Hard to find sources on what doesn't exist but this article suggests the US doesn't pay tax on unrealised gains. https://www.axios.com/2024/08/23/kamala-harris-

Hard to find sources on what doesn't exist but this article suggests the US doesn't pay tax on unrealised gains. https://www.axios.com/2024/08/23/kamala-harris-unrealized-capital-gains-tax https://www.axios.com/2024/08/23/kamala-harris-unrealized-ca... I think exercising an option may be an event that realizes gains and causes issues for someone who has to pay tax but can't sell the asset as it is not liquid. But I think that isn't what you are taking about? As for revenue. Many companies are priced at X revenue, but those are companies you expect to grow. If a company raises $1m and sells AI tokens for $1m/y (the revenue) in order to "dominate the market" but they pay AWS $2m/y for, and they can't raise any more or increase prices then that startup is probably worth nothing. For example. Another example is a bar that sells $1m in revenue drinks and food, makes 500k gross and 50k net after staff, rent taxes etc.