Form 1099-DA: What Crypto Investors Need to Know in 2026

What is Form 1099-DA?

Form 1099-DA ("Digital Asset Proceeds From Broker Transactions") is the IRS information return that digital asset brokers use to report sales and exchanges of cryptocurrency to the IRS and to taxpayers.¹ It works like Form 1099-B for stock sales: the broker reports what you sold, when, and for how much — and the IRS receives a copy.

The form was created under Treasury Decision 10000 (June 2024), which finalized broker reporting rules under Section 6045 of the tax code as amended by the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2021.² The 2025 tax year is the first year covered. Brokers were required to send 1099-DAs to recipients by February 17, 2026, and to the IRS by March 31, 2026.

If you sold cryptocurrency on a centralized exchange in 2025, you should have received a Form 1099-DA. If you did not, and you had taxable activity on a covered platform, the issue may be a delivery problem — not an exemption.

Which brokers send Form 1099-DA?

Only custodial brokers are required to file Form 1099-DA. A custodial broker holds your digital assets on your behalf and gives you access through an account interface. In practice this means centralized exchanges.

Covered — must send Form 1099-DA:

• Centralized cryptocurrency exchanges (Coinbase, Kraken, Gemini, Binance.US, Robinhood, PayPal, Revolut)
• Digital asset payment processors that provide off-ramps to fiat currency
• Any platform that "effects" sales of digital assets on your behalf and has custody of those assets

Not covered — no 1099-DA requirement:

• Decentralized exchanges (DEXes): Uniswap, Jupiter, Raydium, dYdX, and similar protocols were originally subject to a DeFi broker rule finalized in December 2024. Congress repealed that rule, and President Trump signed the repeal into law on April 10, 2025. DeFi protocols are no longer subject to 1099-DA reporting.³
• Self-custody wallets: MetaMask, Ledger, Trezor, Phantom, and similar non-custodial wallets are exempt. You hold your keys; there is no broker to report.
• Mining pool payouts and staking validators: Mining and staking rewards paid directly to your wallet without a custodial intermediary are not covered by 1099-DA.

What's on the form: box by box

The 2026 version of Form 1099-DA (covering 2025 transactions) has several key fields:⁴

The most important thing to understand about 2025 Form 1099-DAs: Box 1e (cost basis) is blank or zero on essentially all of them. The IRS did not require brokers to report cost basis for 2025 transactions — that becomes mandatory for "covered" securities starting with the 2026 tax year. Box 9 (noncovered security) is checked as a result, meaning the IRS knows your gross proceeds but not your gain.

The two-phase rollout: 2025 vs. 2026 tax years

The 1099-DA reporting rules are rolling out in phases:

Phase 1 — 2025 tax year (forms sent early 2026)

• Brokers must report gross proceeds from all disposals
• Cost basis reporting is voluntary — most brokers will not provide it
• Box 9 "noncovered" will be checked on virtually every form
• Transitional penalty relief: IRS will not penalize brokers for good-faith errors during this first year

Phase 2 — 2026 tax year (forms sent early 2027)

• Brokers must report both proceeds and cost basis for "covered" assets
• Covered means: digital assets purchased on that same broker's platform on or after January 1, 2026, and held there continuously through sale
• Crypto acquired before 2026, or transferred in from another platform, remains "noncovered" — the broker does not know the original basis
• The "missing basis" problem will persist for years even as cost basis reporting scales up

The missing basis problem — and why your 1099-DA is probably wrong

Even when 1099-DAs are fully implemented with cost basis reporting, a large share of crypto investors will receive forms with incorrect or missing basis information. Here is why:

Coins transferred from cold storage or another exchange

When you move Bitcoin from a hardware wallet to Coinbase and then sell it, Coinbase has no idea what you paid for that Bitcoin years ago. It will report the gross proceeds from the sale but mark the basis as noncovered (Box 9 checked, Box 1e blank). Your 1099-DA will look like a $0-basis sale unless you provide your original purchase records.

This is not an error — the form is technically correct. But it means your 1099-DA shows a $0 basis on a sale where you may have paid $10,000, $50,000, or $200,000 per Bitcoin. The IRS will match the gross proceeds to your return. If your return does not show the correct basis, you will owe tax on the full proceeds as if the cost was zero.

Assets acquired before January 1, 2026

Even for coins held entirely on one exchange, cost basis reporting is only mandatory for assets acquired after January 1, 2026. Crypto you bought in 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, or 2025 will be "noncovered" on the exchange's records and will not have basis populated on the 1099-DA — regardless of whether the exchange technically has the data.

Multiple wallets and exchanges

Most active crypto investors hold assets across several exchanges and wallets. The 1099-DA from each exchange only reflects activity on that platform. A Coinbase 1099-DA does not know about your Kraken purchases. Your Ledger wallet has no reporting at all. If you consolidate assets from multiple sources before selling, each transfer looks like a new acquisition from the receiving exchange's perspective.

How Form 1099-DA connects to your tax return

Form 1099-DA feeds into the same place as stock 1099-Bs: Form 8949 and Schedule D.

• Form 8949 — Lists each sale or disposal of a capital asset. You report the asset, date acquired, date sold, gross proceeds, cost basis, and the resulting gain or loss. Each 1099-DA transaction appears here.
• Schedule D — Summarizes Form 8949 into net short-term and long-term capital gains or losses, then feeds into Form 1040.

For noncovered transactions (Box 9 checked, no basis on the 1099-DA), you must enter the correct basis yourself on Form 8949 and check column (e) — "proceeds reported, basis not reported" — using code B. Do not leave basis blank or enter $0 unless your actual basis really is zero.

If the gross proceeds on a 1099-DA are wrong (for example, an exchange reported a transfer as a sale), you can adjust the amount on Form 8949 or request a corrected 1099-DA from the broker. Correcting a 1099-DA requires contacting the broker's tax support; the IRS will not adjudicate disputes between you and a broker — the discrepancy in your records is your responsibility to document and explain.

Common Form 1099-DA errors to watch for

• Transfers reported as sales. When you move crypto from one wallet or exchange to another, there is no disposal event — but some exchanges may issue a 1099-DA showing proceeds from a transfer. This creates phantom income if not corrected on Form 8949.
• $0 or missing basis. As discussed above, any asset acquired off-platform or before 2026 will show no basis. You need your own records.
• Wrong FMV on exchange events. Trades of one token for another are taxable at the FMV of what you received at the moment of the trade. If the exchange uses end-of-day prices rather than transaction-time prices, the reported proceeds may be slightly off.
• Staking rewards omitted. Most centralized exchanges do not report staking income on Form 1099-DA — that income appears (if at all) on a separate 1099-MISC or is not reported at all. Staking income you receive through a custodial exchange is still taxable ordinary income under Rev. Rul. 2023-14 regardless of whether you receive a 1099 for it.
• Airdrop income not covered. Airdrops are generally not reported on Form 1099-DA (which covers broker sales, not income distributions). You must report airdrop income yourself as ordinary income in the year received.

What this means for record-keeping

The 1099-DA era does not reduce the record-keeping burden for serious crypto investors — it increases it, because the IRS now receives proceeds data and will match it against your return. If your return shows a $0 basis sale where the 1099-DA shows $500,000 in proceeds, you will get a CP2000 notice proposing additional tax on $500,000 of apparent gain.

Minimum records every crypto investor should maintain:

• Date and price of every purchase (on every exchange and wallet)
• Date and price of every disposal (sale, trade, spend, bridge, or NFT purchase)
• Records of all transfers between wallets and exchanges (to demonstrate that a transfer was not a sale)
• Records of all staking rewards, airdrop income, mining income, and DeFi yield — date received and FMV at receipt
• Specific identification elections: if you are using HIFO or specific lot identification, documentation that the specific lots were identified at or before the time of each sale

Crypto tax software (Koinly, TaxBit, CoinTracker, Coinpanda) can import exchange and wallet history and attempt to compute gain, loss, and income on each event. These tools are a starting point; they are not a substitute for CPA review on a large or complex portfolio.

Planning ahead for 2026 cost basis reporting

Starting with 2026 transactions, covered exchanges will report both proceeds and cost basis for assets you acquire on-platform after January 1, 2026. A few things to know before year-end:

• Default method matters. If you do not elect specific identification before selling, the exchange will typically use FIFO (first in, first out) as the default method for cost basis reporting. For most investors who have held crypto for multiple years, FIFO will produce higher gains than HIFO (highest in, first out) or specific identification. Setting up your preferred cost basis method with each exchange before any 2026 sales is worth doing now.
• Stay-on-one-exchange simplicity. Acquiring and selling crypto on the same platform will produce covered 1099-DA reporting. Moving assets between exchanges or to cold storage creates noncovered status for those lots and requires your own records regardless of when they were acquired.
• DeFi activity remains fully self-reported. The DeFi broker rule repeal means Uniswap, Jupiter, Aave, Compound, and similar protocols will not issue 1099-DAs. Every trade, swap, and LP event on a DEX is still taxable; it just will not be automatically reported to the IRS. Self-reporting remains mandatory and enforcement risk is real.

When to bring in a financial advisor

A fee-only financial advisor who specializes in crypto wealth coordinates the tax-reporting complexity with the broader financial plan. The conversation typically makes sense when:

• You received a 1099-DA with proceeds significantly higher than you expected — which may indicate transfer-reporting errors or missing basis that need reconciliation before filing
• You hold more than $500,000 in crypto across multiple exchanges and wallets, and your basis records are incomplete or inconsistent
• You have unrealized gains you plan to realize in 2026 and want to plan lot selection, bracket management, and harvest opportunities before transacting
• You have DeFi or staking activity that generated $25,000+ in ordinary income that was not reported on a 1099 — and you want to plan estimated tax payments and year-end position before a CP2000 arrives
• A large 2025 gain on your 1099-DA may result in an underpayment penalty, and you want to calculate safe harbor estimated tax for 2026

The gap between a zero-basis 1099-DA and your actual basis is a planning problem, not just a compliance problem. A qualified advisor can coordinate your tax software, CPA, and financial plan so the 1099-DA matching process does not result in overpaid taxes or undocumented positions.

Get matched with a crypto-aware financial advisor

Tell us about your situation — which exchanges you use, the size of your portfolio, any 1099-DA discrepancies you've noticed, and what decisions you're trying to plan. We will match you with a fee-only advisor who understands digital asset reporting, cost basis reconstruction, and multi-year crypto tax planning.

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1. IRS, About Form 1099-DA, Digital Asset Proceeds From Broker Transactions — official IRS form page; includes instructions link, filing deadlines, and scope of the reporting requirement for custodial brokers.
2. IRS, Final regulations and related IRS guidance for reporting by brokers on sales and exchanges of digital assets — Treasury Decision 10000 (June 28, 2024); the regulatory basis for Form 1099-DA; establishes covered broker definition, covered security definition, phase-in timeline (2025 proceeds only; 2026 adds cost basis), and transitional penalty relief.
3. RSM US, Congress nullifies IRS crypto reporting regulations for DeFi platforms — summary of the Congressional Review Act resolution signed April 10, 2025 repealing the DeFi broker rule; confirms DEXes (Uniswap, Jupiter) and self-custody wallets (MetaMask, Ledger) are exempt from Form 1099-DA requirements.
4. IRS, Instructions for Form 1099-DA (2026) — official instructions detailing each box, definitions of covered vs. noncovered securities, broker obligations, and how taxpayers should reconcile the form against Form 8949 and Schedule D.
5. IRS, Frequently asked questions about broker reporting — IRS FAQ on digital asset reporting; clarifies which platforms are covered brokers, addresses transfer vs. sale reporting, and explains taxpayer obligations when basis is not reported.

Form 1099-DA information verified June 2026 against T.D. 10000 (IRS final regulations, June 2024), IRS 2026 form instructions, and IRS broker reporting FAQ. The DeFi broker rule repeal status reflects legislation signed April 10, 2025. Cost basis reporting timeline (covered vs. noncovered) reflects the phased rollout under T.D. 10000: proceeds only for 2025; proceeds plus basis for 2026 covered securities (acquired on-platform on or after January 1, 2026). This guide is for informational purposes; consult a CPA and financial advisor for your specific reporting situation.