Senators introduce the ADAPT Act to change taxation of stablecoins, staking and digital-asset trading

What changed

On Sept. 30, 2026, senators introduced S. 5616, the Aligning Digital Assets with Principles of Taxation (ADAPT) Act, and it was referred to the Senate Finance Committee. GovInfo published the introduced text on Oct. 10. The bill would give conditional nonrecognition and reporting relief for qualifying stablecoin payments and for small digital-asset dispositions that pay transaction costs. It would create a mark-to-market election for digital-asset dealers and traders. It would address where validation income is sourced, trading safe harbors and qualifying lending transfers. It would extend the wash-sale and constructive-sale rules to specified digital assets. It would set tax treatment for qualifying staking investment trusts and partnership income, and relax appraisal requirements for qualifying charitable gifts. It would also address certain tax-exempt validation income and foreign entities related to DAOs. The bill changes no current tax obligation.

Who it affects

• Advisers and clients who hold, trade, lend, donate or stake digital assets
• Digital-asset brokers and tax-reporting providers
• Digital-asset investment trusts, partnerships and tax-exempt investors

What is still open

• It is not known whether Congress will advance, amend or enact the bill.
• It is not known how Treasury would implement the eligibility, reporting, definition and anti-abuse provisions if the bill is enacted.
• The application dates, transition rules and elections for each provision are not yet known, and each would need its own assessment if the bill is enacted.

What it means for an advisor

• Note the bill in your digital-asset tax planning, and keep applying current law.
• Gather the trading, staking, lending, donation and transaction-fee records you would need to assess the proposed rules.
• Watch for changes to wash-sale, constructive-sale and broker-basis rules before you revise how you harvest digital-asset tax losses.
• Review the proposed conditions for staking trusts when you check the tax structure of digital-asset products.