Core is a network built around Bitcoin. It uses the same address format as Ethereum, and fees are paid in CORE.
Its distinctive feature is Bitcoin staking, and it works in a way that surprises people: your BTC never leaves Bitcoin and never leaves your control. You lock it in place with a timer, and Core pays you for having done so.
That arrangement is easy to record incorrectly, because the lock looks like an ordinary Bitcoin transaction and the reward arrives in a different token on a different network.
What you get out of the box
Pick your import method.
On Core
- Open your wallet and copy your address. It starts with 0x. This is where CORE and any rewards arrive.
- If you stake Bitcoin, add your Bitcoin wallet too. The locked BTC stays on Bitcoin and never appears on Core at all.
On Kryptos
- Go to Kryptos.io and sign up with your Google account.
- From the menu, click Integrations.
- Click Add Integration and search for Core.
- Click the Core icon, then choose Import using Address.
- Give the wallet a name, paste your address, and click Import Your Transactions.
Good to know
- Staking Bitcoin here does not send it anywhere. It stays in your own wallet, locked by a timer until it expires.
- Rewards for staking Bitcoin are paid in CORE, on this network, not in BTC on Bitcoin.
- There is very little lending or trading on this chain. Its headline Bitcoin figures are not activity on Core itself.
Staking Bitcoin without your Bitcoin going anywhere
Most ways of earning yield on Bitcoin involve giving it to somebody. You send BTC to a custodian, or across a bridge, and you get back a receipt. Core does something genuinely different, and the difference changes the tax treatment.
You build a Bitcoin transaction that pays your own BTC back to yourself with a time lock attached, and writes into the transaction which Core validator you are backing and which Core address should be paid. That is it. The BTC sits on Bitcoin, in a wallet you control, until the timer expires.
Nobody took custody. There is no bridge, no wrapped token and no counterparty. So the lock is not a disposal: you did not sell, exchange or give up anything. The release later, when you spend the locked output back to yourself, is not a disposal either. Both are self-transfers.
A tool seeing only your Bitcoin wallet sees BTC leaving one output and arriving at another, which reads as a transfer at best and a disposal at worst. That is the first way this goes wrong.
The second is the reward. You staked Bitcoin, but you get paid in CORE, on a different network, at an address named inside the Bitcoin transaction. So a Bitcoin holder ends up with income denominated in a token they never bought, on a chain their BTC never touched. That CORE is income at its value on the day it arrived, and that value is its cost when you later sell it.
The practical instruction is to import both wallets. With only the Core address you get the income and no explanation. With only the Bitcoin wallet you get two confusing self-sends and no income. Our Bitcoin integration covers the other half. For how staking income is treated where you file, see the USA crypto tax guide.
Manage your Core portfolio with Kryptos.
Staking Bitcoin without sending it anywhere
The BTC stays in your wallet under a time lock. Nothing was sold and nothing was transferred to anyone, so it is not a disposal even though it looks like a transaction.
Receiving CORE for staking BTC
Rewards land on Core in CORE, not on Bitcoin in BTC. That is income in a different asset from the one you staked, which trips up most manual record keeping.
Delegating CORE to a validator
Ordinary staking of the network's own token, separate from anything you do with Bitcoin.
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.
Locking your Bitcoin is not a disposal
The lock sends BTC from you to you, with a timer attached. You never lost control and nobody else gained it, so there was no sale. On chain it looks like a transfer, which is why it gets mis-booked.
Releasing it later is not a disposal either
When the timer expires you spend the locked output back to yourself. That is a second Bitcoin transaction for the same position, and it is still your own money moving.
Rewards are income in a different asset
You stake Bitcoin and get paid in CORE. The income is the CORE at its value on the day it arrived, and that value becomes its cost for any later sale. Your BTC position is unchanged throughout.
Your staked BTC never shows up on Core
Importing only your Core address captures the rewards but not the Bitcoin behind them. Import the Bitcoin wallet too or the position is invisible.
Read-only by design.
- Kryptos only ever needs your public wallet address
- A public address is read-only. It can't move or spend anything
- We never ask for your recovery phrase or private key
- Remove a wallet whenever you like, and its data goes with it
If something doesn't sync.
The lock is a transaction from you to yourself. Import your Bitcoin wallet so Kryptos can see both ends and treat it as the self-transfer it is.
That is the reward for staking Bitcoin. It is income in CORE, received at the value on the day, and it has no purchase price because you did not buy it.
It is not on Core. Staked BTC stays on the Bitcoin network in your own wallet, so it will never appear in a Core balance.
Still stuck? Email support@kryptos.io or open live chat from the app.