Tax & Regulation

Form 1099-DA: What Changes for Your 2026 Crypto Taxes

For 2026 sales, crypto brokers start reporting cost basis on Form 1099-DA. What the form shows, what it leaves out, and how to check it against your records.

AiTokens Research · October 26, 2026 · 7 min read

An investor at a sunny kitchen table compares a sealed yellow tax envelope with her glowing hardware wallet.

Form 1099-DA is the IRS form crypto brokers use to report your digital asset sales, and for 2026 it starts showing what you paid. Brokers have reported gross proceeds for sales since January 1, 2025. For certain sales on or after January 1, 2026, they must also report cost basis. That covers only tokens bought in a broker's custody after 2025 and sold there, so anything older, or moved in from elsewhere, still depends on your own records.

Key takeaways

Brokers report gross proceeds for sales on or after January 1, 2025, and cost basis for certain sales on or after January 1, 2026. Forms for 2026 are due to you by mid-February 2027.
Basis is reported only for "covered" tokens: bought after 2025 in an account where the broker holds them, and sold from that same account.
Since January 1, 2025, basis is tracked wallet by wallet. For 2026, IRS Notice 2026-20 still lets you choose which units you sold in your own records.
Staking rewards, lending, wrapping and self-custody trades aren't on the form, but the IRS still requires digital asset transactions to be reported.

What is Form 1099-DA?

Form 1099-DA, Digital Asset Proceeds From Broker Transactions, is the crypto counterpart of the Form 1099-B that stock brokers send. Custodial brokers such as exchanges, along with crypto kiosk operators, file it with the IRS and send you a copy. Under IRS Publication 1099, statements are due to you by February 15 of the year after the sales.

The first forms covered 2025 sales and showed gross proceeds only. In April 2025, Congress overturned a separate IRS rule that would have extended reporting to decentralized platforms that never take custody (Public Law 119-5).

What changes for 2026 sales?

The IRS says brokers "must report basis on certain transactions effected on or after Jan. 1, 2026." For a covered token, the 2026 instructions require the acquisition date (box 1d), the cost basis (box 1g), a check that basis was reported to the IRS (box 2) and whether the gain or loss is short- or long-term (box 6), alongside the proceeds in box 1f. For those sales, the IRS sees both sides of the trade, not just the sale amount.

Brokers also aren't required to backup-withhold tax on 2026 sales: IRS Notice 2025-33 extended transitional relief to digital asset sales made in 2025 or 2026.

Which of your tokens get a reported basis?

A token is "covered" only if it was acquired after 2025 in an account where the broker provided custody, and held there until the broker sold it, according to the Form 1099-DA instructions. In practice:

Bought on an exchange in March 2026 and sold there in September 2026: covered. The form should show your basis.
Bought in 2024 and sold in 2026: noncovered. Basis may be blank, and box 9 may be checked.
Bought on another platform or a decentralized exchange, then moved in and sold: noncovered, because it wasn't acquired in that account.

A broker may choose to report basis for noncovered tokens, but it doesn't have to. Noncovered doesn't mean untaxed: you report the sale using the basis from your own records. Our guide to crypto capital gains explains how the holding period sets the rate.

How does the wallet-by-wallet rule affect your basis?

Since January 1, 2025, IRS rules apply basis tracking to each wallet or account separately. The old "universal" approach, which pooled every unit you owned across platforms, no longer works for new sales. When you sell from one account, the units come from that account: either the units you specifically identify or, by default, the oldest first (first in, first out, or FIFO).

Rev. Proc. 2024-28 gave a one-time safe harbor for assigning leftover basis from older purchases to each wallet as of January 1, 2025. Its deadlines were tied to your first sale in 2025 and your 2025 tax return, so for most people that window has closed. If you never made the allocation, a tax professional can help you document your basis now.

For units held at a broker, the rules normally require you to tell the broker which units you're selling, no later than the time of the sale. Because some brokers haven't built systems to accept those instructions, IRS Notice 2026-20 extends relief through December 31, 2026. You can identify the units in your own books and records at or before the time of sale, or record a standing order there. The catch, as the notice says: the basis and acquisition dates your broker reports for 2026 may not match the lots you chose.

What isn't on the form?

Staking rewards. The instructions tell brokers not to report rewards and staking payments on Form 1099-DA. Our guide to reporting airdrops and staking rewards covers how they're treated.
Wrapping, liquidity pools, staking, lending, short sales and notional principal contracts. Brokers don't have to file Form 1099-DA for these transactions until the IRS issues further guidance.
Small stablecoin and NFT totals. Brokers can skip a customer's qualifying stablecoin sales if they total $10,000 or less for the year, and specified NFT sales totaling $600 or less. Above those amounts, the sales can be reported as combined totals.
Self-custody trades. Swaps from your own wallet on decentralized platforms have no broker to report them.
Transfers between your own accounts. They aren't sales, and the IRS treats them as non-taxable, except for crypto used to pay transaction costs. They can break the "covered" chain, though.

None of this changes what you owe. The IRS says digital asset transactions must be reported whether or not they result in a gain or loss, and Form 1040 asks whether you received, sold, exchanged or otherwise disposed of a digital asset during the year.

How do you check your 1099-DA when it arrives?

Match every sale on the form to your own records: date, units and proceeds.
Look for blank basis or a checked box 9. Both signal a noncovered sale, where your own records decide the basis.
Compare reported basis with your lot choices, especially for 2026 sales you identified yourself under Notice 2026-20.
Use the digital asset boxes on Form 8949. Since the 2025 tax year, digital asset sales use boxes G, H or I for short-term and J, K or L for long-term, depending on whether you got a form and whether it showed basis.
Fix wrong basis the official way. If the basis on the form is wrong, the Form 8949 instructions say to enter the basis shown and correct it in column (g) with code B. If no basis was reported, enter the correct basis yourself.
Keep records for each wallet: when each unit was bought, its cost, when it was sold and what you received. These are the records Rev. Proc. 2024-28 describes for identifying units.

Our article on crypto tax mistakes that can trigger an audit covers what can happen when a return and a broker's form disagree.

Check any token's AI Score on AiTokens.app before you decide.

Frequently Asked Questions

When will I get my Form 1099-DA for 2026? Brokers must furnish statements by February 15 of the year after the sales, or the next business day if that date falls on a weekend or holiday, so 2026 forms are due by mid-February 2027.

Do I have to report crypto sales that aren't on a 1099-DA? Yes. The IRS says digital asset transactions must be reported whether or not they produce a gain or loss, including trades no broker reports.

What if the basis on my 1099-DA is missing or wrong? If basis is missing, report the sale in box H (short-term) or box K (long-term) on Form 8949 and enter the correct basis. If it's wrong, enter the basis shown and correct it in column (g) using code B.

Will my 2026 form show cost basis for tokens I bought in 2024? Probably not. Basis reporting is required only for covered tokens acquired after 2025 in the broker's custody. A broker may report basis for older tokens voluntarily, but it isn't required to.