Form 1099-DA explained: what crypto brokers report to IRS

For years, crypto investors in the US worked out their gains and losses largely on their own, while stock investors received a Form 1099-B from their broker. That has changed. Form 1099-DA, “Digital Asset Proceeds From Broker Transactions”, now brings crypto into the same kind of broker reporting, with rules phased in from 2025.

This guide explains who sends it, what it contains, what it leaves out and how to use it on your return.

Where it comes from

The form follows changes to Internal Revenue Code section 6045 made by the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, signed in late 2021. Treasury and the IRS then issued final regulations on reporting by brokers of digital asset sales and exchanges.

Who sends it

According to the IRS, the final regulations apply to brokers that take possession of the digital assets being sold by their customers, including:

Operators of custodial trading platforms (most centralized exchanges).
Certain hosted wallet providers.
Digital asset kiosks (crypto ATMs).
Certain processors of digital asset payments.

The IRS also notes that the final regulations don’t include reporting requirements for decentralized or non-custodial brokers, which don’t take possession of the assets. If you trade on a decentralized exchange or from your own wallet, you’re unlikely to receive a 1099-DA for those trades. See CEX vs DEX.

What it shows, year by year

The rules phase in over time:

Transactions in	What the broker reports
2025 (forms issued in early 2026)	Gross proceeds of your sales and exchanges
2026 onwards	Gross proceeds for all digital assets, plus cost basis for “covered securities”

A covered security, for this purpose, is a digital asset acquired after 2025 in an account where the broker provided custody, and held in that account until the broker sold it. If you bought crypto before 2026, or moved it in from another wallet or exchange, the broker generally isn’t required to report its basis, although it may do so voluntarily.

In practice, that means many 1099-DAs will show what you received from a sale but not what you paid. Your own records fill the gap.

The thresholds: stablecoins, NFTs and payments

Brokers don’t have to report some small or routine transactions. The IRS instructions set out these de minimis rules:

Qualifying stablecoins: if the broker uses the optional aggregate method, it doesn’t have to report designated sales of qualifying stablecoins unless your total gross proceeds from them exceed $10,000 for the year. A qualifying stablecoin is one designed to track a single government currency one to one, with an effective stabilization mechanism, and generally accepted as payment by people other than the issuer.
Specified NFTs: under the optional method, sales don’t have to be reported unless your total gross proceeds from them exceed $600 for the year.
Payment processor sales: a processor of digital asset payments doesn’t have to report your payment sales if they’re $600 or less for the year.

Not being reported doesn’t mean not taxable. The IRS FAQs give the example of stablecoins exchanged for other digital assets: if you held them as capital assets, you recognize the gain or loss even if your broker doesn’t report the transactions to you.

The boxes that matter most

The IRS instructions for brokers describe what goes in each box. The ones you’ll use most:

Box	What it shows
1a, 1b	A code for the digital asset and its name
1c	The number of units sold
1d	The date acquired, which may be blank for older holdings
1e	The date sold or disposed of
1f	The proceeds, what you received
1g	The cost or other basis, which may be blank. The IRS tells brokers to enter zero only if the basis really was zero, so a blank box doesn’t mean your cost was nothing
2	Ticked if the basis was reported to the IRS
4	Any federal income tax withheld, for example backup withholding
9	Ticked if the asset is a noncovered security, in which case the broker doesn’t have to report the acquisition date or basis

Two other points from the instructions: staking rewards and other reward payments aren’t reported on Form 1099-DA, and brokers don’t have to issue the form for certain exempt recipients, such as IRAs and charities.

An illustration

These figures are made up. Your 1099-DA shows a sale in January 2026 with $5,000 in box 1f, box 1g blank, box 9 ticked and code H (short-term, basis not reported). Your records show you bought the coins in March 2025 for $3,000, plus $30 in fees. On Form 8949 you report proceeds of $5,000 and basis of $3,030, a gain of $1,970. If you left the basis out, the numbers on your return wouldn’t reflect what you actually paid.

Reading the form: the Form 8949 codes

Each 1099-DA includes a one-letter code to help you put the transaction in the right place on Form 8949:

Code	Meaning
G	Short-term, cost basis reported to the IRS
H	Short-term, cost basis not reported to the IRS
J	Long-term, cost basis reported to the IRS
K	Long-term, cost basis not reported to the IRS
Y	Holding period unknown to the broker

Short-term means you held the asset one year or less; long-term means more than one year. When basis isn’t reported, you enter it yourself from your records. See US crypto tax for rates and how gains are calculated.

What you still have to do

The 1099-DA helps, but it doesn’t do your taxes for you:

Report everything. The IRS says you must report digital asset transactions whether or not they result in a taxable gain or loss, with or without a form.
Add trades the form doesn’t cover: decentralized exchanges, wallet-to-wallet swaps, small stablecoin or NFT sales below the thresholds, and platforms outside the US.
Supply your basis where the form doesn’t show it.
Report income separately. Staking, mining and similar income go on Schedule 1, not Form 8949. See staking taxes.
Answer the digital asset question on Form 1040.

Basis now follows the wallet

The IRS FAQs explain that before 2025, some people identified the units they sold across all their wallets and accounts together, a “universal” or “multi-wallet” approach. With the new regulations, basis is tracked wallet by wallet or account by account. Revenue Procedure 2024-28 offers a safe harbor for allocating unused basis to each wallet or account, based on your records, as of 1 January 2025. If you’ve moved crypto between several wallets and exchanges, your records matter more than ever.

Your broker may ask for your tax ID

Brokers need your taxpayer identification number to file the form, usually through Form W-9. If they don’t get it, they may eventually have to apply backup withholding. The IRS has given brokers transition relief from backup withholding for transactions in 2025 and 2026, but it’s simplest to give your exchange accurate details when asked.

Beware of fake IRS crypto letters

With the new form in the news, scammers are sending letters that claim to be from the IRS, with a QR code, asking you to register your cryptocurrency on a “Digital Assets Compliance Portal”. The IRS says this is a scam: it doesn’t require registration of digital assets and isn’t sending those letters. See fake crypto apps and phishing.

Checklist for tax season

Download every 1099-DA and the transaction history from each exchange.
Match each sale to its purchase and note the cost, including fees.
List trades with no form: DEXs, wallets, foreign platforms.
Check the codes (G, H, J, K, Y) and put each sale in the right part of Form 8949.
Keep everything: the IRS expects records that support your figures.

Form 1099-DA explained: what crypto brokers now report to the IRS, and what you still have to do

Key points