Anatoly Yakovenko, co-founder of Solana Labs, stated on September 7 that changing how the IRS taxes staking rewards would benefit Solana’s ecosystem more than any adjustment to burn mechanisms, transaction fees, or inflation schedule. The core issue stems from IRS Revenue Ruling 2023-14, which treats staking rewards as ordinary income the moment a validator or delegator gains control over them, creating what tax professionals call phantom income. In December 2025, Representative Mike Carey and 18 colleagues sent a letter to the IRS urging a revision of this guidance, arguing that staking rewards should be treated as newly created property rather than income. Governance proposal SGP-0002, which doubles Solana’s disinflation rate to 30%, was approved in August 2026, but Yakovenko views these tokenomics adjustments as secondary to tax reform. The IRS has not changed its position, and this issue potentially affects all proof-of-stake networks operating in the United States.
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