less than two weeks away from the single largest transfer of wealth from working Americans to the top 1% in the one big ugly bill. While billionaires and millionaires receive extensive tax cuts, House and Senate Republicans have taken health care away from 17 million Americans. This should not be lost on any of us, especially those of us who represent rural America in states that didn't expand Medicaid. Our rural hospitals are really a quite concern. Despite these dire consequences of the new law for Americans, House Republicans are trying to turn the public's focus to digital assets. Republicans are, or at least attempted to yesterday, bring the Clarity and Genius Act to the floor this week, but have no luck so far. As ranking member, I agree that Congress needs to examine digital assets as a whole and look forward to discussing the tax treatment of digital access, access, access, including cryptocurrency with you all today.
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