Daines Releases a Stablecoin Payment Tax Bill

Senator Steve Daines released the Aligning Digital Assets with Principles of Taxation Act on 30 September 2026. The ADAPT Act stablecoin tax bill September 2026 would change how some stablecoin payments and some small network costs are treated, if it became law. It is a bill, not current law. Both the news account and the section-by-section text describe new Internal Revenue Code sections 1034 and 1044, a wash-sale change, and a start date that sits after 31 December 2026 for the payment and fee relief. Nothing on those pages enacts the text by itself.

What happened

The bill's full name is the Aligning Digital Assets with Principles of Taxation Act. The release date both the reporting and the bill materials support is 30 September 2026. The sponsor named in the account used here is Senator Steve Daines. A released bill is a proposal. Publishing it does not enact it.

New section 1034 would not recognize gain or loss when a covered payment stablecoin buys goods or services. The nonrecognition does not extend to investment sales. A payment for goods or services and an investment sale are different events in the bill, and only the payment is inside this relief. The token has to meet several tests at once. It must be from a permitted issuer under the GENIUS Act. It must be on a Treasury list of coins that traded within 3 percent of $1. It must have been acquired within 3 percent of $1. Miss any one of those and the section, as described, does not apply. Traders, brokers, and dealers are out.

New section 1044 would provide no gain or loss on digital assets used for network costs of $10 or less. Costs of the same economic transaction are aggregated, so splitting one transaction into smaller charges does not create eligibility the combined cost would lack. The section also excludes anyone who initiated more than 5,000 digital-asset transactions in the prior year. The count is of transactions initiated, and the year that matters is the prior year.

Wash-sale rules would extend to traded digital assets other than qualified dollar stablecoins. A wash sale, in general tax usage, is a disposition and a repurchase close enough in time that the loss is not recognized in the ordinary way. The bill would pull traded digital assets into that regime, with qualified dollar stablecoins left out. The accounts used here state the extension and the exception. They do not, in the facts this article uses, restate the number of days in the existing wash-sale window, and this article will not supply one.

Stablecoin-payment relief and fee relief apply after 31 December 2026. That timing is attached, in the shared text, to those two forms of relief. This article will not paste the same date onto the wash-sale extension, because the pages do not do that in the sentence this account relies on. Even for the reliefs that carry the date, "after 31 December 2026" is a proposed effective point inside a bill. It is not a date that current law has already reached.

Why it matters

The bill tries to separate a payment from an investment sale. Under section 1034, as described, spending a covered payment stablecoin on goods or services would not produce recognized gain or loss. An investment sale of that token would sit outside the rule. This article is not investment advice. It is describing a proposal that would, if enacted, turn off recognition for a defined payment use and leave investment sales recognized.

The gates are the substance. A coin from outside the GENIUS Act's permitted-issuer set would not qualify. A coin that is not on the Treasury list of coins that traded within 3 percent of $1 would not qualify. A coin acquired more than 3 percent away from $1 would not qualify. A trader, broker, or dealer would not get the relief even if the coin cleared those tests. The draft is not a general stablecoin holiday. It is a narrow nonrecognition rule with issuer, price-band, acquisition, and status conditions stacked together.

Section 1044 is narrower still, and it is not limited in the text to stablecoins. It covers digital assets used for network costs, but only at $10 or less, only with same-transaction costs aggregated, and only for people who did not initiate more than 5,000 digital-asset transactions the year before. Both are limits on who can use the relief, not encouragements to transact. For related stablecoin policy context, see Circle MiCA review and Treasury stablecoin certification.

The wash-sale piece moves in a different direction. Payment relief and small-fee relief would take some events off the recognition table. The wash-sale extension would pull traded digital assets, other than qualified dollar stablecoins, onto a loss-deferral table they are not on today, if the bill passed. A summary that mentions only the spending rule misses a draft that also reaches loss recognition on other traded digital assets.

What's next

Congress has the bill. The public has a section-by-section description and a news report that match on the provisions above. Passage, amendment, or abandonment is not reported in the material used here. Until a statute exists, section 1034 and section 1044 are numbers in a proposal. Gain and loss on stablecoin spending, and on network costs, remain whatever current law already provides.

None of that text is law on 2 October 2026. Passage, rejection, or amendment is not in the material used here.

This article is not tax advice and not investment advice. It is a description of a bill.

A news account is here. The section-by-section text is here.