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Short answer: Form 1099-DA ("Digital Asset Proceeds From Broker Transactions") is the IRS form your US crypto broker now uses to report your sales and swaps to both you and the IRS. For the 2025 tax year (forms arriving early 2026), it reports gross proceeds only — not your cost basis, not your gain. That single detail is the source of almost every confusion about the form, and this guide works through it with numbers.
Last updated: 24 October 2026. Covers the 2025 tax year (returns filed in 2026) unless stated otherwise.
What Form 1099-DA actually is
For years, US crypto exchanges reported to the IRS in a patchwork — a 1099-MISC here, a 1099-K there, nothing anywhere else. Congress fixed that in the 2021 infrastructure bill, and the IRS finalised the rules in Treasury Decision 10000 (July 2024): digital asset brokers must report customer transactions on one dedicated form, Form 1099-DA, Digital Asset Proceeds From Broker Transactions.
The practical effect is simple: crypto reporting is moving toward parity with stock reporting. Just as your stockbroker sends the IRS a 1099-B for your stock sales, your crypto exchange now sends a 1099-DA for your crypto sales and swaps. A copy goes to you, an identical copy goes to the IRS.
What it reports in 2026 — and the phase-in schedule
The rollout happens in two phases, and which phase you are in changes what is on the form:
| Tax year | Forms issued | What the broker must report |
|---|---|---|
| 2025 | Early 2026 | Gross proceeds only. Cost basis is optional and may be blank. Every asset is treated as "noncovered". |
| 2026 | Early 2027 | Gross proceeds + cost basis — but only for "covered" assets (generally bought on or after 1 January 2026 and held on the same platform). |
So the 1099-DA landing in your inbox in early 2026 will most likely show a number next to "gross proceeds" and nothing next to basis. The IRS gets the same one-sided picture. That is by design — the phase-in gives brokers time to build cost-basis tracking — but it puts the burden squarely on you to work out the other half.
The trap everyone misses: gross proceeds are not your tax bill
This is the misunderstanding that trips up almost everyone, and it is worth stating twice: the proceeds figure on your 1099-DA is not the amount you owe tax on. You owe tax on the gain — proceeds minus what you paid.
Illustrative example. You buy $5,000 of ETH, sell it later for $8,000. Your 1099-DA shows $8,000 of gross proceeds. Your taxable gain is $8,000 − $5,000 = $3,000 — and the IRS only finds out about the $5,000 you paid if you put it on your return. If you leave the form's numbers un-reconciled, the IRS has no basis figure to work with, and a tax professional quoted by IndexBox puts it bluntly: forget to include the 1099-DA on your return and the IRS effectively assumes zero basis, then sends a notice.
The safe way to think about the 2025 form: it is the IRS's starting point for matching, not a summary of your tax. Reconciling it on Form 8949 is your job this year.
Worked example: your 1099-DA on Form 8949
Each sale on your 1099-DA typically becomes one row on Form 8949. The mapping:
- Proceeds (Box 1f on the 1099-DA) → Form 8949 column (d)
- Cost basis (Box 1g — often blank for 2025) → column (e), filled in by you from your own records
- Date acquired (Box 1d) and date sold (Box 1e) → columns (b) and (c); the gap between them decides short-term vs long-term treatment (Part I vs Part II of the form)
Illustrative example. You sold 0.5 BTC on 14 March 2025 for $41,000 (Box 1f). You bought that BTC on 2 June 2023 for $13,000 (your records, not on the form). On Form 8949: date acquired 06/02/2023, date sold 03/14/2025, proceeds $41,000, basis $13,000, gain $28,000 long-term. Because you held more than a year, that gain is taxed at long-term capital gains rates (0%, 15% or 20% depending on income) rather than ordinary income rates.
If a reported basis is wrong — common when you moved coins onto an exchange from another wallet — do not just accept it. Enter the exchange's figure, then use the adjustment codes on Form 8949 to correct to your real basis. The IRS instructions for the form describe the codes; using them is routine and expected.
Who sends you one (and who does not)
Receives a 1099-DA: anyone who sold, exchanged or otherwise disposed of digital assets through a custodial broker — centralized US exchanges like Coinbase, Kraken and Gemini, hosted-wallet providers, crypto kiosk operators, and payment processors that convert crypto for merchants. Traded on three exchanges? You get three forms (one statement per account, each possibly listing many transactions).
Does not send you one (for now):
- Self-custody activity. Trades from your own wallet, peer-to-peer transfers, and most DeFi protocol activity are excluded from the final regulations. Treasury and the IRS say rules for decentralized and non-custodial brokers will come in a separate set of regulations — so do not read "no form" as "no tax." You still report those transactions.
- Staking rewards and lending income. Temporarily excluded from 1099-DA reporting under IRS Notice 2024-57, but still taxable — and staking payouts over $600 often still arrive on a 1099-MISC instead. More on that below.
- Small stablecoin sales. Brokers may report qualifying stablecoin sales in aggregate rather than transaction-by-transaction under de minimis thresholds.
- No minimum. Unlike some 1099s, there is no de minimis exception for ordinary crypto sales — a $50 swap on an exchange is reportable.
There is also good-faith penalty relief for brokers on 2025 transactions (IRS Notice 2024-56): brokers are not penalised for errors while they make a genuine effort to comply. That is aimed at the exchanges, not at you — your reporting obligations are unchanged.
1099-DA vs 1099-MISC vs 1099-NEC: do not mix them up
Crypto investors routinely confuse the forms. The split is actually clean:
| Form | Reports | Example |
|---|---|---|
| 1099-DA | Proceeds from the sale or exchange of digital assets | You sold ETH for dollars, or swapped ETH for SOL |
| 1099-MISC | Income you earned | Staking rewards, referral bonuses, learn-and-earn payouts (over $600) |
| 1099-NEC | Compensation for work | You were paid in crypto as a freelancer |
A busy 2025 can easily produce all three: staking rewards on a 1099-MISC, a freelance payment on a 1099-NEC, and your trades on a 1099-DA. Each needs to end up on your return — sales and swaps on Form 8949 (then Schedule D), income on Schedule 1 / Schedule C as appropriate.
What to do when your 1099-DA arrives: 5 steps
1. Do not panic at the proceeds number. It is gross, not gain. Big proceeds with small gains are normal — especially for active traders. (If you only recently started reporting crypto, our Crypto Taxes for Beginners walks through the full picture.)
2. Check it matches your records. Every disposal should be there — sales and swaps. The IRS treats exchanging one crypto for another as selling the first, so a year of token swaps produces real 1099-DA volume. Details on why swaps count as disposals are in our guide to crypto-to-crypto swap tax (written for UK rules, but the mechanics of a swap-as-disposal are the same).
3. Fill in the missing basis yourself. Gather purchase records, fees and network gas costs for every sale — acquisition costs reduce the gain, so this step is where you save money. If you transferred coins in from another platform, the broker may show a wrong or blank basis; your records win.
4. Report every form on Form 8949. The IRS has the same 1099-DA copies you do and runs matching programs. Omitting one is the fastest route to a notice.
5. Keep the records. Download your full transaction history from each exchange now — CSVs, statements, the 1099-DA itself. Exchanges close accounts, delist, and change reporting tools. The IRS can question a return years later, and "the exchange deleted it" is not a defence.
"I only moved crypto off the exchange — why does my 1099-DA show disposals?"
This is one of the most-asked real questions of the first 1099-DA filing season. The short version: moving crypto to your own wallet is not a sale. Transfers between wallets you own are not disposals and create no gain or loss.
But people saw transfer-looking activity on their forms anyway, for two honest reasons. First, the network or gas fee on a withdrawal can be recorded by the broker as a small disposal — a $3 fee paid in the same coin shows up as a $3 sale. That fee is a tiny capital disposition, technically reportable, but it is not your whole withdrawal being taxed. Second, forms arrive with exchange-specific labels, and a clumsy line description can make a simple transfer look like a sale.
The fix: match each 1099-DA line against your actual activity. Transfers with no proceeds (you did not receive dollars or another asset) do not belong as gains on Form 8949. If the form genuinely lists a disposal you did not make, correct it on Form 8949 with an adjustment code — and keep your withdrawal receipts, because that is exactly what the IRS will ask for if its matching program flags the line.
Do you enter the 1099-DA in your tax software AND file Form 8949?
The other question the big guides skip: your exchange sends a 1099-DA, your crypto tax software generates a consolidated 1099-B — do you report both? This double-reporting trap comes up constantly on Reddit.
The safe rule, echoed by crypto tax CPAs during the 2026 filing season: report every form the IRS received. The IRS matching system (the automated CP2000 notices people fear) compares what was filed about you against what you reported. If the exchange filed a 1099-DA and the software company filed a 1099-B for the same activity, omitting either one creates the mismatch you are afraid of.
In practice that means: enter both forms into your tax software, but make sure the underlying transactions are not double-counted — each sale should appear once in your Form 8949 totals. The forms are informational, not your tax return: they tell you what the IRS knows, and your 8949 is where you reconcile them into one correct set of gains and losses. Reporting the same economic sale twice is the error to avoid, not reporting two forms.
What can go wrong
Honest risks, stated plainly. A 2025 1099-DA with blank basis gives the IRS a one-sided view of your year — reconcile it wrong and the notice comes later, not sooner. Minor mismatches between what brokers reported and what you filed can trigger an automated CP2000 "please explain" notice; tax professionals say responding is straightforward, but it is paperwork you would rather skip. Transferred-in assets are the most common source of wrong-basis surprises, so keep your transfer receipts. The good-faith penalty relief protects brokers this year, not taxpayers, and it expires. And the stablecoin aggregate-reporting thresholds mean small, frequent stablecoin moves may show up differently than you expect — track them anyway.
FAQ
I only swapped crypto for crypto. Do I get a 1099-DA?
Yes — crypto-to-crypto swaps are reportable sales. The broker reports the dollar value of what you gave up as gross proceeds. You still owe capital gains tax on any profit in the swap, computed with your own cost basis.
My cost basis shows $0 or "NA". Do I report it as $0?
No — a blank or $0 basis on the form means the broker did not report a basis, not that your basis is zero. Entering $0 when you actually paid for the coins means you would be taxed on the full proceeds as if the coins were free. Reconstruct your basis from your purchase records and fees, and report that. Only report a zero basis if the coins genuinely cost you nothing (and even then, document it).
How do I get my 1099-DA if I closed my exchange account?
Contact the exchange's support — brokers must furnish payee statements for transactions they effected, and they generally keep tax documents available after account closure (check your email for the original statement delivery). If the exchange is uncooperative, you still report the transactions from your own records; your reporting obligation does not depend on receiving the form.
Do I file the 1099-DA itself in my return?
You do not staple the form to your return. You report the transactions — on Form 8949 and Schedule D — which is where the proceeds, basis and gains end up. Entering the form into your tax software is how the software gets those numbers onto the 8949 for you.
I did not receive a 1099-DA. Do I still report?
Yes. No form does not mean no tax — self-custody trades, DeFi activity and many foreign-platform transactions are not covered by broker reporting yet, but they are still taxable and still reportable by you.
Sources
- IRS — Final regulations and guidance for reporting by brokers on sales and exchanges of digital assets
- IRS — Frequently asked questions about broker reporting (incl. digital asset kiosks)
- IRS — Draft tax forms: Form 1099-DA, Digital Asset Proceeds From Broker Transactions
Disclaimer: this is educational content about US tax reporting, not financial or tax advice. IRS rules and forms change; the phase-in dates above reflect current final regulations and guidance. For your own position, consult the IRS directly or a qualified tax professional.
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