How Crypto Is Taxed in the U.S.: Sales, Income and the New 1099-DA

The IRS treats crypto as property, not currency. That one rule decides when you owe tax and what you need to keep track of.

What to know

1. Selling crypto, trading one coin for another and spending crypto are all taxable events.
2. Buying with dollars and moving coins between your own wallets are not.
3. Staking and mining rewards are ordinary income when you receive them.
4. Exchanges and other brokers now report sales on Form 1099-DA, starting with 2025 transactions.

Since 2014, the IRS has treated cryptocurrency as property. That means the tax rules look much more like those for stocks or collectibles than for cash.

What’s taxable

Event	Taxable?
Buying crypto with dollars	No
Moving crypto between your own wallets	No, but keep records
Selling crypto for dollars	Yes: capital gain or loss
Trading one crypto for another	Yes: treated as selling the first
Paying for goods or services with crypto	Yes: treated as selling it
Receiving staking or mining rewards	Yes: ordinary income at fair market value when you gain control of them
Being paid in crypto for work	Yes: wages or self-employment income
Receiving crypto as a gift	No for the recipient, though the giver may need to file a gift tax return for large gifts

Gains and losses

Your gain or loss is the difference between what you received and your cost basis, which is generally what you paid plus fees. Coins held for more than a year qualify for long-term capital gains rates; a year or less, and gains are taxed at ordinary income rates. Losses can offset gains, plus up to $3,000 a year of other income, with the rest carried forward.

Form 1099-DA

Custodial platforms such as U.S. exchanges now report your crypto sales to the IRS on a new form, 1099-DA:

• For 2025 transactions, brokers report gross proceeds; cost basis wasn’t required.
• From 2026, brokers must also report cost basis for coins bought and held on the same platform.

Congress repealed a rule in 2025 that would have extended this reporting to decentralized finance platforms. Whether or not you get a form, you’re responsible for reporting every taxable transaction.

Safety tip

Keep a record of every purchase, sale, trade and transfer: dates, amounts, values in dollars and fees. If you move coins between platforms, the new platform won’t know your original cost, so your own records are what prove it.

Getting help

Crypto taxes get complicated fast with many trades, staking, airdrops or losses from failed exchanges. A tax professional who works with digital assets can help, and some software imports transaction histories.

If you’re thinking about what happens to crypto after you’re gone, inherited crypto gets its own tax treatment; see planning for crypto in your estate.

Common questions

Do I have to report crypto if I didn’t sell?

Your federal return asks whether you received, sold, exchanged or otherwise disposed of a digital asset. Simply buying and holding usually means answering no to the disposal part, but read the question carefully each year.

Does the wash sale rule apply to crypto?

Under current law, the wash sale rule applies to stocks and securities, and the IRS treats most crypto as property, so it hasn’t applied to coins held directly. Congress has considered changing that, so check the current rules.

What if I lost crypto in a scam or a failed exchange?

Tax treatment of theft and bankruptcy losses is complicated and depends on the facts. Keep records and talk to a tax professional.