The US Department of the Treasury and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) have formally scrapped a controversial crypto rule that would have mandated decentralized exchanges to comply with broker reporting obligations.
The rule was originally proposed in November 2021 through the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, aiming to close the “tax gap” by broadening the definition of “brokers” to include crypto exchanges and other intermediaries.
At the end of the Biden administration, the IRS finalized the rule, expanding the definition of a “broker” while requiring DeFi platforms to report proceeds from digital asset transactions and detail user transaction information, including names and addresses.
Starting July 11, 2025, this crypto broker rule has no legal force or effect, as the Treasury Department and the IRS have removed it from the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) and reverted the relevant text of the CFR to the text that was in effect before the final rule.
The federal agencies noted that the CFR change was made to reflect the accomplishments already achieved through congressional and presidential action. “Accordingly, the Treasury Department and the IRS are not soliciting comments on this action, nor are they delaying the effective date,” the revocation reads.
The rule’s removal follows the regulatory shift under President Trump, who has vowed to turn America into the “crypto capital of the world.” Amid this process, other federal agencies have revoked other Biden-era rules and guidance.
“We’re rolling back this overreach and making it clear that investment decisions should be made by fiduciaries, not DC bureaucrats,” US Secretary of Labor Lori Chavez-DeRemer explained.
Meanwhile, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Department of Justice (DOJ) have disbanded their crypto enforcement-focused units and changed their long-criticized “regulation by enforcement” approach.
