US Senate Bill Would Make Stablecoin Payments Tax-Free Inside a 3pc Band

Senate Republicans have introduced the ADAPT Act, a crypto tax bill drafted to take effect in 2027. Its central provision would make stablecoin payments tax-free so long as the coin stays within 3 percent of one dollar.

What the bill does

• Stablecoin payments would not be taxed while the coin trades inside a 3 percent band around a dollar.
• Network fees under 10 dollars per transaction would not be taxed.
• Wash sale rules would be extended to crypto, closing a loophole that let holders sell at a loss, rebook the loss, and buy straight back in.
• Mining and staking rewards would get clearer sourcing rules.
• Foreign investors using a US broker would not, by that fact alone, be treated as doing business in the United States.
• Crypto donations would no longer need a formal appraisal, putting them on the same footing as donated stock.

The band is the design

Treating a stablecoin payment as a taxable disposal of property is what has kept stablecoins out of ordinary payments in the United States: every coffee bought with one is, on paper, a sale. The 3 percent band is an attempt to fix that without exempting assets that are not actually stable — a coin that breaks its peg leaves the band and loses the treatment.

For users outside the US, the line to watch is the broker provision. A rule that a foreign investor is not deemed to be doing US business merely by routing through a US broker lowers one of the frictions that keeps non-US holders off US venues.

Open

The bill is introduced, not passed, and no vote has been scheduled. The reporting does not name its sponsors, say which committee it sits with, or set out how the 3 percent band would be measured — continuously, at the moment of payment, or on a daily average.

Sources: Venture Capital, 1 October 2026