Stablecoin

The GENIUS Act, signed on July 18, 2025, sets federal rules for payment stablecoins, but it contains no income tax rules. It defines a payment stablecoin as a digital asset used, or designed to be used, for payments. The issuer must redeem it for a fixed amount of money and represents that its value will stay stable.

For tax, the IRS lists stablecoins as digital assets, which it treats as property. No tax is due when you buy a stablecoin with dollars. Every sale or swap of one is a disposition, with its own gain or loss. That gain or loss is usually small, because the price stays close to $1.

Moving into a stablecoin is not a tax-free way to cash out. Swapping bitcoin for a stablecoin is a sale of the bitcoin, and its whole gain is taxed that year.

Under an optional rule, a broker need not report your qualifying stablecoin sales for a year if they total $10,000 or less. The same rule lets a broker leave out swaps of a stablecoin for other crypto at any amount. The rule covers only what the broker reports, so each sale still goes on your return.