Ministry of Finance proposes redefining crypto brokers: Cryptocurrency miners, verification nodes, and software/hardware service providers may be exempt

The controversial United States infrastructure bill that stirred up the cryptocurrency community last year has not yet been finalized, but on February 11, the U.S. Treasury Department brought some positive news. Cryptocurrency miners, a large number of validation nodes, and other non-financial intermediaries will be excluded from the definition of "cryptocurrency brokers."

Infrastructure Bill Unlocks Crypto Industry

The U.S. government last year proposed a $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill to fund infrastructure projects. The "Senate Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill Group" is considering strengthening regulations on cryptocurrencies in order to achieve a tax revenue target of $28 billion through the crypto industry. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is first targeting taxpayers, expanding the definitions of "cryptocurrency brokers" and "investors" to include:

• Miners
• Node operators
• Software developers
• Decentralized exchanges
• Non-custodial service providers
• Any party involved in cryptocurrency trading

Redefining Crypto Brokers

According to Bloomberg, the U.S. Treasury Department wrote to numerous legislators, with Assistant Secretary for Legislative Affairs Jonathan Davidson stating in the letter:

The Treasury's position is that third parties that aid in transactions and cannot obtain useful data for the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) do not need to deliberately capture relevant data in their reports.

This means that miners, validation nodes, and providers of related software and hardware infrastructure may be excluded from the definition.

Furthermore, the Treasury Department also stated that it is still studying various areas of the digital asset market, such as whether centralized exchanges, peer-to-peer exchanges, DEX, and other institutions should be considered as crypto brokers, or differentiated due to their different attributes.

Senator Pat Toomey mentioned that he was encouraged by the Treasury Department's exclusion of miners, node operators, and software and hardware developers from the definition, but "statements" can change, so he still hopes that Congress can pass legislation quickly.