Key takeaways
- Yes, Crypto.com reports to the IRS. Form 1099-MISC covers Earn, staking, and other income of $600+, and as a US broker Crypto.com reports sales and exchanges on Form 1099-DA starting with the 2025 tax year.
- Earn and staking are income, then capital gains. Rewards are ordinary income at value when received, and the same coins are taxed again as a capital gain or loss when sold.
- Card cashback in CRO is its own animal. Rebate-style cashback is usually not income at receipt but carries near-zero basis, so selling that CRO later is a taxable gain you must track.
- App and Exchange are separate ledgers. Export both, and the 1099-DA can still overstate gains when transferred-in crypto lands with no cost basis.
Crypto.com runs two distinct products for US users: the consumer App, where most people buy, spend with the Visa card, and use Earn, and the more advanced Crypto.com Exchange for active trading. Each keeps its own ledger, and the platform layers in CRO card rewards and Earn payouts on top of ordinary trading. That combination is what makes Crypto.com taxes worth careful handling: a single user can generate capital gains, ordinary income, card-reward basis questions, and inter-product transfers in one year. This guide covers what Crypto.com reports to the IRS, how every transaction type is taxed, how to pull your documents, and where Crypto.com users lose money to avoidable mistakes.
Does Crypto.com report to the IRS?
Yes. Crypto.com serves US customers through a US-registered entity and reports activity to the IRS. For the 2026 filing season and beyond, the forms that matter are:
- Form 1099-MISC when you earn $600 or more in crypto income, primarily Earn rewards, staking, and certain promotions.
- Form 1099-DA, the new digital-asset form, reporting your sales and exchanges. It began with the 2025 tax year (forms issued in early 2026).
Crypto.com collects full KYC identity data on every US customer, so the forms it files are tied to your Social Security number. When the IRS receives a copy, it expects your return to reflect the same numbers. The practical takeaway: your Crypto.com activity is visible to the IRS, so your return needs to line up.
What tax forms does Crypto.com give you?
Crypto.com issues several documents, and none of them covers everything on its own.
| Form | What it reports | What it misses |
|---|---|---|
| 1099-MISC | Earn, staking, and other income of $600+, as ordinary income. | Income under $600 (still reportable); any capital gains. |
| 1099-DA | Sales and exchanges of digital assets. 2025: gross proceeds. 2026+: proceeds plus cost basis for covered assets. | Cost basis for transferred-in or pre-coverage assets; anything off Crypto.com. |
| App vs. Exchange statements | Activity summaries, but kept separately per product. | A single combined view; you reconcile both yourself. |
| Transaction CSV | Full history including trades, card spend, cashback, and Earn. | Nothing is pre-totaled; you (or your software) do the math. |
How Crypto.com transactions are taxed
Every action on Crypto.com falls into one of two buckets: a capital gains event (you disposed of crypto) or an ordinary income event (you earned crypto). Here is how the common ones map.
| Crypto.com action | Taxable? | Treatment |
|---|---|---|
| Buy crypto with USD | No | Not taxable. Sets your cost basis. |
| Sell crypto for USD | Yes | Capital gain or loss (proceeds minus basis). |
| Trade or convert one coin for another | Yes | Disposal of the coin sold; capital gain or loss. |
| Spend crypto with the Visa card | Yes | Disposal; capital gain or loss at the moment of purchase. |
| Earn / staking rewards | Yes | Ordinary income at FMV when received. |
| Card cashback in CRO (rebate) | Often No | Usually not income at receipt, but near-zero basis means a gain when sold. |
| Send to your own wallet | No | Not taxable; basis and holding period carry. Network fee is a tiny disposal. |
Crypto.com card cashback (CRO rewards)
The Crypto.com Visa card pays cashback in CRO. How it is taxed depends on its character. Cashback that is a rebate on your own spending is generally treated like ordinary credit card rewards: not taxable when you receive it, because the IRS views it as a discount on a purchase rather than income. The catch is cost basis. Rebate cashback typically carries a zero or near-zero basis, so when you later sell or spend that CRO, almost the entire value is a capital gain. Rewards that look more like a sign-up bonus or staking-style payout can instead be ordinary income at fair market value when received. Because the treatment can vary by program and year, the safe move is to record the value of every CRO reward when it hits your account, so you can defend either position and have a clean basis trail.
Crypto.com Earn taxes
Earn and staking rewards on Crypto.com are taxed in two layers. First, each reward is ordinary income at its fair market value when you gain control of it, consistent with Rev. Rul. 2023-14. Second, that value becomes the reward's cost basis, so when you later sell you have a separate capital gain or loss measured from there. Earn typically pays on a recurring schedule, which means many small income events across the year, each with its own value at receipt. That recurring pattern is exactly why a complete CSV export beats trying to total rewards by hand.
Short-term vs. long-term rates
For capital-gains events, holding period sets the rate. Hold one year or less and gains are short-term, taxed at your ordinary rate (10% to 37%). Hold more than a year and gains are long-term, taxed at 0%, 15%, or 20%. Earned crypto (Earn and staking) is taxed at ordinary rates regardless of holding period, and its value at receipt becomes the cost basis for a later sale. High earners may also owe the extra 3.8% Net Investment Income Tax, and most states tax crypto gains as ordinary income.
Using the App, the Exchange, the card, and Earn?
Mixing card cashback basis, Earn income, and trades across two ledgers is exactly where Crypto.com returns go wrong. We reconcile all of it into clean, CPA-ready figures.
See how it worksHow to get your Crypto.com tax documents
Pulling the right files is step one of an accurate return.
- Open the Tax or Statements area. Log in to the Crypto.com App or Exchange and find the Tax or Statements section in your account menu.
- Download your forms. Grab any Form 1099-MISC and Form 1099-DA issued to you.
- Export the App and Exchange CSV separately. Pull full history from both products since they are separate ledgers.
- Include card cashback and Earn. Make sure CRO cashback and Earn or staking rewards appear in the export so all income and basis is captured.
- Reconcile across every wallet. Combine Crypto.com with all other exchanges and self-custody wallets so transfers, basis, and income are complete before filing.
How to report Crypto.com on your tax return
Once your data is reconciled, Crypto.com activity lands on a few IRS forms:
- Form 8949 lists every disposal (each sale, trade, card spend, and CRO sale) with dates, proceeds, cost basis, and gain or loss.
- Schedule D totals those gains and losses, split into short-term and long-term.
- Schedule 1 carries your Earn, staking, and other earned income as "Other income."
- The Form 1040 digital-asset question must be answered "Yes" if you sold, exchanged, or received crypto.
The $600 ETH gain is long-term, the $180 from selling near-zero-basis CRO cashback is a short-term capital gain, and the $210 of Earn is income on Schedule 1. Three different rules, one return.
Common Crypto.com tax mistakes
These are the errors that quietly cost Crypto.com users money or invite IRS letters.
- Ignoring card spend. Every Visa card purchase funded by crypto is a disposal, not a free swipe. Skipping these understates gains and losses.
- Mishandling CRO cashback basis. Treating rebate cashback as fully tax-free forever forgets that selling it later realizes a near-100% gain.
- Double counting App-to-Exchange transfers. Internal moves are not taxable, but unlabeled they can look like a sale and a buy.
- Forgetting recurring Earn income. Rewards are taxable even when each one is tiny and never hits a 1099-MISC.
- Accepting a $0 cost basis. For transferred-in assets, the 1099-DA may show proceeds with no basis, and the IRS then treats the whole sale as gain.
The 2025/26 Crypto Tax Guide. Built by former Big 4 accountants.
A printable, step-by-step guide and checklist to reconcile every coin and wallet, recover missing cost basis, and file accurately before the deadline.
- Form 8949, Schedule D, and Schedule 1 walkthroughs
- How to handle staking, DeFi, NFTs, and lost coins
- The $0-basis 1099-DA trap (and how to avoid it)
- FBAR, Form 8938, and foreign exchange reporting