Form 1099-DA is the first IRS form built only for crypto and other digital assets. Brokers sent the first batch in early 2026, covering sales made in 2025, and the forms for 2026 sales will add the cost of some coins. This guide covers what brokers report and when, what each box means, what never shows up on the form, and how to carry the numbers onto Form 8949 when they disagree with your records. For the wider picture of how crypto is taxed, start at the crypto hub.
What is Form 1099-DA?
Form 1099-DA, Digital Asset Proceeds From Broker Transactions, is the information return a broker files for each crypto sale or exchange it carries out for you.
One copy goes to the IRS and one to you, so the agency can compare what the broker saw with what you report. The form exists because the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2021 brought digital assets into the broker reporting rules of section 6045 of the tax code, and Treasury's final regulations, published on July 9, 2024, filled in the details. The 2025 tax year was the first with a Form 1099-DA.
The filers are businesses that take possession of the coins they sell for you: custodial trading platforms, certain hosted wallet providers, crypto kiosk operators and some payment processors. For closings from January 1, 2026, real estate professionals treated as brokers also report crypto paid by a buyer. The instructions exclude businesses that only validate transactions, such as miners and stakers, and companies that only supply wallet hardware or software.
What do brokers report for 2025 and 2026 sales?
Reporting phases in by sale date: Gross proceeds for sales from January 1, 2025; cost basis for covered assets bought from January 1, 2026 in a custodial account.
| Sale date | Gross proceeds | Cost basis and date acquired | Backup withholding |
|---|---|---|---|
| During 2025 | Required | Optional, with penalty relief for brokers acting in good faith | None |
| During 2026 | Required | Required for covered coins, optional for the rest | None |
| 2027 onward | Required | Same as 2026 | Can apply at 24% if the broker lacks a certified taxpayer ID |
Notice 2024-56 spared brokers penalties on 2025 forms filed in good faith and waived backup withholding on 2025 sales, and Notice 2025-33 extended that waiver to every 2026 sale. Because basis was optional for 2025, a form for that year may show the proceeds with the basis box empty, and you supply the cost yourself.
2026 is the first year in which basis must be reported, and only for covered coins, defined below. Because a coin bought in 2026 and sold in 2026 has been held for a year or less, every covered sale on a 2026 form is short-term. Brokers must furnish your copy by February 15 of the year after the sale, moved to the next business day when that date falls on a weekend or a legal holiday.
One sale can produce several forms. In an IRS example, a customer who bought the same coin in April 2022, April 2026 and August 2026 and sold it all in June 2027 gets three: one for the covered long-term April 2026 units, one for the covered short-term August 2026 units and one for the noncovered 2022 units.
Which coins are covered and which are noncovered?
A coin is covered only if you acquired it in a custodial account on or after January 1, 2026 and kept it there until the broker sold it.
Everything else is noncovered, including any coin bought before 2026 and any coin moved into the account from another platform or a wallet you control, whenever you first bought it. A broker may still report basis for a noncovered coin, checking box 9, and faces no penalty if those voluntary figures are wrong. If it leaves box 9 unchecked, the sale is treated, and penalized for errors, as if the coin were covered.
Transfers are where gaps open up. When coins arrive from outside, the broker records the number of units and the date they came in, in boxes 12a and 12b. It may use dates and prices you supply to decide which lot was sold, but the instructions say that customer-provided information can be used only for choosing lots, not for reporting your basis or acquisition date. A broker that ignores your information treats transferred coins as acquired at the moment they arrived.
Once coins move between platforms, your own records are the only complete history of their cost. Crypto cost basis methods explains how to keep them wallet by wallet and choose which units count as sold.
What does each box on Form 1099-DA mean?
Most boxes describe a single sale: which asset, how many units, when it was bought and sold, and what it brought in.
| Box | What it shows | What to check |
|---|---|---|
| 1a, 1b | The token's Digital Token Identifier Foundation code, or 999999999 if unregistered, and its name | The asset is the one you sold |
| 1c | Units sold, to 18 decimal places | Matches your records, fractions included |
| 1d | Date acquired | Blank if bought on several dates or for many noncovered coins |
| 1e | Date sold or disposed of | Sets short-term or long-term together with 1d |
| 1f | Proceeds, already reduced by transaction fees | Goes in column (d) of Form 8949 as printed |
| 1g | Cost or other basis | Compare with your own lot records |
| 2 | Checked if basis was reported to the IRS | Decides which Form 8949 box you use |
| 4 | Federal income tax withheld | Backup withholding, claimed as tax withheld on your return |
| 6 | Short-term, long-term or ordinary | A wrong type needs code T on Form 8949 |
| 9 | Noncovered security | Any basis shown was voluntary |
| 11a to 11c | Optional aggregate reporting for stablecoins or NFTs | Totals for the year, not single trades |
| 12a, 12b | Units transferred into the account and the transfer date | Coins whose cost the broker may not know |
Boxes 1h and 1i, for accrued market discount and wash-sale losses, apply only to digital assets that are also debt instruments or tokenized securities, so for ordinary coins they should be blank. A separate box gives a one-letter hint for Form 8949: G, H, J or K, or Y when the broker does not know how long you held the coin. With Y, you choose box H or K yourself, based on your own purchase dates.
Which crypto transactions are left off Form 1099-DA?
Several kinds of activity never reach the form, but the tax on them still applies.
| Activity | Reporting on Form 1099-DA |
|---|---|
| Qualifying stablecoin sales, optional method | None if a customer's total is $10,000 or less for the year at that broker; above that, one aggregate form per stablecoin |
| Specified NFT sales, optional method | None if the year's total is $600 or less; above that, one aggregate form |
| Payments made through a crypto payment processor | None if they total $600 or less for the year |
| Staking rewards and other rewards | Never reported on this form |
| Wrapping and unwrapping, liquidity pools, staking, lending, short sales, notional principal contracts | Not required until further IRS guidance, under Notice 2024-57 |
| Trades from a wallet you control, including on decentralized platforms | Generally no form |
The stablecoin and NFT thresholds are counted after fees, broker by broker and year by year. Skipping a form changes nothing about the tax: a stablecoin sold half a cent above its cost is still a sale to report. Rewards earned through staking or lending fall outside Notice 2024-57's reporting exception, and a platform may report them on Form 1099-MISC instead. Is staking income taxable? covers when that income counts.
A December 2024 rule would have treated many decentralized trading front ends as brokers, but Congress overturned it under the Congressional Review Act. The House voted 292 to 132 on March 11, 2025, the Senate 70 to 28 on March 26, and the resolution became Public Law 119-5 on April 10, 2025. Trades from your own wallet still go on your return, with no form to start from; what is DeFi? explains how those platforms work.
How do you match Form 1099-DA to Form 8949?
Each sale goes on Form 8949 in the box that matches its holding period and whether the broker reported basis to the IRS.
Since the 2025 tax year, digital assets have six boxes of their own, and the older boxes C and F may no longer be used for them.
| Form 8949 box | Holding period | Use it when |
|---|---|---|
G | Short-term, one year or less | Form 1099-DA shows basis reported to the IRS |
H | Short-term | Form 1099-DA shows no basis, or basis not reported to the IRS |
I | Short-term | No Form 1099-DA, for example a sale from a self-custody wallet |
J | Long-term, more than one year | Form 1099-DA shows basis reported to the IRS |
K | Long-term | Form 1099-DA shows no basis, or basis not reported to the IRS |
L | Long-term | No Form 1099-DA |
Copy the proceeds from box 1f into column (d) exactly as printed. In boxes H and K your own correct basis goes in column (e); if the form showed a different figure, add code B in column (f) and a zero in column (g). In boxes G and J you enter the broker's basis even when it is wrong and fix it with an adjustment in column (g), worked out on the basis adjustment worksheet in the instructions. Code E covers selling costs the proceeds do not reflect, and code T a form that shows the wrong holding period type. Column (a) should name the asset and the exact number of units, plus the transaction ID if you have one.
If a form shows basis reported to the IRS, the Ordinary box is not checked and nothing needs adjusting, you may skip Form 8949 for those sales and enter the totals on Schedule D, line 1a for short-term or line 8a for long-term.
Worked example: Fixing a 2026 form that reported the wrong lot
You hold two units of the same coin in one broker account. Unit A cost $3,000 on March 3, 2026 and unit B cost $4,200 on May 12, 2026, fees included. On October 6, 2026 you sell one unit for $3,950 after fees. Before the sale you recorded in your own spreadsheet that you were selling unit B, as the IRS relief for 2026 allows, but the broker had no instruction and reported the earliest unit.
- The form shows $3,950 in box 1f, $3,000 in box 1g, box 2 checked and a short-term sale, which implies a $950 gain.
- Your own figures: $3,950 − $4,200 = a $250 loss.
- Form 8949, short-term section, box
G: column (d) $3,950, column (e) $3,000 as reported, code B in column (f). - Worksheet: line 1 is the reported $3,000 and line 2 your correct $4,200. Line 2 is larger, so the $1,200 difference goes in column (g) as a negative adjustment, ($1,200).
- Column (h): $3,950 − $3,000 − $1,200 = −$250.
Filing the form as printed would have added $1,200 to your taxable income, about $264 of federal tax at a 22% rate. The broker now believes you still hold unit B, so the form for your last unit will show a $4,200 basis and you will adjust the other way. The spreadsheet entry dated before the sale is your evidence.
What should you do if your Form 1099-DA is wrong?
Ask the broker for a corrected form, and if one will not arrive in time, file with the right numbers and keep the proof.
Compare every form with your own records
Match units, dates, proceeds and basis line by line against your transaction history, fees included.
Ask the broker to fix real errors
Brokers can file corrected forms. Send the trade confirmations or transfer records that show the problem.
Report the correct figures
Keep column (d) as printed and correct the basis or holding period type with codes B, E or T.
Keep the evidence
Save purchase records, wallet addresses, transfer histories and any lot choices you wrote down before a sale. The IRS expects records good enough to support every position on your return.
Amend if a corrected form changes the result
If a corrected form arrives after you file and changes your tax, file Form 1040-X.
A transfer between two wallets or accounts you own is not a taxable event, and the IRS says that holds even if a platform issues an information return because of the transfer. If a form treats such a move as a sale, ask for a correction and keep the records from both ends. When a return and its forms do not match, the IRS may send a CP2000 notice proposing more tax, which you can answer with those records.
What are the risks of relying on Form 1099-DA alone?
The form can be incomplete or simply wrong, and filing straight from it can mean paying tax on gains you never made.
- Blank basis. For noncovered coins the IRS receives your proceeds but not your cost, so a missing or zero basis on your return makes the whole sale price look like profit.
- Two versions of the same sale. Under IRS relief, through December 31, 2026, you can identify the units you sell from a broker account, or record a standing order, in your own books and records rather than with the broker. Starting in 2027 the broker must have that instruction no later than the sale itself, or its default order applies.
- No form is not no tax. De minimis skips, the Notice 2024-57 exceptions and sales from your own wallet all leave gaps that only your records fill.
- Prices move after the sale. The tax is fixed by the price on the day you sold. If you keep the proceeds in crypto, which is volatile and can lose most or all of its value, the bill stays the same even if prices fall before you file.
- Changing rules. Digital asset reporting has been revised every year since 2024, and bills in Congress would change it again.
Broker reporting is still phasing in and the rules could shift again, so read the form instructions for your filing year and bring in a tax professional when your forms and records disagree. Crypto tax-loss harvesting explains how to use the losses your forms reveal, and our primer on crypto capital gains covers the tax itself. If you are cashing out, how to sell crypto and withdraw walks through the steps, while gifts and donations follow the separate crypto gift and donation tax rules.