Bitcoin Mining Leaders Urge Treasury and IRS to End Double Taxation on Mined Bitcoin
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, the Digital Power Network (DPN), the nation’s leading coalition of Bitcoin miners and digital infrastructure developers, representing over 50% of the United States’ Bitcoin mining capacity, sent a formal letter to U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Acting IRS Commissioner Michael Faulkender urging updated tax guidance for Bitcoin mining rewards.
In the letter, co-signed by chief executives and senior leaders from the country’s most prominent mining firms, including MARA Holdings, Riot Platforms, Auradine, Bitdeer, CleanSpark, Cipher Mining, and TeraWulf, the industry calls for an end to the IRS’s outdated policy that subjects Bitcoin miners to double taxation: once when Bitcoin is mined, and again when it is sold.
“Bitcoin is a commodity. Every major federal financial regulator agrees,” said Hailey Miller, Director of Government Relations and Public Policy at the Digital Power Network. “Yet miners are being taxed like service providers, not commodity producers. It’s time for tax policy to reflect economic reality.”
The letter points to the IRS’s 2014 guidance, Notice 2014-21,which treats newly mined Bitcoin as immediate taxable income, even though the asset has not been sold or realized. By contrast, producers of oil, wheat, or other commodities are only taxed when their product is sold on the market.
The industry’s request is simple: treat mined Bitcoin as created property, not income, and defer tax liability until sale, a standard approach used across all other commodity-producing industries. The letter argues that Treasury and the IRS have existing administrative authority to make this change now, without requiring legislation from Congress.
The requested update would:
Eliminate unjust double taxation on mining rewards
Align IRS policy with how commodities like oil and wheat are treated
Remove a major disincentive to U.S.-based digital infrastructure investment
Provide clarity and fairness amid rapid global competition in blockchain and AI-powered computing
The full letter is available here.
DPN’s letter comes amid rising calls across the energy, tech, and financial sectors for the federal government to modernize its treatment of digital assets. It marks the strongest unified industry push to date for administrative tax reform, with signatories from across the top publicly traded and privately held mining firms.
Signatories include:
Fred Thiel, Chairman & CEO, MARA Holdings
Jason Les, CEO, Riot Platforms, Inc.
Rajiv Khemani, Co-founder & CEO, Auradine, Inc.
Jihan Wu, Founder & CEO, Bitdeer Technologies Group
Zachary Bradford, Co-founder & CEO, CleanSpark, Inc.
Michael Enright, Senior Vice President, TeraWulf
Will Iwaschuk, Co-President & CLO, Cipher Mining Inc.
DPN is committed to working closely with Treasury and the IRS to ensure that U.S. tax policy fosters innovation, competitiveness, and consistency across digital and traditional industries alike.
About the Digital Power Network (DPN):
DPN is the largest coalition of Bitcoin miners in the United States, representing over 50% of domestic hash rate. Through public policy advocacy, industry coordination, and infrastructure innovation, DPN promotes responsible energy use, national security, and economic growth in the digital asset sector.