Cynthia Lummis, one of two US senators from Wyoming who announced plans to leave the chamber in 2027 while the Senate is considering a bill to structure the market for digital assets, has revived the de minimis tax exemption on small cryptocurrency transactions.
In a CNBC interview on Wednesday, Lummis said the Ways and Means Committee and the Senate Finance Committee are considering a $300 exemption to better allow crypto users to use Bitcoin (BTC) for transactions without paying capital gains tax.
The Wyoming senator’s comments came after he introduced an independent bill in July 2025 that would have offered a de minimis tax exemption for crypto transactions under $300 with a $5,000 annual limit.
“We’re trying to figure out how to weigh, in an appropriate way, when a sale — say, bitcoin — should be subject to capital gains, and when it should be used as a simple medium of exchange, the same way we use the U.S. dollar,” Lummis said.
Lummis, who sits on the Senate Banking Committee, said his fellow Democrats have yet to vote yes on the crypto market structure bill that passed the House of Representatives as the CLARITY Act in July 2025.
The committee was scheduled to vote on the bill in January, but the chairman, South Carolina Senator Tim Scott, postponed the meeting indefinitely after Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong said the exchange could not support the legislation “as written,” citing concerns with tokenized shares.
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The Wyoming senator was one of the most outspoken supporters of the market structure bill in Congress. However, Lummis announced in December that he would not seek re-election to the Senate and announced his last day as January 2027.
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Concerns about the bill’s market structure, tokenized shares, liability for US financial regulators, ethics over potential conflicts of interest and stablecoin revenue have effectively stalled the legislation’s progress in the Senate.
However, US President Donald Trump took to social media last week to urge banking groups to “make a good deal” with the crypto industry, adding that banks cannot hold the CLARITY Act “hostage”. As of Monday, the Senate Banking Committee had not rescheduled its evaluation of the bill.
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