What Is Form 1099-DA (and Which Exchanges Send It)?

Form 1099-DA is the IRS information return that centralized crypto exchanges (called "brokers") use to report your digital asset sales and exchanges. Brokers began issuing it for the 2025 tax year, so the first forms are landing in early 2026 — and a copy goes to the IRS, not just to you.

What Form 1099-DA reports

"DA" stands for digital assets. The form is the crypto counterpart to the 1099-B that stock brokers already send. It documents dispositions — moments where you sold crypto for cash, swapped one token for another, or spent crypto to buy goods or services — because each of those is a taxable event under the rule that crypto is treated as property.

A typical 1099-DA includes:

• A description of the digital asset and the quantity sold or exchanged
• The date acquired and the date sold or disposed of
• The gross proceeds you received
• Cost basis, where the broker has it (see the phase-in note below)
• Whether the gain or loss is short-term or long-term

Because it flags disposals, the 1099-DA feeds your capital gains reporting on Form 8949 and Schedule D. It is not designed to capture earned crypto — staking rewards, mining, or airdrops are ordinary income when received and are handled separately. If staking is part of your year, see our guide to crypto staking taxes.

The gradual phase-in you need to know about

The 1099-DA rolls out in stages, and this matters for how much you can trust the numbers:

• 2025 (forms sent in early 2026): brokers report gross proceeds. Many forms will not include cost basis yet, which means the proceeds can look far larger than your actual gain.
• 2026 (forms sent in early 2027): brokers begin reporting cost basis for covered assets, so gain/loss figures become more complete.

Two other rules shape what your form shows. First, cost basis is now tracked per wallet or per account for 2025 onward — you can no longer pool basis across every place you hold a coin, so each exchange reports only the lots held there. Second, brokers generally use FIFO by default unless you have a standing instruction on file to use a specific-identification method.

Which exchanges send Form 1099-DA?

The reporting duty falls on "brokers" that take custody of your assets — which in practice means US-facing centralized exchanges and custodial platforms. Expect a 1099-DA if you traded on custodial platforms such as:

• Coinbase (see our Coinbase tax documents guide)
• Kraken
• Gemini
• Crypto.com
• Other US custodial exchanges and payment apps that let you buy and sell crypto

Who generally does not send one today:

• Self-custody wallets and most DeFi protocols. Non-custodial platforms are not treated as brokers under the finalized rules, so no 1099-DA arrives — but your trades there are still taxable and it's on you to report them.
• Non-US exchanges without US reporting obligations.
• Peer-to-peer transfers between your own wallets, which aren't disposals at all.

The absence of a form never means the absence of tax. The IRS receives every 1099-DA that is filed, so anything reported to you is also visible to them — and gaps get filled by good record-keeping on your side.

What to do when your 1099-DA arrives

Read it, but don't file it blindly. In these early years the most common problem is missing or wrong cost basis, which inflates your apparent gain.

• Check proceeds against your own records. Confirm the sale dates and amounts match your transaction history.
• Fill in missing basis. If a form shows proceeds but blank basis, you supply the correct basis on Form 8949 rather than paying tax on the full proceeds.
• Watch for transfers coded as sales. Moving coins between your own accounts isn't a taxable event, but a broker that can't see the other side may misreport it.
• Reconcile across every platform. With per-wallet basis, each exchange only knows its slice — you have to assemble the full picture.

Form 1099-DA is a real step toward clearer crypto reporting, but during the 2025–2026 phase-in it's a starting point, not the final word. Treat it as one data source, verify the basis, and combine it with a complete record of your on-chain and off-exchange activity. For the fundamentals, start with our crypto tax basics hub or browse more exchange guides.

This article is general information, not tax advice. Consult a qualified professional about your specific situation.