Circle issues USDC. It is worth being clear about what that means for you: accounts with Circle itself are for businesses that create and redeem the token at scale, and individuals cannot open one.
So if you hold USDC, you almost certainly got it from an exchange or a swap rather than from Circle, and that is where your records live.
What this page is really about is the assumption that stablecoins do not matter for tax. They do, and in one country in particular they matter more than people expect.
What you get out of the box
Pick your import method.
Where your USDC records are
- Import the exchange or wallet where you acquired the USDC. That is where the acquisition is recorded.
- Include any swaps into or out of USDC. Those are disposals even though the price barely moved.
On Kryptos
- Log in to Kryptos.
- Go to Integrations.
- Click Add Integration, then search for and select Circle.
- Click the Circle icon and choose Upload CSV.
- Upload the file. Kryptos reads it and categorises the transactions for you.
Good to know
- Individuals cannot hold a Circle account. USDC reaches people through exchanges and wallets instead.
- Buying a stablecoin with ordinary money is not a taxable event, but selling it back is.
- In the UK, the pound value of a dollar stablecoin moves even when the stablecoin does not.
The gain on a coin that never moved
Most people treat stablecoins as somewhere to park money between trades. Money in, money out, nothing happened. In one important case, that is wrong, and the reason is not obvious.
Start with what is straightforward. Buying a stablecoin with ordinary money is not a taxable event anywhere we checked. It acquires an asset and fixes what it cost. Selling it back is a disposal, which sounds alarming until you realise the gain is usually about nothing. Still reportable, rarely expensive.
Now the part that catches UK filers. Your cost is carried in pounds, not dollars. So when you buy a dollar-pegged token, what you have recorded is the pound cost of a dollar. If the pound weakens before you sell, those same dollars are worth more pounds, and you have made a genuine chargeable gain.
The token did nothing. It sat at a dollar the whole time. The gain came entirely from currency movement, and it is real enough to report. Somebody moving substantial sums in and out of dollar stablecoins across a year when sterling moved can have a meaningful position with no crypto price change at all.
Worth two honest caveats. The UK guidance we are relying on is exactly that, guidance rather than statute, and it folds stablecoins in with other tokens rather than addressing them separately. And we checked the US and UK only, so do not extend this to elsewhere without asking. See the USA crypto tax guide or the UK crypto tax guide.
Manage your Circle portfolio with Kryptos.
Selling a stablecoin back to your own currency
This is a disposal. For most people the gain is close to nothing, but it is still an event that belongs on a complete return.
Swapping USDC for another token
Exchanging one token for another disposes of the first. Stablecoins are not exempt from that.
Holding a dollar token while your own currency moves
If you do not think in dollars, a dollar-pegged token is not a stable asset from where you are standing.
Audit-ready, automatically.
Once your wallets and exchanges are connected, generating a tax report takes a single click. Open Reports from the menu, choose your jurisdiction, and download.
Buying a stablecoin is not a taxable event
Exchanging ordinary money for a stablecoin acquires an asset and establishes what it cost. Nothing is realised at that point, in either the US or the UK.
Selling it back is a disposal, even at zero gain
In the US, selling any virtual currency requires recognising the gain or loss. In the UK, selling tokens for money is expressly a disposal. A gain of nothing is still a reportable event rather than a non-event.
In the UK the currency moves even when the token does not
Cost is carried in pounds. So if you bought a dollar-pegged token when the pound was strong and sold when it was weak, you have a real gain in pounds, on a token that never left its peg. That surprises people and it is not a rounding error.
Swapping a stablecoin for another token is a disposal
This is explicit in both places. Using a stablecoin as the middle step in a trade does not make the trade disappear.
Nobody has granted stablecoins an exemption
We found no primary rule in either country treating them differently from other tokens. Anyone telling you stablecoin conversions are tax free is going beyond what the guidance says.
Read-only by design.
- A file upload is read-only. Nothing connects to your account
- Kryptos never asks for your password or login details
- Delete an import at any time and its data goes with it
- Keep the original file: it is your evidence if anyone asks later
If something doesn't sync.
Individuals cannot. Circle's own accounts are for businesses creating and redeeming the token at scale.
If you file in the UK, that is expected. Cost is carried in pounds, so exchange rate movement produces a real gain even on a dollar-stable token.
They are not, in either country we checked. The gains are usually small, which is different from not existing.
Still stuck? Email support@kryptos.io or open live chat from the app.