Form 1099-DA Crypto Guide: Form 8949 Across Exchanges

It is February. Three exchanges have sent you three tax forms. An offshore exchange sent nothing. And the numbers on the forms do not match your own records. For active US crypto traders, this is now the normal tax season. The reason is Form 1099-DA.

This guide explains what the form reports, which tax years it covers, why it often disagrees with your own numbers, and how to get from a pile of forms to a correct Form 8949 and Schedule D.

What Form 1099-DA is

Form 1099-DA, "Digital Asset Proceeds From Broker Transactions", is the IRS information return for crypto. A broker, in practice usually a custodial platform such as a US exchange, sends one copy to you and one to the IRS.

It reports sales of digital assets. In the IRS instructions, a "sale" includes disposals for cash, for other digital assets and for broker services. Staking rewards are not reported on Form 1099-DA.

Which tax years it covers

The rollout comes in two steps.

• 2025 sales: brokers must report gross proceeds. Reporting cost basis was not required. The forms for 2025 were due to you by February 17, 2026.
• 2026 sales onward: brokers must also report cost basis, but only for "covered" assets.

A covered asset is, broadly, one you acquired from 2026 onward in a custodial account at that broker and kept there until you sold it. Assets acquired before 2026 are noncovered. So is a coin you transferred in to the broker from somewhere else. For noncovered assets, the broker can check box 9 and leave basis and acquisition date blank.

This is the key point for multi-exchange traders. The forms for 2026, which arrive in early 2027, will show basis for some of your sales and not for others.

Gross proceeds vs cost basis

Gross proceeds (box 1f) are what you received for the sale, reduced by transaction costs such as fees and commissions. This number is usually reliable, because the exchange executed the trade.

Cost basis (box 1g) is what you paid. The exchange only knows it if you bought the coin there. If you bought ETH on one exchange and sold it on another, the selling exchange sees the sale but not the purchase.

The IRS sees the proceeds either way. If basis is missing and you do not supply it, your gain can look far larger than it really is.

What changes if you trade on several exchanges

Every US broker sends its own 1099-DA, and none of them sees your other accounts. That creates four common problems.

1. Transfers break the basis trail

When you move a coin between exchanges, the receiving exchange treats it as noncovered and usually reports no basis. Your real cost sits in another exchange's history.

2. Basis is tracked per wallet or account

From January 1, 2025, IRS regulations apply specific identification or FIFO to the units held within each wallet or account, not across all of them as one pool. Revenue Procedure 2024-28 gave a one-time safe harbor to allocate unused basis to each wallet or account as of January 1, 2025. If you used one "universal" pool before, the switch can cause differences between your records and what brokers report.

3. Offshore exchanges may send nothing

An exchange outside the US may not issue a 1099-DA. Neither will your own self-custody wallet. You still have to report those sales. The IRS is clear that you report digital asset transactions whether or not they result in a gain or loss, and the Form 8949 instructions have boxes for sales with no 1099-DA.

4. Transfers between your own accounts are not sales

Moving crypto between wallets or accounts you own is not a taxable event, even if a platform sends you an information return. But if your records do not link the withdrawal to the deposit, the transfer can look like a sale and a fresh purchase.

How 1099-DA connects to Form 8949 and Schedule D

You report each crypto sale on Form 8949. The totals go to Schedule D, and from there to your Form 1040. Digital assets now have their own Form 8949 boxes. Do not use box C or box F for digital assets.

Short-term (held one year or less), Part I:

• Box G: you received a 1099-DA showing basis reported to the IRS
• Box H: you received a 1099-DA, but basis was not reported to the IRS
• Box I: you did not receive a 1099-DA

Long-term (held more than one year), Part II:

• Box J: 1099-DA with basis reported to the IRS
• Box K: 1099-DA without basis reported
• Box L: no 1099-DA

Some sales with basis reported and no adjustments needed can go straight onto Schedule D line 1a or 8a. Anything that needs a correction goes on Form 8949.

Also answer the digital asset question on Form 1040. If you sold, swapped or received crypto during the year, the answer is "Yes".

Worked example: two exchanges, one tax year

Sam trades on a US exchange (Exchange A) and an offshore exchange (Exchange B). All figures are made up for illustration.

• June 2024: buys 1 ETH on Exchange B for $2,000.
• February 2026: buys 2 ETH on Exchange A for $5,000 in total.
• March 2026: moves the 1 ETH from Exchange B to Exchange A.
• November 2026: sells all 3 ETH on Exchange A for $9,000 after fees.
• Also in 2026: sells 0.1 BTC on Exchange B for $8,000. He bought it there in January 2026 for $6,500.

What Exchange A's Form 1099-DA for 2026 shows:

• 2 ETH: proceeds $6,000, basis $5,000. Covered, short-term.
• 1 ETH: proceeds $3,000, basis blank. Noncovered, because it was transferred in.

Exchange B sends nothing.

How Sam reports it on Form 8949:

• Box G (short-term, basis reported): 2 ETH, proceeds $6,000, basis $5,000, gain $1,000.
• Box K (long-term, basis not reported): 1 ETH, proceeds $3,000, basis $2,000 from his Exchange B history, gain $1,000. He held it from June 2024 to November 2026, so it is long-term.
• Box I (short-term, no 1099-DA): 0.1 BTC, proceeds $8,000, basis $6,500, gain $1,500.

Total gain: $3,500.

Now look at what the IRS received: $9,000 of ETH proceeds with only $5,000 of basis, and nothing about the BTC. If Sam leaves the transferred ETH at zero basis, he reports a $4,000 ETH gain instead of $2,000. If he forgets Exchange B, he under-reports by $1,500. Both mistakes start in the same place: records split across exchanges.

When your 1099-DA and your records disagree

Mismatches are common. Work through them in this order.

Start with proceeds

Match the total proceeds on each 1099-DA to your own records for that exchange. Differences usually come from fees (box 1f is net of transaction costs), trades near the year end, or a trade missing from your export.

Then check the basis

If the 1099-DA shows basis reported to the IRS (box G or J) and that basis is wrong, the Form 8949 instructions say: enter the basis exactly as shown in column (e), enter code "B" in column (f), and work out the correction for column (g) with the basis adjustment worksheet. Keep the records that prove your number.

If basis was not reported (box H or K), enter your correct basis in column (e) and -0- in column (g).

Then find the sales with no form

List every platform you used: offshore exchanges, DeFi, self-custody wallets. Their sales go in box I or box L.

Keep the evidence

Keep trade histories, deposit and withdrawal records, and transaction IDs. Form 8949 asks for the asset name, the number of units and, if available, the transaction ID.

How TheCryptoHub helps

The hard part is not the form. It is getting every exchange into one ledger. TheCryptoHub connects to your exchanges with read-only or trade API keys, never withdrawal permission, and builds one P&L across all of them. Transfers between your own accounts are matched, so they are not counted as sales.

The Tax Center works from the same data. For the US it produces Form 8949 and Schedule D, plus a 1099-DA reconciliation that lists proceeds and basis per exchange, so you can tick each venue off against the form it sent. Sales with no known purchase price are flagged for review instead of being dropped.

You can try it with sample data first. The demo needs no signup: open the free demo.