Coinbase’s Chief Policy Officer refutes lobbying allegations against the bitcoin de minimis tax exemption, as Jack Dorsey and Marty Bent fuel the controversy.
Coinbase Chief Policy Officer Faryar Shirzad has publicly dismissed accusations that the company is lobbying U.S. lawmakers against a proposed tax exemption on small Bitcoin transactions. On March 11, responding on X to a post by podcaster Marty Bent, Shirzad wrote: “This is a total lie Marty Bent. We have never and will never lobby against Bitcoin. Ever.” Shortly after, CEO Brian Armstrong also denied the allegations, calling them “totally false.”
The controversy erupted after Bent reported that Coinbase was telling lawmakers the exemption was unnecessary because “nobody uses Bitcoin as money” and that “a de minimis exemption for Bitcoin is a gift that will be killed.” According to Bent, the company is pushing to limit the tax benefit to stablecoins only, in favor of its own business model. Bent stated he had three separate sources to back the story. Block’s Jack Dorsey publicly urged Armstrong to clarify the matter, writing: “hope this is true for de minimis as well, Brian Armstrong?”
Conner Brown, Managing Director of the Bitcoin Policy Institute, confirmed a related dynamic: “I can confirm that over the past three months there has been a strong shift on Capitol Hill toward limiting the de minimis exemption to stablecoins only. BPI continues to meet with lawmakers to explain what a strategic mistake this would be for the United States.”
The de minimis tax exemption would eliminate capital gains taxes and IRS reporting obligations on small Bitcoin transactions. Under current U.S. law, Bitcoin is treated as property, making every expenditure a taxable event requiring cost basis tracking and paperwork. The bill backed by Senator Cynthia Lummis (R-WY) sets a threshold of $300 per transaction and an annual cap of $5,000.
Block Inc. has been the most active corporate advocate for the exemption. In November 2025, the company behind Cash App and Square launched the “Bitcoin is Everyday Money” campaign, explicitly calling for the exemption and introducing Lightning Network tools allowing Square merchants to accept Bitcoin payments with no fees through 2027. Block’s Bitcoin product lead Miles Suter summed up the company’s position: “If Bitcoin becomes just digital gold, we will have failed the mission. Bitcoin payments validate Bitcoin. They make it real. Bitcoin is money.”
