Crypto glossary
Form 1099-DA
Form 1099-DA is the US IRS form brokers use to report customers' digital asset sales, required for transactions from 1 January 2025 onward.
The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2021 expanded the definition of broker to include crypto businesses, and final Treasury regulations in 2024 created Form 1099-DA, for digital asset proceeds from broker transactions. Custodial platforms such as centralized exchanges, hosted wallet providers and some payment processors must report each customer's gross proceeds from sales and exchanges of digital assets, starting with transactions in 2025, sending copies to the IRS and to the customer.
Cost basis reporting is phased in later: brokers must report basis for covered assets acquired from 1 January 2026 in accounts they maintain. For earlier purchases and transfers in from other wallets, customers still need their own records. Special rules cover stablecoins and NFTs, with optional aggregate reporting below set thresholds.
A separate rule that would have treated certain DeFi front-ends as brokers was repealed by Congress in 2025. Receiving a 1099-DA does not change what is taxable; it means the IRS can match reported proceeds against the taxpayer's return.
Example
In early 2026, a US user receives a 1099-DA from her exchange showing 12,000 dollars of proceeds from 2025 crypto sales but no cost basis, so she uses her own purchase records to calculate the gain.