Form 1099-DA and your bitcoin cost basis: what changes for 2026 (and what self-custody means)

Short answer: Form 1099-DA is the tax form U.S. exchanges and other crypto brokers send when you sell or otherwise dispose of bitcoin through them. For sales in 2026 (the forms you get in early 2027), brokers must also report your cost basis, but only for “covered” bitcoin: coins bought on or after January 1, 2026 on that platform and kept there until the sale (IRS). Older coins and coins you transferred in from your own wallet are “noncovered,” so the basis box can be blank. Blank doesn’t mean zero; it means you prove your basis with your own records. Moving bitcoin between your own wallets isn’t a sale (IRS FAQ 81).

If you buy on an exchange and keep your coins in your own wallet, this is the part that trips people up. Below: what the form is, what changed, why self-custody coins show up “noncovered,” how to fix a blank or wrong basis, the records to keep, and a short checklist before tax season. This is educational only, not tax advice.

What is Form 1099-DA?

It’s the digital-asset version of the 1099-B you may know from stocks. The requirement comes from changes Congress made in the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. Brokers had to start reporting gross proceeds for transactions on or after January 1, 2025, then basis for certain transactions on or after January 1, 2026 (IRS). A copy goes to the IRS, and Strike notes that the IRS matches forms against returns (Strike).

Who sends one, and who doesn’t:

• Custodial platforms send them. The rules cover brokers that take possession of the bitcoin being sold, such as custodial trading platforms, certain hosted wallets and crypto ATMs (IRS). Strike, River and Coinbase all issue Form 1099-DA (Strike, River, Coinbase).
• Your hardware wallet doesn’t. A company that only provides hardware or software that lets you control your own keys isn’t treated as a broker or middleman for this purpose (IRS), and the final rules don’t cover non-custodial brokers that never hold your coins (IRS).
• No form doesn’t mean no tax. You report taxable sales whether or not anyone sends you a form (IRS FAQ 108).
• Only buying usually means no form. Strike issues a 1099-DA only for a year you sold or otherwise disposed of bitcoin (Strike), and River says you won’t get one for simply holding, depositing, or moving bitcoin between wallets you own (River).

What changes for 2026 sales?

For 2025 sales, forms showed proceeds only; Coinbase, for example, marked every 2025 sale as noncovered (Coinbase). Starting with sales in 2026, brokers must report basis for covered coins and may report it voluntarily for noncovered ones (IRS). In plain words:

• Covered: bought on or after January 1, 2026, in an account where the broker held it, and kept in that same account until the broker sold it for you (IRS). Coinbase’s version: acquired on or after January 1, 2026 and held at the same exchange until it is sold (Coinbase).
• Noncovered: bought before 2026, or transferred in to the broker from somewhere else, among a few other cases (IRS).

Even for covered coins, you’re still expected to check the form. Coinbase says you remain responsible for reviewing the reported basis (Coinbase), and Strike says you stay in control of, and responsible for, the figures on your own return (Strike).

Covered vs noncovered: four quick examples

The third case is the one that catches self-custody people. Once coins leave the platform, the broker loses their history. When you send them back to sell, the IRS instructions treat them as noncovered and ask the broker to show how many units were transferred in and when (boxes 12a and 12b) (IRS).

Is moving bitcoin to my own wallet taxable?

No. The IRS says a transfer from a wallet or account that belongs to you to another one that also belongs to you is a non-taxable event (IRS FAQ 81). If buying with dollars and moving coins between your own wallets were all you did in a year, the IRS says you can answer “No” to the digital assets question on your return, unless you paid a transfer fee with digital assets (IRS). That exception is the first catch below.

Two catches worth knowing:

1. Fees paid in bitcoin are a tiny disposal. If bitcoin is used or withheld to pay for the transfer (for example, the network fee when you send from your own wallet), that small amount counts as disposed of, with its own gain or loss (IRS FAQs 81 and 97). The IRS lists paying a transfer fee with digital assets as a reason to answer “Yes” to the digital assets question (IRS). Strike says its on-chain withdrawals are free (Strike).
2. Your exchange has to guess what a send was. Strike can’t know who owns an outside address, so it assumes a send to an external wallet is a non-taxable transfer to your own wallet. If it was really a payment or a gift, you reclassify it in the app (Strike). Strike lists paying someone in bitcoin, spending it, in-kind loan payments and involuntary collateral liquidations among things that may be taxed (Strike).

Doing it the safe way (test send first, check the address on the device screen) is in how to safely move your bitcoin to a new hardware wallet.

Why does my 1099-DA show a blank or wrong cost basis?

Usually because the broker doesn’t know it. The IRS tells brokers to enter zero only if the bitcoin actually had a basis of zero, and to leave the basis box (1g) blank when they mark a sale noncovered (box 9) and choose not to report basis (IRS). Even when you give a broker your purchase details, current law lets it use that information only to pick which coins were sold, not to report your basis or purchase date (IRS).

What each app does with coins you send in:

• Strike assumes bitcoin received from an external wallet was acquired at the price and date it arrived. You can edit the cost basis and split a deposit into lots, and Strike asks you to finish before it generates tax forms in mid-February so they come out right; later changes go through a corrected-form request (Strike). On the form, “date acquired” may be blank for bitcoin transferred in from outside (Strike).
• River uses the market price at the time of receipt as an estimated basis for performance tracking only, and says it won’t report that estimate to the IRS. You can add the real acquisition date, amount and total cost (including fees) under Performance → Bitcoin lots on river.com; River notes it can’t verify what you enter (River).
• Coinbase marks transferred-in coins as noncovered and says you’re solely responsible for tracking and reporting their basis, though it will show a basis you entered manually (Coinbase).

If the basis on a form is wrong, the IRS instructions for Form 8949 explain the fix: you use adjustment code “B” and either enter the correct basis or the basis shown plus an adjustment, depending on whether it was reported to the IRS (IRS Form 8949 instructions). Those instructions also add new boxes (G through L) just for digital assets. This is where a tax professional or good tax software earns its keep.

Which coins count as sold? Basis is tracked wallet by wallet

Every purchase is its own “lot” with its own price. Since January 1, 2025, the IRS rules look at each wallet or account on its own:

• In your own wallet, you can pick which coins you’re selling, but you have to record that choice in your books by the date and time of the sale. If you don’t, the default is first in, first out within that wallet (IRS FAQs 82 and 86).
• At a broker, after 2025 you tell the broker which units by the time of the sale, or use a standing order. If the broker offers only one method, that method counts as your standing order (IRS FAQs 85, 88 and 89). Strike uses highest-in, first-out and you can’t change it (Strike). River and Coinbase default to first-in, first-out and let you switch to LIFO or HIFO for future transactions (River, Coinbase).
• The 2025 switch. Before 2025 many people tracked basis across all their wallets at once. Revenue Procedure 2024-28 gave a safe harbor to allocate unused basis to the coins in each wallet or account as of January 1, 2025 (IRS, IRS FAQ 93). If you’ve never heard of this and hold coins in several places, it’s a good question for a tax pro.
• A backup copy doesn’t merge wallets. Writing all your keys onto one duplicate record doesn’t turn several wallets into one for tax purposes (IRS FAQ 96).

What records should I keep?

The IRS asks you to keep records that back up the positions on your return, including purchases, sales, transfers and fair market values (IRS FAQ 95, IRS). Your cost basis includes the fees you paid to buy (IRS FAQ 56). Two practical tips:

• Download exchange history now, not years later. Strike says you can view and download transaction history and account statements any time (Strike).
• Mind the time zone. Strike dates sales in UTC on its 1099-DA, so a sale late on December 31 in the U.S. can land on the next year’s form (Strike).

Tax records are about dates, prices and transaction IDs. They never include your 12 or 24 words. Keep those offline and separate (how to back up your seed phrase).

A simple checklist before tax season

1. List every place you hold bitcoin: each exchange account and each wallet you control.
2. Export your exchange history and save your year-end statements.
3. Add the real cost basis to any coins you sent back to an exchange, using the app’s tools, before forms are generated (Strike makes its forms in mid-February) (Strike, River).
4. Reclassify any send that wasn’t to yourself (a payment or a gift) so the exchange doesn’t treat it as a transfer (Strike).
5. When forms arrive, compare them to your records line by line. Ask the exchange for a corrected form if something is wrong (Strike), and talk to a tax professional before you file if the numbers don’t match.

If you buy on an exchange, the ones I’d point you to are bitcoin-only: Strike This is my referral link. If you sign up, I may earn a reward at no cost to you. · River This is my referral link. If you sign up, I may earn a reward at no cost to you.. Both let you add the cost basis of coins you send in, as described above.

What if I inherit bitcoin?

The basis of inherited property is generally its fair market value on the date of death (or on an alternate valuation date if the executor elects it on an estate tax return) (IRS). That makes the bitcoin price on that date an important record for whoever inherits. If you’re planning for your own family, the bitcoin inheritance plan guide and the free Bitcoin Inheritance Kit include a taxes section and an executor checklist.

Watch out for fake IRS “crypto compliance” letters

Tax season brings tax scams. The IRS warns about letters with a QR code asking you to register your crypto on a “Digital Assets Compliance Portal.” The IRS says it doesn’t require registration of digital assets and isn’t sending these letters (IRS). No tax form, tax pro or tax agency will ever need your seed phrase. More red flags in bitcoin scams to know in 2026.

Want to check your setup while you’re at it? The Is My Wallet Safe? checker asks four questions and runs in your browser. For the live price in your currency, there’s the price page, and more free tools are on Bitcoin Tools. (For tax records, use the prices on your own exchange statements, not a live price page.)

Still choosing a bitcoin-focused place to buy? Compare Strike vs River.

What this guide can’t tell you

This covers U.S. federal reporting only, as described in IRS guidance and the exchanges’ own help pages as of October 26, 2026. It isn’t tax advice and can’t tell you what you owe: that depends on your full situation, your state, and rules that can change. Forms and instructions are updated often, so check IRS.gov and your exchange’s help center, and talk to a qualified tax professional before you file. Educational only, not financial advice.