What happened
Strive Asset Management, the Vivek Ramaswamy-founded firm now run by CEO Matt Cole, has publicly backed an effort to remove capital gains tax on Bitcoin transactions in the United States. Cole told Crypto. News the firm is in direct conversations with policymakers on Capitol Hill, and that Strive views the tax treatment of digital assets as one of the central barriers to wider US adoption.
The remarks came as lawmakers prepare to review digital asset tax rules in the coming weeks, with Senate Finance committee staff drafting language that could be folded into a broader tax package later in the session. Cole did not name specific lawmakers Strive is working with. He also did not confirm whether the firm is part of any formal coalition, though the timing tracks with renewed industry lobbying around the de minimis exemption and the treatment of small-value crypto payments.
Strive has positioned itself as an explicitly pro-Bitcoin allocator since Cole took over operational leadership, and the firm has been one of the more vocal corporate treasury advocates in 2026.
Why it matters
Capital gains treatment is the single largest friction point cited by industry lawyers when US-based investors evaluate moving Bitcoin between wallets, paying with it, or rebalancing. Every taxable event, even a coffee paid in BTC, triggers a calculation against cost basis. A wholesale removal, if it ever got through, would be the most consequential US crypto tax change since the IRS first classified digital assets as property in 2014.