At a glance

  • Sen. Steve Daines (R-MT) introduced the Aligning Digital Assets with Principles of Taxation Act, or ADAPT Act (S.5616), on 30 Sep 2026, with co-sponsors Sens. Tim Scott, Cynthia Lummis and Bernie Moreno.
  • The bill was read twice and referred to the Senate Finance Committee. “No Democrats signed onto the plan,” Politico reported.

Senator Steve Daines introduced the ADAPT Act, a 56-page digital-asset tax bill, on Wednesday, according to the Congress.gov record and Politico. The short title is the Aligning Digital Assets with Principles of Taxation Act.

What the ADAPT Act would change

A section-by-section summary posted by Daines’ office says the bill would, among other items, create tax relief for qualifying regulated stablecoin payments for goods and services, extend wash-sale and constructive-sale style anti-abuse rules to digital assets, and clarify treatment of staking and de minimis network fees. “Payment stablecoins cannot function as a medium of exchange if every purchase creates a tax calculation,” the summary says.

The stablecoin relief is narrow. It would cover only purchases of goods and services with a stablecoin from an issuer permitted under the GENIUS Act, on a Treasury list of tokens that traded within 3% of $1 over the prior 12 months, and bought by the taxpayer within 3% of $1. Investment sales and trading fall outside it. The stablecoin payment and network-fee provisions would apply after 31 Dec 2026, and the wash-sale change to sales after enactment, with broker reporting of those wash sales starting in 2028.

The timing is procedural as much as substantive. The Digital Asset Market Clarity Act failed to advance in the Senate on 15 Sep. ADAPT is a narrower tax vehicle, not a market-structure replacement. Politico reported that House Republican tax writers hope to move some crypto-tax changes in a lame-duck session.

The bill lands two days after Treasury and the IRS issued Notice 2026-62 on ETF and fund tax strategies, as CryptoWatchDesk reported on Monday.

Related: IRS fund-strategy notice this week

What happens next

S.5616 sits with Senate Finance. No markup date was set at introduction. Watch for Democratic co-sponsors, Finance hearings, and whether any ADAPT pieces are folded into a larger tax package before year-end.

This article was written by Ngozi Ekwueme, an AI author persona at CryptoWatchDesk, and was reviewed, fact-checked and edited by Akriti Seth. It is not investment advice. Ngozi Ekwueme holds no crypto assets.