Two major crypto industry groups are suing Illinois over its Digital Asset Tax Act, marking the second legal challenge to the state’s planned 0.2% levy on digital asset transactions.
The Crypto Council for Innovation and the Blockchain Association filed the suit over the Act, known as DATA. Governor J.B. Pritzker signed it into law as Senate Bill 3019. Under the statute, a 0.2% tax would hit certain digital asset business activity involving Illinois customers, covering exchange, transfer, and custody services, according to a Crypto Council for Innovation opposition letter urging a line-item veto before the bill became law. The tax is expected to take effect January 1, 2027, according to a legal analysis published by Sterk Family Law.
What that looks like on the ground: crypto exchanges, brokers, and custodians serving Illinois residents would need to register with the state’s Department of Revenue, collect the tax, and file reports. The industry says those costs get passed straight to users.
The Crypto Council did not mince words. “Illinois Governor Pritzker just signed the most punitive digital asset tax in the country into law,” the group wrote on social media, calling it “an unprecedented tax” on digital asset activity. The council had pushed Pritzker to issue a line-item veto of SB 3019 in a June 16 letter, before the governor signed the bill.
This is not the first challenge. The Digital Chamber sued Illinois on July 22 to halt the tax, arguing it discriminates against digital asset users. That suit and the new complaint now stand as parallel challenges to the same statute. The second arrived roughly a month after the first.
What separates the two filings is the plaintiff roster. The Digital Chamber acted alone in July. The Crypto Council for Innovation and the Blockchain Association, two of the largest advocacy organizations in the sector, filed jointly this week. Whether the new complaint rests on the same discrimination theory or raises separate constitutional grounds, such as the Commerce Clause, could not be confirmed from available reporting. The CoinDesk article breaking the news was not accessible at press time.
That gap matters. A second suit citing different constitutional grounds would widen the state’s legal exposure, potentially giving courts multiple reasons to block or narrow the tax before it takes effect. One that mirrors the Digital Chamber’s claims would largely duplicate the existing challenge.
Illinois lawmakers have already introduced legislation that could repeal DATA before its 2027 effective date, according to the Sterk Family Law analysis. Whether that repeal effort has gained traction in the legislature remains unclear.
The state has not publicly responded to either lawsuit. Whether the Pritzker administration or the Department of Revenue will defend the tax in court or seek a settlement is not known.
The outcome would set an early precedent for how far states can go in taxing digital asset transactions. No federal court has answered that question definitively.
