Brian Armstrong, CEO of Coinbase, has pushed back against claims that his company’s lobbyists are working to block a Bitcoin ($BTC) tax exemption in Washington, calling the allegations “totally false.”
The dispute has drawn in Bitcoin advocates, tax lawyers, and crypto lobbyists, and cuts to the center of a wider debate about who the biggest companies in crypto actually represent when they walk the halls of Congress.
What the Accusations Said
The allegations were made by Truth for the Commoner (TFTC), a Bitcoin-focused media account with nearly 100,000 followers on X, which posted on March 11 that Coinbase had told legislators “no one is using Bitcoin as money” and that a $BTC de minimis exemption would be “DOA.”
According to TFTC, Coinbase has a financial motive for opposing the $BTC tax exemption. The account claimed that the exchange earned $1.35 billion last year in stablecoin revenue, with almost all the money coming from interest on U.S. Treasuries held in reserves backing USDC.
TFTC also suggested that a de minimis rule that covers $BTC but not stablecoins would make the king crypto a more attractive payment option, and that would pull users away from Coinbase’s yield-generating stablecoin ecosystem.
Recall that last year, Wyoming Senator Cynthia Lummis introduced digital asset tax legislation seeking to provide a de minimis exemption for crypto gains taxes on crypto transactions of up to $300. According to TFTC, the House version of the bill caps at $200 and only covers stablecoins.
Armstrong directly responded to the accusations against Coinbase, saying:
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“Not sure where you’re getting this misinformation (perhaps you can share?) but it’s totally false. I’ve spent a bunch of time lobbying for Bitcoin’s de minimis tax exemption, and will continue doing so.”
However, TFTC co-founder Mart Bent didn’t back down, telling Armstrong:
“I have sources that say otherwise, not you personally but your team and/or lobbyists.”
He also asked whether the Coinbase chief would walk away from the market structure bill if it failed to have a Bitcoin de minimis exemption, as he had done earlier in the year, when he withdrew support for the CLARITY Act after disagreements over stablecoin yield.
A Policy Debate With Numerous Moving Parts
Meanwhile, tax lawyer Jason Schwartz, known as “CryptoTaxGuy” on X, has tried to offer some context in the exchange between Armstrong and TFTC.
According to him, the discussion might be mixing up four separate policy ideas, which are a personal use de minimis rule, a gas fee exemption, a change in stablecoin reporting, and a plan to consider stablecoin gains and losses as zero.
Schwartz added that different market participants will naturally advocate harder for different provisions, and this alone shouldn’t be seen as one party trying to “kill” another provision.