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The biggest obstacle to Bitcoin becoming a widely used means of payment isn’t technical limitations. Instead, tax policy and regulatory treatment are the main hurdles, according to a senior executive at Bitcoin financial firm Strive.
Pierre Rochard, a board member of Strive and a veteran of Bitcoin treasury management, stated this week that while improvements in scaling technologies – tools that speed up transactions and reduce costs – continue to develop, it’s the way BTC is taxed that prevents it from functioning as ordinary money in everyday transactions.
Using an athletic analogy to explain BTC’s situation, he said that victory isn’t guaranteed by strength alone; you must show up and play the game, just as a top athlete can’t claim victory from the sidelines.
He remarked, “The best athlete can win against the worst athlete 100% of the time, if the best athlete plays. It drops to 0% if he doesn’t play and lets the weak athlete win. You have to play to win. Get in the arena.”
Strive’s Rochard says Bitcoin payments increased faster in low-tax places
Under current US tax rules, Bitcoin is treated as property rather than currency. That means every time someone spends BTC, for coffee, services, or goods, it triggers a tax reporting obligation and potentially a capital gains tax if the value has increased since the buyer acquired the Bitcoin.
The absence of a de minimis tax exemption — a threshold below which transactions would not be taxed — has drawn sharp criticism from industry advocates.
In response to Rochard’s post, one X user countered his point, saying that even in countries where BTC is tax-free, paying with Bitcoin hasn’t caught on. The Strive executive later pushed back, stating the data shows BTC payments have grown much faster in low-tax regions than in high-tax ones. Responding to another user’s post, he insisted that tax enforcement should be feared.
Some commenters also supported his perspective, claiming that if it were not for tax imposition, they would use Bitcoin all the time. X commenter Mohammed Walid Gagi asserted that tax-free nations don’t fear Bitcoin. Some users thanked him for cutting through the noise, saying that everyone focuses on Lightning and scaling when tax treatment is the real barrier.
Just last month, the Bitcoin Policy Institute warned that taxing every BTC payment makes it simply less effective as a day-to-day currency and slows its uptake. Currently, US officials are exploring a de minimis tax exemption for fully backed stablecoins—a proposal that hasn’t gone over well with Bitcoiners.
Senator Lummis had introduced a bill providing exemptions for small BTC transactions
In July 2025, crypto supporter and Wyoming Senator Cynthia Lummis proposed a bill to exempt small digital asset transactions of $300 or less from taxes. The proposal would impose a $5,000 annual cap on exemptions and add protections for crypto-based charitable giving. It also suggested earnings from crypto staking or mining wouldn’t be treated as taxable income until the coins were sold.
Additionally, in October, after Square integrated Bitcoin payments, founder Jack Dorsey advocated for a tax break on small BTC transactions. Dorsey noted, “We want BTC to be everyday money ASAP.”
But Marty Bent, co-founder of the media outlet Truth for the Commoner, derided the plan to exempt stablecoins from taxes as “nonsensical.”
Meanwhile, lawmakers in Rhode Island are also proposing legislation to make small Bitcoin transactions tax-free for consumers and companies alike. The Senate Bill 2021 proposes allowing up to $20,000 in yearly Bitcoin transactions — or $5,000 monthly — without triggering state tax liability. The proposed solution would also minimize tax expenses for small crypto exchanges and allow the public to remain compliant with crypto law, including those of self-certification, record-keeping, and valuation. Rhode Island lawmakers say they would review the policy in 1 year to gauge its impact on the economy and state finances. Nevertheless, the bill reflects the state’s effort to normalize digital currencies in daily payments, limiting the exemption to small transactions rather than investment trades.
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