US Infrastructure Bill: Weekend Vote to Decide the Fate of Crypto Community

The US Senate is set to vote for amendments in the controversial Crypto Tax proposal of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill this weekend. Few members of the Senate Finance Committee and Republicans are running against the current $1.2 trillion worth, US infrastructure bill, that plans to radically increase crypto tax and raise nearly $28 billion from cryptocurrency tax enforcement measures.

Additionally, the tax regulations will also allow the U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to demand all digital asset subsidiaries to report tax liabilities on crypto transactions.

Last-Minute Amendments

The two groups of Senators are arguing for their end of amendments. Where the White House representatives, Senators Rob Portman, a Republican, and Democrats Mark Warner and Kyrsten Sinema proposed a last-minute amendment to eliminate Proof-Of-Work validators and developers from crypto tax and reporting measures from the bill.

“We believe that the alternative amendment put forward by Senators Warner, Portman, and Sinema strikes the right balance and makes an important step forward in promoting tax compliance,” White House spokesman Andrew Bates said in a statement.

On the other hand, Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden and Republican Senators Pat Toomey and Cynthia Lummis proposed a broader exclusion, that would spare Bitcoin miners, wallet developers, crypto validators, and protocol developers, from the unjust tax and reporting measures. However, they suggested that the bill should include those who conduct transactions on exchanges.

Defi Business May Face Trouble

The Senators have argued against the last-minute amendments, highlighting that it would cause PoS crypto and Defi Market collapse. Decentralized Finance works on a scattered blockchain that offers a certain level of anonymity, thus reporting each user to the IRS would be an impossible task, and might force closure.

The controversial amendment got an endorsement from the Biden administration enraging the crypto community. Many believe the crypto tax proposals would make it increasingly impossible for businesses to continue their operation while giving a free hand to the authorities to monitor the crypto market. Many in the crypto ecosystem have openly criticized the bill calling it a death knell for innovation.

1/ If you’ve been following threads on the Infrastructure bill, you know that there is a hastily conceived provision related to digital assets. This provision could have a profound negative impact on crypto in the US and unintentionally push more innovation offshore.

— Brian Armstrong (@brian_armstrong) August 4, 2021