Form 8949 for crypto: Form 1099-DA, boxes G–L and wallet-by-wallet basis

For the 2025 tax year, crypto reporting in the US changed in three ways at once. Brokers started sending Form 1099-DA. Form 8949 gained six boxes just for digital assets. And cost basis is now tracked wallet by wallet instead of across everything you own. This guide explains where your crypto sales go, what each new box means, how to count a holding period, and how to compare your own figures with the form your broker sends.

Where crypto sales go: Form 8949, Schedule D and Form 1040

The IRS treats digital assets as property. The general rules for property transactions apply to them (IRS digital asset FAQs). Selling crypto, swapping one coin for another, or spending it can all produce a capital gain or loss. The FAQs say an exchange of one digital asset for a materially different one is taxable even when no dollars change hands.

Each sale or other disposal goes on Form 8949, which feeds into Schedule D (IRS Topic 409). Form 8949 has two parts:

• Part I for short-term transactions, generally held one year or less;
• Part II for long-term transactions, held more than one year.

Separately, everyone filing Form 1040 must answer a yes-or-no question. It asks whether, at any time during the year, you received a digital asset as a reward, award or payment, or sold, exchanged or otherwise disposed of one (IRS: Digital assets).

1099-DA and boxes G–L explained

Each Form 8949 page has a set of check boxes. You use a separate page for each box that applies. For 2025, the instructions add boxes G to L for digital assets. They also say not to use box C or F for digital asset transactions (Instructions for Form 8949).

The wording is summarized from the 2025 instructions, which also cover substitute statements. In short: G and J mean basis was shown, H and K mean proceeds only, and I and L mean no form at all. Sales on a platform that sent no 1099-DA, or from your own self-custody wallet, usually land in I or L.

What Form 1099-DA reports for 2025 and 2026

Form 1099-DA, “Digital Asset Proceeds From Broker Transactions”, is the broker’s report to you and the IRS. The IRS has set out the timeline (IRS newsroom):

• brokers report gross proceeds for transactions on or after January 1, 2025;
• brokers report basis on certain transactions on or after January 1, 2026.

The Form 1099-DA instructions say which units count. A “covered security” is broadly a digital asset acquired after 2025 in an account where the broker provides custodial services. Units that don’t meet that test are noncovered, including those acquired before 2026. The practical result is simple. Most 2025 forms show proceeds without basis, so most 2025 broker sales belong in box H or K. Supplying the basis is up to you.

Short-term or long-term: counting the holding period

A gain or loss is long-term if you held the asset for more than one year and short-term if you held it one year or less. You count from the day after the day you acquired the asset, up to and including the day you disposed of it (IRS Topic 409; Form 8949 instructions). The boundary catches people out.

The difference matters because short-term gains are taxed as ordinary income, while net long-term gains get lower rates (Topic 409). Timestamps also matter: a trade late in the evening can fall on a different date in UTC. CryptoTaxOwl uses your chosen time zone, with America/New_York as the default. That is our documented choice, explained in How it works.

Wallet-by-wallet basis from January 1, 2025

Before 2025, many people tracked basis “universally”: one big list of lots across every exchange and wallet. For transactions from January 1, 2025, basis is identified wallet by wallet, or account by account. Rev. Proc. 2024-28, “Guidance for Taxpayers to Allocate Basis in Digital Assets to Wallets or Accounts as of January 1, 2025”, gives the transition rules. It lets you allocate your unused basis to the units held in each wallet or account at the start of 2025 under a safe harbor. It describes two ways to do it, a specific unit allocation or a global allocation, and sets conditions on timing and records. Read the revenue procedure itself for the detail. We don’t restate the mechanics here.

Same trades, a $2,000 swing. This is why unmatched transfers matter so much now. If you move coins from one wallet to another and the report doesn’t see it as a transfer, the basis is left behind. Our guide to transfers between your own wallets covers this.

FIFO, HIFO and specific identification

Within a wallet, the IRS FAQs say you may specifically identify which units you sell, as long as you keep adequate records. If you don’t, units are treated as sold in order of acquisition, earliest first: FIFO (IRS digital asset FAQs). “Highest in, first out” (HIFO) is one way of specifically identifying units. It only works if the identification is properly made.

For units a broker holds for you, identification has to go through the broker. The IRS issued Notice 2025-7, “Temporary relief under section 1.1012-1(j)(3)(ii)”, to give temporary relief: during the relief period, you can make the identification in your own books and records, including by a standing order recorded before the sale. Notice 2026-20 extends that relief period to December 31, 2026. Read both notices for the conditions. Outside that relief, and without proper identification, FIFO applies. The cost basis methods guide compares the methods on one set of trades.

Staking rewards and wash sales

Staking

Rev. Rul. 2023-14 holds that a cash-method taxpayer who receives staking rewards includes their fair market value in gross income in the year they gain dominion and control over them. The value is measured at that date and time. The ruling applies whether you stake directly or through an exchange. The IRS’s digital assets page explains where such income is reported. When you later sell the rewarded coins, that is a separate disposal on Form 8949. Use the staking income calculator for the income side, and see our staking and airdrops guide.

Wash sales

The wash-sale rule disallows a loss when you sell at a loss and buy substantially identical stock or securities within 30 days before or after. As described in Publication 550, the rule is written for stock or securities (Internal Revenue Code section 1091). Digital assets are treated as property and are generally not treated as securities for this purpose. So CryptoTaxOwl doesn’t make wash-sale adjustments to crypto. This area could change through legislation, so check the rules for the year you file.

Reconciling your figures with a 1099-DA

Your Form 8949 has to show the right numbers, even when the broker’s form doesn’t. The Form 8949 instructions say what to do when a 1099-DA shows incorrect basis. You use code B in column (f). If basis was reported to the IRS, you enter the reported basis in column (e) and correct it in column (g), using the instructions’ worksheet for basis adjustments.

For each account that sent a 1099-DA, the US report shows our proceeds total next to a space for the broker’s total. If they differ, check these first:

• Missing rows. Is the export for the full calendar year, and does it include every sub-account?
• Swaps. A coin-to-coin trade is a sale of the coin you gave up. Does your export show both sides?
• Fees. Do both figures treat fees the same way?
• Time zones. Are trades near midnight on December 31 in the right year?

Coinbase users can follow the Coinbase export steps to make sure the file covers the full year.

What this means for your return

1. Answer the digital asset question on Form 1040 (IRS).
2. Gather every 1099-DA, and the exports for any account or wallet that didn’t send one.
3. Build a per-wallet ledger for 2025. Use the US crypto tax calculator, which assigns each row to box G to L from the settings you give it for each account.
4. Put each disposal in Part I or Part II by holding period, and on the page for its box.
5. Carry the totals to Schedule D. If losses exceed gains, Topic 409 says you can deduct up to $3,000 a year ($1,500 if married filing separately), carrying the rest forward (Topic 409).
6. Report staking and similar rewards as income separately.

The deadline calendar lists filing dates. To check a single trade first, try the crypto capital gains calculator.

Honest limits

• We report; we don’t advise. The calculator applies the published rules to your data. It doesn’t decide whether you’re in business, whether an identification was adequate, or how the safe harbor applies to you. If you’re unsure, speak to a qualified adviser.
• Specific identification is your responsibility. Choosing HIFO in the tool doesn’t make it valid. The identification has to have been made as the rules require.
• Box choices follow your settings. Tell the tool which accounts sent a 1099-DA and what it showed. The form you receive is the final word.
• Out of scope. DeFi protocols, NFTs, and margin or futures trading aren’t modelled.

Sources

1. Instructions for Form 8949 (2025) (IRS), retrieved 7 October 2026
2. Instructions for Form 1099-DA (2026) (IRS), retrieved 7 October 2026
3. Final regulations and related IRS guidance for reporting by brokers on sales and exchanges of digital assets (IRS), retrieved 7 October 2026
4. Digital assets (IRS), retrieved 7 October 2026
5. Topic no. 409, Capital gains and losses (IRS), retrieved 7 October 2026
6. Frequently asked questions on digital asset transactions (IRS), retrieved 7 October 2026
7. Internal Revenue Bulletin: 2024-31 (Rev. Proc. 2024-28) (IRS), retrieved 7 October 2026
8. Internal Revenue Bulletin: 2025-05 (Notice 2025-7) (IRS), retrieved 7 October 2026
9. Internal Revenue Bulletin: 2026-15 (Notice 2026-20) (IRS), retrieved 7 October 2026
10. Internal Revenue Bulletin: 2023-33 (Rev. Rul. 2023-14) (IRS), retrieved 7 October 2026
11. Publication 550 (2025), Investment Income and Expenses (IRS), retrieved 7 October 2026

This guide explains the rules in general terms. It isn’t tax advice. Spotted something out of date? Email errors@cryptotaxowl.com and we’ll check it against the source.