The Senate voted on and passed the bipartisan $1.2 trillion Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act on Tuesday. The bill has undergone several amendments and debates, but Republican and Democratic senators alike still express concerns over the language in a section of the bill that they fear could destroy the blooming cryptocurrency industry. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) joined this bipartisan resistance today, saying that the “underlying language” of one section of the bill could “obliterate” cryptocurrency.
This section of the bill seeks to put new regulations and tax burdens on platforms that allow users to buy and sell cryptocurrency, an industry that markets itself as an alternative to fiat currency and centralized financial control. The provision would require that these platforms report information on the buying and selling of digital assets to the IRS. However, many such platforms are noncustodial providers, meaning that they do not have access to this information—their users’ assets are kept in private accounts that only they can see or access. This makes it practically impossible for these noncustodial crypto providers to comply with this provision.
