Taxing Stablecoins

This Fintech Note specifically considers the challenges that tax law systems face to achieve neutrality in taxing transactions in one specific type of crypto asset: stablecoins. Stablecoins are a category of crypto assets that aim to maintain a stable value relative to a specified asset or to a pool of assets, such as sovereign currencies. In this way, they are designed to address the problem of volatility in the prices of crypto assets; price volatility generally makes these assets poor candidates to be a store of value and is one of the main impediments against their more widespread adoption as a means of payment. The prospect of a more widespread adoption of stablecoins warrants a closer look at their tax treatment and associated challenges.