Do I have to pay tax on crypto?
Tick what you did with crypto this year and find out which activities trigger tax, and whether it counts as capital gains or income. Works for any country and takes about thirty seconds.
Two ways crypto gets taxed
Almost every crypto tax question comes down to one of these two buckets.
Capital gains
When you dispose of crypto by selling, swapping or spending it, you're taxed on the gain: what it was worth when you let it go, minus what you paid. Dispose at a loss and you may be able to offset other gains.
Income
When you receive crypto as earnings, from staking, airdrops, interest or being paid, its value on the day you got it is taxed as income. If you later sell it, a separate capital gains clock starts from that value.
Crypto tax, answered
Do I have to pay tax on crypto?
In most countries, yes, once you do something with it. Selling, swapping or spending crypto is usually a capital gains event, and crypto you earn from staking, airdrops or being paid is usually income. Simply buying and holding is not taxed.
Is swapping one crypto for another taxable?
In most countries, yes. Trading, say, ETH for SOL counts as disposing of the ETH, so any gain since you bought it is taxable, even though you never touched cash. France is a notable exception for casual investors.
Is moving crypto between my own wallets taxable?
No. Transferring crypto between wallets or accounts you own is not a disposal and not a taxable event. Keep records though, since exchanges can misread transfers as sales.
Do I owe tax if I only bought and held?
No. Buying crypto with regular money and holding it is not taxable in most countries. Tax applies when you later sell, swap, spend or earn crypto.
See exactly what you owe
Connect your wallets and exchanges once. Kryptos classifies every transaction and gives you a filing-ready report for your country.