Accurately reflecting your gains and losses in Coinbase Taxes is important. While we may not be able to provide a new 1099-DA, we recommend that you periodically review and edit certain details throughout the year, to make sure your taxable events are properly accounted for on the following year’s tax filings.
Covered vs noncovered assets
Noncovered Assets
Noncovered assets refers to crypto assets for which an exchange or broker is not required to report cost basis to the IRS. This applies to
A crypto asset that was acquired before January 1, 2026.
All crypto assets that you transfer into your account from an external wallet or another exchange regardless of the date acquired, as Coinbase doesn't have the original purchase records.
For these "noncovered" assets, Coinbase will report the sale proceeds on Form 1099-DA, but the cost basis section will be shown as blank with the “noncovered” box checked. This means you, the customer, are solely responsible for tracking, calculating, and reporting your cost basis to the IRS on your tax return to correctly determine your gain or loss. Coinbase will report cost basis on the recipient copy of the Form 1099-DA where cost basis information has been timely provided to Coinbase.
Covered Assets
Covered assets refers to crypto assets that are acquired on January 1, 2026 or after, and held at the same exchange until it is sold. For these "covered" assets, Coinbase is required to report your cost basis, along with the sale proceeds, to both you and the IRS on Form 1099-DA. This mandatory reporting, which begins for the 2026 tax year (sales reported in 2027), is intended to simplify tax reporting for customers, similar to how it's done for stocks. You will still be responsible for reviewing the Form 1099-DA to ensure the reported cost basis is accurate.
Editable transaction types
Receive crypto from an external source
When you receive crypto from an external source into your Coinbase account, we don’t have access to cost basis details (the original value or purchase price and/or the purchase or acquisition date). As a result:
If you sell this crypto, we estimate your gain or loss using a cost basis of $0 in the Retail Tax Center because the IRS may assume a $0 cost basis if you don’t report cost basis for these transactions. These will be reflected as unknown gains or losses on your Form 1099-DA.
For assets moved from external wallets, Coinbase records the date of receipt as the acquisition date for internal lot-selection purposes. Please note that this date is a system placeholder; you should still use your actual original purchase date when calculating long-term or short-term capital gains.
Send crypto to an external address
When you send crypto to a wallet address outside of Coinbase, we don’t know if you sent it to yourself or someone else. As a result:
We assume you still own the cryptocurrency
The transfer is not treated as a reportable sale (no Forms 1099-DA are issued)
Missing tax lots: Single vs Multiple
When editing your cost basis, you can add one or multiple tax lots to each transaction on Coinbase. If you deposited crypto into your Coinbase account in a single transaction, but had multiple purchases for the crypto contained in that deposit from a different exchange, then you will have multiple cost basis updates for that single transaction.
Example
You purchase 1 BTC on a different exchange in 0.1 BTC increments over the course of 2 years. You then transfer that 1 BTC from the other exchange to your Coinbase account in a single transaction. That transaction will have a different cost basis for each of those 0.1 BTC purchases so you will need to add each of those to your 1 BTC transaction on Coinbase.
Note: You are responsible for accurately tracking your cost basis and filing your tax returns. See Tax reporting and responsibility section below for details.
To add missing cost basis to your transactions:
Go to the Add transaction details page.
In the Needs review tab, select the transaction.
Select Add details.
If you need to add multiple lots you can select Split this transfer and add as many lots as needed.
Enter the necessary details, such as:
Date acquired (purchase date)
Total cost basis (purchase price)
Select Save.
To edit existing cost basis for transactions with a single tax lot, but only when it was originally missing:
Go to the Add transaction details page.
In the Modified tab, select the transaction.
Select Edit.
Edit the details as needed.
Select Save.
Tax reporting and responsibility
For tax year 2026 Coinbase will be required to report the cost basis on Form 1099-DA for covered crypto assets (i.e., assets that are acquired on or after January 1, 2026, and continuously held at Coinbase until sold).
For any transactions with noncovered crypto assets you may also provide your tax preparer with gain/loss reports or account statements from any other exchanges or wallets you used to obtain your crypto assets
Coinbase doesn't provide tax advice. Information here is provided to help customers understand their taxes, but should be reviewed before a customer uses it to file their taxes. To ensure this information works for you, please work with a tax professional.
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