Over Half Of US Crypto Users Don’t Understand This Scary Tax Rule

The majority of crypto customers still don’t understand how crypto is taxed, mistakenly believing simple transfers trigger tax events.

Well intended crypto-tax confusion

Although most crypto investors intend to comply with tax law, major confusion reigns amongst traders about cost basis, taxable events and evolving IRS regulations, Coinbase’s new 2026 Crypto Tax Readiness Report shows. The survey was conducted between September and October 2025, with a population of 3.000 U.S. crypto users.

Regulators are ramping up enforcement and data collection while retail users remain confused about what is actually a taxable event and how to track it across wallets, CEXs and DeFi. The legislation evolves way too fast for users to keep track, with 61% of the surveyed users reporting they were unaware of specific tax rules slayed for 2025 tax year reporting.

Under current U.S. rules, most crypto is treated as property, which means selling, trading, swapping into another coin, or even paying fees can trigger capital gains or losses that must be reported. However, only 49% of crypto users correctly understand that a tax event is triggered anytime crypto is sold, with 22% of them falling under the misconception that a simple transfer to other accounts is taxable.

“The story this data tells is one of uncertainty”, Lawrence Zlatkin, Vice President of Tax at Coinbase said, “Users are struggling to navigate the complexities of crypto taxation”.

Brokers like Coinbase will now send standardized forms (1099‑DA) reporting proceeds, but they cannot see every DeFi or DEX leg in a strategy, leaving many users with forms that show large gross figures and no context unless they use specialized tax software. On average, users juggle 2.5 platforms or wallets, and 83% rely on self‑custody, which creates a cost‑basis reconciliation headache that most still haven’t figured out.

If regulators double down on enforcement while the average user remains lost, the result could be overpayment, under‑reporting risk, or simply less on‑chain activity as people retreat to “safe” buy‑and‑hold behavior, all of which reshape liquidity and volatility.

Tax ignorance can be extremely costly. Those who keep ignoring the new reporting regime risk surprise bills, audits, or being forced to unwind positions at bad prices later. Savvy traders should avoid this by starting to treat tax drag as part of strategy design, using tools like CoinTracker to model after‑tax returns instead of just PnL on‑screen.

Cover image from Perplexity, BTCUSD chart from Tradingview