Investing8 min read
Form 1099-DA Explained: What Crypto Brokers Report to the IRS and to You
What Form 1099-DA is, who sends it, which sales and dates it covers, what it leaves out and what to do when it is missing, wrong or differs from your records.
By Christopher CannucciariPublished
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Key takeaways
- Form 1099-DA is an IRS information return, “Digital Asset Proceeds From Broker Transactions”. Certain brokers send it to the IRS and to you after a sale or other disposal of digital assets such as bitcoin.
- Brokers report gross proceeds for transactions on or after 1 January 2025, so the first forms covered tax year 2025 and were due to customers by 17 February 2026. Cost basis is reported only for certain transactions on or after 1 January 2026.
- Coins in your own wallet, transfers between your own wallets and sales on platforms that are not brokers under the rules produce no form.
- The IRS says you must report all digital asset income, gains and losses whether or not you receive a form.
- This is general US information as of October 2026, not tax advice.
What is Form 1099-DA?
Form 1099-DA is an IRS information return that a broker files after a customer sells or otherwise disposes of digital assets. One copy goes to the IRS and a statement goes to you. It works like the statement a stock brokerage sends after you sell shares.
The form is a report, not a bill, and it does not say how much tax you owe. Also, “disposes of” covers more than selling for dollars. The IRS says to expect a form if you used a broker to sell or exchange digital assets for dollars, for another digital asset, or for goods or services. Swapping bitcoin for another coin on a custodial platform can therefore produce a form even though no dollars moved. How Is Bitcoin Taxed in the US? explains why a trade is generally treated as a disposal.
Who counts as a broker?
For this form, a broker is a business that stands ready to carry out sales of digital assets for other people and takes possession of the assets being sold. The IRS digital assets page names custodial trading platforms, certain hosted wallet providers, digital asset kiosks and certain processors of digital asset payments. Bitcoin ATMs covers kiosks from the customer’s side.
The rules come from final regulations known as Treasury Decision 10000. Treasury announced them on 28 June 2024, the Federal Register published them on 9 July 2024 and they took effect on 9 September 2024. They build on a 2021 law, the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, which extended the tax-law definition of broker to digital assets. Treasury described them as primarily addressing custodial brokers. Generally only US brokers must file, and the IRS says transactions through foreign brokers may not produce a form but must still be reported.
What does the form report, and from when?
The form reports gross proceeds first and cost basis later. The IRS says brokers must report gross proceeds for transactions on or after 1 January 2025, and basis for certain transactions on or after 1 January 2026.
| Sales made in | Forms reach you | What the broker must report |
|---|---|---|
| 2025 | By 17 February 2026 | Gross proceeds. Basis is not required. |
| 2026 | Early 2027 (check the IRS for the date) | Gross proceeds, plus basis for covered assets. |
Gross proceeds are what the sale brought in before you subtract what you paid. Basis is, in general terms, what you paid. Basis reporting is limited to “covered” assets: the instructions define a covered security as a digital asset acquired after 2025 and held in a custodial account until it is sold. Coins acquired earlier are noncovered, and a broker may report their basis voluntarily but does not have to.
That is why the IRS said most statements for 2025 would not include basis, and that you must calculate it yourself before you file. The instructions also set de minimis rules for some stablecoin and NFT sales.
What does a Form 1099-DA leave out?
It leaves out whatever the reporting broker did not see or is not required to report.
- Coins you hold and have not sold. A balance in your own wallet produces no form.
- Transfers between your own wallets. The IRS says moving digital assets between wallets or accounts you own is generally not taxable, except to the extent you use digital assets to pay transaction costs. How to Send and Receive Bitcoin Safely covers the mechanics.
- Sales through decentralized or non-custodial brokers. The IRS says the final regulations exclude brokers commonly known by those names that do not take possession of the assets being sold.
- Sales through foreign brokers, which may not produce a form.
- Rewards and staking payments, which the instructions say not to report on this form.
None of this means the activity is untaxed. A missing form says only that no broker reported it.
What happened to the decentralized finance broker rule?
Congress cancelled it. In late December 2024 Treasury and the IRS issued final regulations for what the press release called trading front-end service providers, or “DeFi brokers”, published in the Federal Register on 30 December 2024.
Congress then disapproved that rule under the Congressional Review Act. The resolution, H.J.Res. 25, became Public Law 119-5 when it was signed on 10 April 2025, and it says the rule has no force or effect. The IRS removed the rule from the Code of Federal Regulations on 11 July 2025. The July 2024 rules for custodial brokers were not part of that resolution, which is why platforms still send forms.
Do you still have to report if you get no form?
Yes. The IRS says you must report all income, gains and losses from digital asset transactions on your federal return whether or not you receive a form, and regardless of the amount.
The return also asks. The digital asset question on Form 1040 asks whether, at any time during the year, you received digital assets as a reward, award or payment for property or services, or sold, exchanged or otherwise disposed of one. All taxpayers answer it. The IRS says to answer no if you only held digital assets, bought them with real currency or moved them between wallets you control, with an exception when you paid a fee in digital assets.
Gains and losses on capital assets are generally figured on Form 8949 and carried to Schedule D. Form 8949 has separate boxes for digital asset transactions, chosen by whether you received a Form 1099-DA and whether the broker reported basis to the IRS. In some simple cases, where the form shows basis and nothing needs adjusting, the instructions let you skip Form 8949.
How does a form amount relate to your gain?
The form gives you the sale side, and your records give you the purchase side. Here is an invented example with round numbers.
Dana bought 0.1 bitcoin in 2023 for $4,000 in total, fees included, and sold it in 2025 on a custodial platform for $6,000.
| Figure | Where it comes from | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| Gross proceeds | Form 1099-DA | $6,000 |
| Basis | Dana’s purchase records, because the coin was bought before 2026 | $4,000 |
| Gain to account for | $6,000 minus $4,000 | $2,000 |
If Dana relied on the form alone, there would be no basis to subtract, and the gain would look like the full $6,000. A coin bought on that platform after 1 January 2026 and sold there later is different, because the form may then show both numbers. This is arithmetic, not a tax calculation.
What if the form is missing, wrong or different from your records?
Your own records decide the numbers, so match each line on the form to a purchase or transfer you can document.
If the form is missing, you still report. Check the platform’s tax documents or support pages and ask the broker. A form may not exist if the platform is not a broker under the rules or is a foreign broker.
If the form is wrong, the IRS says to ask the filer named in the top left of the form for a corrected one and to keep your correspondence. It says it cannot correct the form for you. If you received a form in error, contact the filer and keep a copy, but do not wait to file. For 2025 sales the IRS also said it would not penalize brokers that made a good-faith effort to file and furnish forms correctly, which is one more reason to check each form.
If the form differs from your records, common causes are basis left blank, trades between coins that you did not think of as sales and coins that arrived from another platform, whose history the receiving platform may not know. A qualified tax professional, such as a CPA or enrolled agent, can reconcile the difference for your situation.
Where do you check for updates?
The facts above come from IRS and Treasury pages read on 16 October 2026, including the IRS pages “About Form 1099-DA”, “Understanding your Form 1099-DA” and “Digital assets” (last reviewed 2 September 2026) and the 2026 Instructions for Form 1099-DA. The IRS home page is https://www.irs.gov/, and searching it for those titles finds the current versions. Forms, instructions and penalty relief notices change, so read the instructions for the year you are filing.
The Bitcoin statistics page has a timeline of US reporting milestones. New here? The Start Here path lists the core guides. Selling is covered in How to Sell Bitcoin, and the wider legal picture in Is Bitcoin Regulated in the US?.
Where to go next
- How Is Bitcoin Taxed in the US? A General Guide: property treatment, taxable events, cost basis and records.
- How to Sell Bitcoin: Your Options, the Costs and What to Watch For: the sale that triggers the form.
- Is Bitcoin Regulated in the US? A Plain-English Overview: who regulates what, and why exchanges collect your details.
- Bitcoin Statistics 2026: Verified Data on Adoption, Security, Mining and Regulation: sourced figures, including US tax and reporting milestones.
Frequently asked questions
What is Form 1099-DA?
Form 1099-DA, Digital Asset Proceeds From Broker Transactions, is an IRS information return. Certain brokers send it to the IRS and to the customer to report sales and other dispositions of digital assets such as bitcoin. It reports what a sale brought in. It does not say how much tax you owe.
Who has to file Form 1099-DA?
Brokers that take possession of the digital assets they sell for customers, such as custodial trading platforms, certain hosted wallet providers, digital asset kiosks and certain payment processors. The IRS says the final regulations exclude decentralized or non-custodial brokers that do not take possession of the assets, and that transactions through foreign brokers may not produce a form.
Do I have to report crypto if I don't get a Form 1099-DA?
Yes. The IRS says you must report all income, gains and losses from digital asset transactions on your federal return whether or not you receive a form, regardless of the amount. The form is one broker's report. Your own records decide the numbers on your return.
Does Form 1099-DA show my cost basis?
Not always. Brokers must report gross proceeds for transactions on or after 1 January 2025 and basis for certain transactions on or after 1 January 2026, mainly assets acquired after 2025 and held with that broker. The IRS said most statements for 2025 would not include basis, so keep your own purchase records.
What should I do if my Form 1099-DA is wrong?
The IRS says to ask the filer named on the form for a corrected form and to keep copies of the correspondence. It says it cannot correct the form for you. If the numbers still do not match your own records, a qualified tax professional can help you sort out the difference.
