The American Treasury Department and the internal income service have just given cryptographic companies a major victory. New advice published on September 30, 2025 mean that large companies holding Bitcoin will not have to pay taxes on the gains they have not yet sold.
This changes everything for companies like Strategy (formerly Microstrategy) and Mara Holdings. These companies have billions of dollars of bitcoin on their balance sheets. Without these advice, they were faced with massive tax invoices from 2026 – even if they never sold their crypto.
The tax problem that costs almost billions
The problem started when two separate rules collided. First of all, the Inflation reduction law From 2022 has created something called the minimum alternative company tax (CAMT). This 15% tax applies to large companies which are more than a billion dollars per year.
Then, in December 2023, manufacturers of accounting rules decided that companies should report their assets in cryptography to the current market value of their financial statements. Whenever the price of Bitcoin rises or decreases, companies must record this change, even if they never sell.
Here is the problem: CAMT calculates taxes according to what companies report their financial statements. Thus, when Bitcoin prices increase, companies showed “benefits” on paper. Under the old interpretation, they should a 15% tax on these paper benefits – despite no real species of sales.
Brett Cotler, a tax lawyer from Seward & Kissel, explained the compression: “A company will have a tax responsibility but may not have money to pay this tax liability, he will therefore have to liquidate assets to pay it.”
The problem of 27 billion dollars in the strategy simply disappeared
The strategy holds around 640,031 Bitcoin, worth around $ 74 billion. The company paid $ 47.35 billion for these assets, which means that they were on more than $ 27 billion in unrealized gains.
The president of the company, Michael Saylor, announced the good news of October 1: “Following the provisional guidelines of the Treasury and the IRS published yesterday, the strategy does not expect to be subject to the minimum alternative tax (CAMT) due to unrealized gains on his Bitcoin farms.”
The market loved it. The action of the strategy jumped 4.6% to $ 337 per share. Mara Holdings, another big minor and Bitcoin holder, also benefits from the new rules.
How companies won this fight
The strategy and the coinbase did not sit quietly while facing billions of potential taxes. In May 2025, they sent a joint letter to the treasure that makes several arguments:
- The benefits of taxing paper treat crypto differently from shares and obligations
- Companies may be forced to sell bitcoin just to pay taxes
- American companies are faced with drawbacks compared to foreign competitors
- Tax violates constitutional principles by taxing income that does not exist
Republican senators Cynthia Lummis and Bernie Moreno supported companies, calling Camt as “involuntary tax burden” which could affect American competitiveness.
The constitutional argument struck hard. Companies have argued that the rental of a private accounting council (FASB) essentially decides on tax policy through raped accounting rules The constitutional separation of powers.
What new advice really does
IRS Avis 2025-49 and note 2025-46 Provide what is called an “FVI exclusion option” – exclusion of ecliation of the value. This allows companies to ignore gains and unrealized losses on digital assets when calculating the CAMT.
The advice is “temporary”, which means that it is not yet final. But companies can rely immediately for their income tax return in 2025 due in 2026. Tax experts expect the IRS ultimately rendering these permanent rules through formal regulations.
Above all, it is not only a question of crypto. Shehan Chandrasekera, responsible for the tax strategy at Cointracker, noted: “It is any company that earns about a billion dollars in revenues per year.” This includes most S&P 500 companies. Crypto has just become the case with testing because companies must mark their assets at market value.
Why this counts beyond Bitcoin
These guidelines more than save money from businesses. It removes a major obstacle to the adoption of corporate bitcoin.
Before this decision, the leaders of finance had to worry: “If we buy Bitcoin like an asset of the treasure and the price increases, we could have huge taxes without selling anything.” This fear has maintained many companies on the sidelines.
Directives also solves a problem of international competitiveness. Foreign companies are not faced with similar market rules according to international accounting standards. Without this solution, American companies will face tax penalties avoid their foreign competitors.
The Senate finance committee held hearings on October 1 to more broadly examine cryptographic taxation. Coinbase vice-president Lawrence Zlatkin testified alongside political experts, reporting continuous attention to these questions.
Conclusion: a victory for corporate crypto
The IRS directives of September 2025 solved a problem that threatened to derail the adoption of the bitcoins of companies. Companies that hold crypto as an active treasure are now faced with the same tax treatment as those with traditional titles. This levels the rules of the game, removes billions of potential liabilities and opens the way for more companies to add the bitcoin to their balance sheets. The guidelines remain temporary, but tax experts expect it to become a permanent law – by carrying out this victory for cryptographic cash companies.
