Crypto profit,
meet what you actually owe.

Field guide

Crypto taxes, past the headline number.

Our Crypto Profit Calculator answers "did I make money?" This tool answers the question that actually matters at tax time: what do you owe? The two are frequently very different numbers, and conflating them is the single most common crypto tax mistake.

Short-term vs. long-term, and how NIIT stacks

Hold a crypto asset a year or less before disposing of it, and the gain is taxed as ordinary income — at your regular marginal bracket, computed here using the same 2026 bracket engine as this site's Income Tax Calculator. Hold it more than a year, and it qualifies for preferential long-term rates: 0%, 15%, or 20%, depending on how the gain stacks on top of your other taxable income. On top of either one, the Net Investment Income Tax adds a flat 3.8% once your MAGI crosses $200,000 (single/HoH) or $250,000 (married filing jointly) — thresholds frozen since 2013, never adjusted for inflation. Combined, a top-bracket filer's real top rate reaches 23.8% on long-term gains or a striking 40.8% on short-term gains — shown as its own line here, not buried inside the headline number.

The wash-sale gap

Stock investors can't sell at a loss and immediately buy the same security back — the wash-sale rule disallows the loss if you do. That rule only covers stock and securities by its own statutory text, and the IRS treats crypto as property, not a security. So, as of 2026, crypto investors can legally sell at a loss and immediately repurchase the same asset while still claiming the tax loss. Congress has introduced bills to close this gap; none had passed as of mid-2026. Treat this as the current rule, not a permanent feature of the tax code.

Cost basis, and the new per-wallet trap

The IRS default cost-basis method is FIFO unless you elect Specific Identification with proper documentation for each lot — HIFO and LIFO are lot-selection strategies available only within Specific ID, not standalone approved methods. Effective January 1, 2025, basis must be tracked separately per wallet or exchange rather than pooled across everywhere you hold crypto — sell ETH on Coinbase, and only Coinbase's own ETH lots can supply the basis, even if you hold more ETH elsewhere with a completely different cost basis. Anyone trading across multiple platforms needs to track this carefully; most exchange-provided reports won't do it for you.

Mining, staking, and airdrops: two taxable events, not one

Tokens received from mining, staking rewards, or an airdrop are ordinary income at their fair market value the moment you receive them — separate from whatever happens when you eventually sell. That receipt-date FMV becomes your cost basis for the later sale. This calculator computes both pieces independently, since they can land in different tax years and merging them would misstate one or both.

Form 1099-DA: don't assume your exchange has it covered

Form 1099-DA is the new digital-asset broker reporting form, but cost-basis reporting on it doesn't begin until 2026 transactions, with those forms not reaching filers until 2027. Filing for 2025 transactions or earlier almost certainly means calculating your own basis — your exchange's 1099 likely won't have it.

Disclaimer

This calculator is for informational planning purposes only and does not constitute tax advice. It models a single disposal event and does not account for wash-sale-style loss harvesting strategies, multi-lot Specific ID selection, state taxes, or the $3,000 annual capital-loss deduction limit. Consult a tax professional or Form 8949 instructions for guidance specific to your full trading history.