Do Crypto Exchanges Report to the IRS?
Yes. As of the 2025 tax year, every US crypto exchange that holds your assets is legally required to report your activity to the IRS on Form 1099-DA, with a copy sent to you. They also issue Form 1099-MISC for staking and reward income of $600 or more. This is the new normal, and it covers Coinbase, Kraken, Gemini, Binance.US, Robinhood, Crypto.com, and the rest.
This guide is the map for the whole topic: which forms exist, when the rules kicked in, what each major exchange sends, and how the IRS turns that data into a notice in your mailbox if your return doesn’t match. For a specific platform, jump to its own breakdown linked below.
For the tax rules that apply once a sale or trade actually happens, not just what gets reported, see our guide to how crypto is taxed.
What tax forms do crypto exchanges send to the IRS?
There isn’t one crypto tax form, there are several, and which ones you get depends on what you did. Here’s the full set in 2026:
| Form | What it reports | When you get it |
|---|---|---|
| 1099-DA | Gross proceeds from crypto sales, swaps, and disposals | New for 2025 transactions; forms issued early 2026 |
| 1099-MISC | Staking rewards, referral and reward income ($600+) | If you earned $600 or more in rewards |
| 1099-B | Proceeds from sales (legacy form) | Being replaced by 1099-DA for digital assets |
| 1099-K | Gross payment volume (used by some platforms) | Varies by platform and state |
The headline form is the 1099-DA. It’s the IRS’s purpose-built digital asset form, required under the federal broker rules, and it took effect for transactions on or after January 1, 2025. Exchanges had to get the first batch to customers by mid-February 2026.
When did crypto exchange reporting to the IRS start?
The timeline matters, because it determines what’s on your form and what’s still your job.
- 2025 transactions (forms in early 2026): 1099-DA reports gross proceeds only. No cost basis. The IRS granted good-faith penalty relief to brokers for this first year, since everyone is adjusting.
- 2026 transactions (forms in early 2027): exchanges add cost basis reporting, but only for assets you both bought and held on that same platform. Anything you transferred in from another wallet or exchange still has no reported basis.
That phase-in creates the gap at the center of nearly every crypto tax problem, which we’ll get to.
What does each major crypto exchange report?
The rules are uniform, but the details (which forms, which entity, what’s included) differ by platform. Here’s the quick reference, with a deeper guide for each:
| Exchange | Reports to IRS? | Read the full breakdown |
|---|---|---|
| Coinbase | Yes — 1099-DA, 1099-MISC | Does Coinbase report to the IRS? |
| Binance.US | Yes — 1099-DA, 1099-MISC | Does Binance report to the IRS? |
| Robinhood | Yes — 1099-DA, 1099-MISC (consolidated 1099) | Does Robinhood send tax forms for crypto? |
| Kraken, Gemini, Crypto.com | Yes — 1099-DA, 1099-MISC | Same broker rules apply |
| DEXs (Uniswap, Curve) | No — DeFi broker rule repealed in 2025 | Which exchanges don’t report? |
One important 2025 footnote: decentralized exchanges were almost pulled into this regime, but Congress repealed the DeFi broker rule in April 2025. So DeFi front-ends don’t report, while every custodial centralized exchange does.
Does Hyperliquid report taxes to the IRS?
Hyperliquid does not currently issue US tax forms such as Form 1099-DA. That does not make the activity tax-free or remove the user’s reporting obligation. US taxpayers still need to reconstruct spot trades, realized perp PnL, funding, liquidations, vault activity, staking rewards, airdrops and transfers from their own records.
Our Hyperliquid tax reporting guide explains which records to collect and how each type of activity is generally classified for a US return.
How does the IRS use crypto exchange data?
Getting the form is only half the story. Here’s what happens on the IRS side.
Every 1099 an exchange sends you, the IRS gets too. Its Automated Underreporter program matches those figures against what you filed. When the numbers don’t line up, the system generates a CP2000 notice: a proposed bill for additional tax, plus penalties and interest, based on what the IRS thinks you owe.
CP2000 notices have hit crypto investors hard since 2021, and the pattern is almost always the same: someone got a 1099 showing a big proceeds number, didn’t reconcile it, and the IRS treated the entire amount as gain.
On top of automated matching, the IRS has used John Doe summonses to pull bulk customer records from major exchanges, and it works with blockchain analytics firms to trace on-chain activity. The data net is wide and getting wider.
Why is the cost basis on your exchange forms often wrong?
Because 2025 forms show proceeds without basis, a 1099-DA can make your tax bill look terrifying. If you sold crypto for $60,000 that you’d originally bought for $45,000, your real gain is $15,000, but a basis-blank 1099-DA reports $60,000 in proceeds. File it raw and you’re taxed on four times your actual gain.
This isn’t rare, it’s the default whenever you’ve moved crypto between platforms. And it runs one way: toward overpayment. In an internal review of 398 client cases across six tax years, 64.8% had gains overstated in at least one prior year, and 100% had tax-software errors that needed cleanup. Where gains were reducible, the average correction ran between $17,205 and $25,733.
The fix is reconciliation: rebuilding your complete transaction history across every wallet and exchange, assigning the correct cost basis to each disposal, and reporting the real number on Form 8949 and Schedule D (the mechanics are in our how to file crypto tax guide). Crypto Tax Made Easy has reconciled over 6.7 million transactions for 1,410+ investors doing exactly this.
What should you do with your crypto exchange tax forms?
- Don’t file the raw proceeds. Treat every 1099 as a starting point, not a finished return.
- Pull your full history, not just the form, from each exchange and wallet.
- Reconcile cost basis on anything transferred between platforms, since that’s where the forms go blank.
- Report the corrected figures on Form 8949 and Schedule D.
- Got a CP2000 already? It’s not an audit, and a documented reconciliation can often reduce or eliminate the proposed bill.
If your forms don’t match what you actually made, that’s not a typo, it’s missing cost basis. A US crypto tax accountant can rebuild it.
Frequently asked questions
Do crypto exchanges report to the IRS?
Yes. Starting with 2025 transactions, all US custodial crypto exchanges must issue Form 1099-DA to both you and the IRS, reporting gross proceeds from your sales and swaps, plus Form 1099-MISC for $600 or more in reward income. This includes Coinbase, Kraken, Gemini, Binance.US, Robinhood, and Crypto.com. Decentralized exchanges do not report, because Congress repealed the DeFi broker rule in April 2025.
Which crypto exchanges report to the IRS?
Every centralized, US-facing exchange that custodies your crypto reports: Coinbase, Binance.US, Robinhood, Kraken, Gemini, Crypto.com, and others all issue 1099-DA forms for 2025 transactions onward. The exceptions are decentralized exchanges, no-KYC offshore platforms, and self-custody wallets, none of which issue IRS forms, though your activity on them is still fully taxable.
Will the IRS know if I don’t report my crypto?
Very likely. The IRS receives a copy of every 1099-DA and 1099-MISC your exchange sends, and its Automated Underreporter program matches that data against your return, generating a CP2000 notice when there’s a mismatch. It has also obtained bulk customer data through John Doe summonses and uses blockchain analytics, so unreported activity carries real risk even without a form.
What is Form 1099-DA?
Form 1099-DA is the IRS’s dedicated crypto broker reporting form. US exchanges must issue it for transactions on or after January 1, 2025, with the first forms delivered in early 2026. For 2025 it reports gross proceeds only; cost basis reporting phases in for 2026 transactions, and even then only for assets bought and held on the same platform.
Why doesn’t my 1099 match what I actually made?
Because for 2025 the 1099-DA reports gross proceeds without cost basis, especially for crypto you transferred in from another wallet or exchange. The form shows the full sale amount, not your profit, so it can overstate your gain dramatically. The fix is to reconcile your complete transaction history, apply the correct basis to each sale, and report the real gain on Form 8949 and Schedule D.
Sources and further reading
- IRS Digital Assets guidance
- IRS About Form 1099-DA
- IRS Frequently Asked Questions About Broker Reporting
- IRS Topic No. 409, Capital Gains and Losses
About the author and reviewer
Founder of Crypto Tax Made Easy. Matt has worked in crypto tax since 2017, leading reconciliation work across DeFi, cost basis cleanup, exchange tax forms, and tax software reviews. CTME has reconciled 6.7M+ transactions for 1,410+ investors, and Matt has appeared with Binance and spoken at the Australia Crypto Convention.
US tax reviewer for CTME content that includes IRS or state tax implications. Michael reviews US tax treatment, reporting, and compliance references.
Disclaimer: The information provided by Crypto Tax Made Easy is for general informational purposes only and does not constitute professional, financial, accounting, or tax advice. Consult a qualified professional about your specific situation.