Crypto Tax Guide 2026: What US Investors Need to Know

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Crypto taxes trip up a lot of investors, and 2026 adds new rules: exchanges now send the IRS a Form 1099-DA, and you must track your cost basis separately for every wallet and account. This guide explains what’s taxable, the 2026 tax rates, the forms you need and the easiest way to file.

Quick answer: In the US, the IRS treats crypto as property. You owe capital gains tax when you sell crypto, trade one coin for another or spend it, and ordinary income tax when you earn crypto from staking, mining, airdrops or a job. Short-term gains (held one year or less) are taxed at your income tax rate of 10% to 37%; long-term gains are taxed at 0%, 15% or 20%. Simply buying and holding isn’t taxable. Starting with 2025 transactions, exchanges send you and the IRS Form 1099-DA.

This guide is for US taxpayers. It’s educational, not tax advice. For complex situations, talk to a CPA or enrolled agent.

Do you have to pay taxes on crypto?

Yes. The IRS treats cryptocurrency as property, so the same capital gains rules that apply to stocks generally apply to crypto. Every Form 1040 asks whether you received, sold, exchanged or otherwise disposed of a digital asset during the year, and you must answer it.

These common actions are taxable:

• Selling crypto for cash (capital gain or loss)
• Trading one crypto for another, including stablecoins (capital gain or loss)
• Spending crypto on goods or services (capital gain or loss)
• Earning staking rewards (ordinary income, see what is staking)
• Mining crypto (ordinary income, possibly self-employment income)
• Receiving airdrops or new coins from a hard fork (ordinary income)
• Getting paid in crypto by an employer or client (ordinary income)
• Earning crypto rewards, referral bonuses or interest (ordinary income)

What isn’t taxable

• Buying crypto with dollars and holding it
• Moving crypto between your own wallets and accounts
• Donating crypto to a qualified charity (you may even get a deduction)
• Giving crypto as a gift up to the annual exclusion ($19,000 per recipient in 2026). Above that you file a gift tax return, but you usually won’t owe tax.
• Receiving crypto as a gift (you owe tax only when you later sell or trade it)

2026 crypto tax rates

How much tax you pay depends on how long you held the crypto and your total taxable income. These are the IRS rates for crypto you sell or earn in 2026 (taxes filed in 2027).

Long-term capital gains (held more than one year)

Rate	Single	Married filing jointly	Head of household
0%	Up to $49,450	Up to $98,900	Up to $66,200
15%	$49,451 to $545,500	$98,901 to $613,700	$66,201 to $579,600
20%	Over $545,500	Over $613,700	Over $579,600

Short-term capital gains and crypto income

Crypto held one year or less, plus staking, mining and other crypto income, is taxed at ordinary income tax rates:

Rate	Single	Married filing jointly
10%	Up to $12,400	Up to $24,800
12%	$12,401 to $50,400	$24,801 to $100,800
22%	$50,401 to $105,700	$100,801 to $211,400
24%	$105,701 to $201,775	$211,401 to $403,550
32%	$201,776 to $256,225	$403,551 to $512,450
35%	$256,226 to $640,600	$512,451 to $768,700
37%	Over $640,600	Over $768,700

Higher earners may also owe the 3.8% net investment income tax on crypto gains if their modified adjusted gross income is above $200,000 (single) or $250,000 (married filing jointly).

How crypto gains and losses work

Your gain or loss is the difference between what you received when you sold, traded or spent the crypto and your cost basis, which is what you paid for it including fees.

• Short-term: held one year or less, taxed at your income tax rate.
• Long-term: held more than one year, taxed at 0%, 15% or 20%.
• Losses: capital losses offset capital gains first. Up to $3,000 of extra losses a year ($1,500 if married filing separately) can offset other income, and the rest carries forward to future years.

Example: you buy $1,000 of Bitcoin and sell it eight months later for $1,500. You have a $500 short-term gain taxed at your income rate. Hold it for more than a year and the same gain could be taxed at 15% or even 0%.

How crypto income is taxed

• Staking rewards are ordinary income at their fair market value when you gain control of them (IRS Revenue Ruling 2023-14). That value becomes your cost basis for when you later sell them.
• Mining income is ordinary income. If you mine as a business, report it on Schedule C and pay self-employment tax; hobby mining goes on Schedule 1, line 8v.
• Airdrops and hard forks are income when the new coins land in a wallet you control (Revenue Ruling 2019-24).
• Getting paid in crypto counts as wages or business income at the coin’s value on the day you receive it.

Read more in our guides to staking risks and the best staking platforms.

New for 2025–2026: Form 1099-DA

Starting with transactions on or after January 1, 2025, US crypto exchanges and other custodial brokers must report your sales and trades to the IRS on Form 1099-DA and send you a copy early the following year.

• 2025 tax year: brokers report gross proceeds. Reporting cost basis is optional.
• 2026 tax year onward: brokers must also report cost basis, but generally only for crypto you bought on that same platform on or after January 1, 2026 (“covered” assets).
• Transferred coins: if you moved crypto in from another exchange or wallet, the 1099-DA may show proceeds with no cost basis. Without your own records, it can look like your whole sale was profit.

Got a 1099-DA? How to reconcile it

1. Download the 1099-DA (and any 1099-MISC for rewards) from each exchange you used, such as Coinbase or Kraken.
2. Import the full transaction history from every exchange and wallet, not just the 1099-DA, so transfers and earlier purchases are matched.
3. Fill in missing cost basis for coins you transferred in.
4. Check that your totals match the proceeds on each 1099-DA, and note any differences.
5. Report every sale on Form 8949, using your corrected cost basis.

Crypto tax software does most of this automatically. Koinly imports your exchanges and wallets, matches transfers and fills in the cost basis your 1099-DA is missing.

Track cost basis wallet by wallet

Since January 1, 2025, the IRS requires you to track cost basis separately for each wallet and exchange account, instead of pooling all your crypto together (Rev. Proc. 2024-28). When you sell coins on Coinbase, for example, your gain is based on the coins held in that Coinbase account, not coins in another wallet.

This is hard to do in a spreadsheet once you use more than one exchange or wallet. Tax software tracks it for you, and you can choose an accounting method such as first in, first out (FIFO) or specific identification where your platform supports it.

How to file crypto taxes in 5 steps

1. Gather your records: 1099-DA and 1099-MISC forms plus full transaction histories from every exchange and wallet.
2. Import everything into crypto tax software such as Koinly.
3. Review and fix gaps: missing cost basis, unmatched transfers and uncategorized income.
4. Generate your reports: Form 8949, Schedule D totals and an income report for staking, mining and rewards.
5. File by April 15, 2027 for the 2026 tax year, using TurboTax, another tax app or your tax professional, and answer the digital asset question on Form 1040.

Crypto tax forms you may need

• Form 8949: lists each crypto sale, trade or purchase with dates, proceeds, cost basis and gain or loss.
• Schedule D (Form 1040): totals your capital gains and losses from Form 8949.
• Schedule 1 (Form 1040): reports crypto income not reported elsewhere, such as staking rewards, airdrops or hobby mining (line 8v).
• Schedule C (Form 1040): for crypto mining or other crypto business income, along with self-employment tax.
• Forms 1099-DA and 1099-MISC: sent to you by exchanges. You don’t file them, but your return should match them.

Best crypto tax software

Good crypto tax software imports your transactions, calculates gains wallet by wallet and creates the forms you need. Most let you import and preview for free before you pay.

Software	Best for	Why we like it
Koinly Our top pick	Most investors, DeFi and NFTs	Hundreds of integrations, free import and preview, Form 8949 and TurboTax export	Try Koinly
CoinLedger	US beginners	Simple setup, TurboTax and TaxAct export, tax-loss harvesting tools	Try CoinLedger
CoinTracker	Coinbase users	Polished portfolio tracker with tight Coinbase and TurboTax integrations	Try CoinTracker
TokenTax	Complex returns	Software plus CPA-prepared returns for high-volume traders	Try TokenTax

See the full comparison in our guide to the best crypto tax software, or read our in-depth Koinly review.

Legal ways to lower your crypto taxes

Hold for more than a year

Long-term gains are taxed at 0%, 15% or 20% instead of up to 37%. Waiting even a few extra weeks past the one-year mark can cut your tax bill significantly.

Harvest your losses

Selling coins that are down can offset your gains, plus up to $3,000 of other income. As of 2026, the wash-sale rule that applies to stocks hasn’t been extended to crypto, although Congress has considered it, so check the latest rules before you buy back.

Donate appreciated crypto

Giving crypto you’ve held for more than a year to a qualified charity avoids capital gains tax, and if you itemize you can usually deduct its fair market value. Donations over $5,000 need a qualified appraisal.

Use a retirement account

Spot Bitcoin and Ether ETFs can be held in a regular IRA or 401(k) where gains grow tax-deferred, or tax-free in a Roth. Some providers also offer crypto IRAs that hold coins directly.

Don’t sell unless you need to

Tax is due only when you sell, trade or spend. Unrealized gains on crypto you’re holding aren’t taxed.

When to use a crypto tax professional

Software is enough for most investors. Consider a CPA or enrolled agent who knows crypto if you trade heavily, use DeFi, mine as a business, received an IRS letter or have years of unreported activity. Services such as TokenTax combine software with CPA-prepared returns.

What happens if you don’t report crypto?

With Form 1099-DA, the IRS now receives your exchange activity directly, so unreported sales are easy to spot. The IRS has also sent warning letters to crypto holders and used court orders to get records from exchanges. Possible consequences include:

• IRS notices proposing extra tax, often based on proceeds with no cost basis
• Audits and accuracy penalties plus interest on unpaid tax
• In serious cases of deliberate evasion, criminal charges

If you missed crypto on a past return, filing an amended return before the IRS contacts you usually costs far less. Also watch for scammers posing as the IRS; see our guide to crypto scams.

Do states tax crypto?

Most states tax crypto gains and income the same way they tax other income, at your state income tax rate. A handful of states have no state income tax. Check your state’s rules or let your tax software or preparer handle the state return.

The bottom line

Crypto is taxed like property: you owe capital gains tax when you sell, trade or spend it and income tax when you earn it. With Form 1099-DA and wallet-by-wallet tracking now in place, accurate records matter more than ever. The easiest way to get it right is to import everything into crypto tax software, review the results and file on time.

Frequently asked questions

Sources

• IRS: Digital assets
• IRS: Tax year 2026 inflation adjustments (Rev. Proc. 2025-32)
• IRS Revenue Ruling 2023-14 (staking rewards)
• IRS Rev. Proc. 2024-28 (wallet-by-wallet cost basis)
• IRS: About Form 1099-DA