Receiving equity in tokens for startup

Hi all. I’m a US citizen on the executive team of a European based startup with a token. I’ve been with the team over 2 years, we have sound tokenomics and are poised for significant growth in a RWA (real world assets) play.

As per of my employment contract I am owed a healthy portion of tokens which will unlock/vest over time as I continue with the company.

My dilemma: It appears based on US tax law that taking ownership of the tokens will likely trigger taxation based on the tokens’ fair market value. The tokens are not liquid (no ICO yet, but likely to happen in the next cycle) but still I’m advised that since we’ve privately sold them to investors at $x/token that my net liability will be based on (# of tokens) x (highest private sale transaction price) x (my tax rate roughly 28%).

This would create a likely tax liability I can’t afford for an illiquid asset of speculative value at this time. All of my US colleagues are facing the same dilemma.

The basic question is, what do I do? I would like to take digital ownership of the assets for piece of mind rather than an IOU contract from my company: - is my only/best option to open an offshore business to hold the assets? (This seems expensive, multiple $1000’s to set up. -don’t startup employees receiving equity have the same problems here in the US? -am I missing something obvious? Am I being overly cautious?