[Digital Today reporter Yoonseo Lee (이윤서)] OpenAI has issued a policy proposal saying the United States should redesign its tax, welfare and energy systems in line with the spread of artificial intelligence (AI), and the analysis said the impact could spill over into the cryptocurrency market.

On April 13 (local time), blockchain outlet Cryptopolitan reported that OpenAI, in a 13-page policy document released on April 6, proposed shifting taxation toward capital gains, reviewing taxes on automated labour, creating a public debt fund, expanding automatic safety nets and boosting energy infrastructure for AI.

The core of the document is that as AI is changing production and labour structures, the existing social contract also needs redesign. OpenAI set out three key goals: "broadly shared prosperity", "risk mitigation" and "democratizing access and choice". It said, "Tax reform focused on capital gains and corporate profits can help support labour transitions in an AI-driven economy while stabilizing funding for essential programmes."

The issue crypto investors are likely to be most sensitive to is the "capital gains tax". The U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS) classifies cryptocurrencies as assets rather than currency, making them subject to capital gains tax. The document does not directly mention cryptocurrencies, but a shift toward placing greater weight on capital gains taxation could lead to a higher tax burden on returns from digital-asset investments. It also cited that from 2026 cryptocurrency exchanges must submit the "1099-DA" form, reporting trading profits directly to the government.

For decentralised finance (DeFi), the concept of "automated labour" could emerge as a new burden. In a section on tax modernisation, OpenAI said it could consider "new approaches such as taxes related to automated labour". It did not provide a definition, but the idea touches on DeFi structures that run on automated trading and smart-contract execution. If the logic that automated systems creating economic value without human labour should contribute to funding social safety nets leads to congressional debate, DeFi could become a direct target of the tax system regardless of separate arguments over whether it is a security.

The idea of a "public debt fund" is also a point the crypto industry is watching. OpenAI proposed creating a fund that invests in diversified assets so that all citizens can enjoy the gains from AI growth, and returning the proceeds to citizens. It also said the fund could provide citizens who do not participate in financial markets with a stake in AI-based economic growth. But this is a structure in which the state and the established system manage assets for distribution, a different starting point from the decentralised financial order that bitcoin and DeFi have pursued.

An "automatic safety net trigger" also carries a different meaning for the crypto industry. OpenAI proposed temporary support mechanisms including unemployment benefits, cash support, wage insurance and education vouchers that would automatically expand when certain thresholds are exceeded. Such a structure means automatic expansion of government spending, and if revenue growth fails to keep up it could raise inflation pressure. That point again highlights the logic of bitcoin, with a fixed total supply, as a store of value.

An "energy infrastructure policy" is directly linked to the cryptocurrency mining industry. OpenAI said that expanding the power grid needed to run AI would require new public-private partnership models, subsidies and authority to accelerate advanced transmission technology. It specifically mentioned federal authority that could bring forward wide-area transmission construction when it aligns with national interests. The document also included the line that "AI data centres should bear energy costs on their own rather than relying on household subsidies". But if, in actual policy implementation, AI data centres are classified as core infrastructure, it could work against crypto miners competing for grid access in Texas, Georgia and the U.S. Northwest, among other places.

From a market perspective, what stands out more is that the document does not mention cryptocurrency, blockchain, DeFi or digital assets even once. As AI and cryptocurrencies are in the same technology and capital markets, this could be read not as a simple omission but as a signal of priorities in policy design.

If the U.S. Congress and financial authorities later translate phrases such as capital-based tax revenue, automated labour, public-fund investment targets and grid priority into actual legislative and administrative language, the cryptocurrency market could face simultaneous impacts in taxes, regulation, capital flows and mining costs. The key point to watch is whether OpenAI's proposal leads to actual legislative debate, it said.