Coinbase and Form 8949
General information, not tax advice. Not affiliated with Coinbase or the IRS. This page describes what IRS forms and instructions and Coinbase's help pages say. It does not describe any individual's situation.
From tax year 2025 onward, Coinbase says Form 8949 "will no longer be available through the Coinbase Retail Tax Center", and that customers who want one can get it "through crypto tax partners" (Coinbase tax information, archived 2026-10-13). Before that change, Coinbase's help center described a pre-filled Form 8949 for members of its membership program, available back to tax year 2021 (Coinbase tax reports page, archived 2025-09-26). Form 8949 itself is the taxpayer's own IRS form, filed with Schedule D (Form 1040), and the IRS publishes the blank form (Form 8949, 2025). What Coinbase still issues is Form 1099-DA, whose figures go on Form 8949 or, in some cases, directly on Schedule D.
What Coinbase's help pages describe
Each row summarizes a Coinbase help page as captured by the Internet Archive on the date shown. The captures from 2025 are more than a year old, and the live pages may have changed since.
| Item | What Coinbase's help pages say, with capture date |
|---|---|
| Form 1099-DA | Issued from tax year 2025: proceeds only for 2025, plus cost basis for covered assets from 2026 (Coinbase Form 1099-DA page, archived 2026-10-25). See the Form 1099-DA page. |
| Form 8949 | "From tax year 2025 and onward, Form 8949 will no longer be available through the Coinbase Retail Tax Center." (archived 2026-10-13) |
| Gain/loss reports | Coinbase Taxes is where US customers can "see gains, losses, and earned income, and view reports (including IRS tax forms)" (archived 2026-10-13). The 2025-09-26 capture said its reports "include gain-loss summaries and raw transaction history with custom reports". |
| Account statements | Monthly statements, or custom statements by asset, transaction type and date, in HTML, PDF or CSV, from the Statements page (Coinbase statements page, archived 2025-10-02). |
| Where to download | Coinbase Taxes, then Documents (archived 2026-10-13). |
What Form 8949 is for
The IRS instructions describe Form 8949 as the form for reporting sales and exchanges of capital assets. It lets the taxpayer and the IRS reconcile amounts reported on Forms 1099-B, 1099-DA and 1099-S with the amounts on the return. The proceeds shown on a Form 1099-DA go in column (d). If the form shows that basis was reported to the IRS, that basis goes in column (e), and any correction goes in column (g). Totals from Form 8949 carry to Schedule D (IRS Form 8949 instructions, 2025).
Two exceptions in the instructions change how many rows are needed:
- Exception 1. Transactions on a Form 1099-DA that shows basis was reported to the IRS, with no adjustments in box 1h or 1i, the "Ordinary" box in box 6 not checked, and no other adjustment needed, can be reported as totals directly on Schedule D, line 1a (short-term) or line 8a (long-term), without Form 8949. Collectibles and qualified opportunity fund deferrals are excluded from this exception.
- Exception 2. Instead of one row per transaction, an attached statement with the same information can be used. The totals go on Form 8949 with code "M" in column (f).
The digital asset boxes, new for 2025
The 2025 Form 8949 added six checkboxes for digital assets, and the instructions say not to use boxes C and F for digital asset transactions. Each copy of Part I or Part II has only one box checked, so transactions of different types go on separate copies (IRS Form 8949 instructions, 2025; IRS Form 8949, 2025).
| Box | Part | Transactions it covers |
|---|---|---|
| G | I (short-term) | Reported on Form 1099-DA showing basis was reported to the IRS |
| H | I (short-term) | Reported on Form 1099-DA showing basis was not reported to the IRS |
| I | I (short-term) | Digital asset transactions not reported on Form 1099-DA or Form 1099-B |
| J | II (long-term) | Reported on Form 1099-DA showing basis was reported to the IRS |
| K | II (long-term) | Reported on Form 1099-DA showing basis was not reported to the IRS |
| L | II (long-term) | Digital asset transactions not reported on Form 1099-DA or Form 1099-B |
The code in the "Applicable checkbox on Form 8949" box at the top of Form 1099-DA uses the same letters: G, H, J or K. Code Y means the broker does not know whether the holding period is short or long (IRS 1099-DA instructions, 2026). The Form 8949 instructions (2025) say that when box 6 of Form 1099-DA is blank and the "Applicable checkbox on Form 8949" box shows that the broker does not know the holding period, the taxpayer's own records determine whether the gain or loss is short-term or long-term. Those instructions call this code X; the Form 1099-DA instructions use Y (IRS Form 8949 instructions, 2025). The 2025 Form 1099-DA instructions also call for code Y on forms that report no basis (IRS 1099-DA instructions, 2025).
Short-term generally means held one year or less, and long-term more than one year. The holding period starts the day after the asset was acquired and includes the day it was disposed of (IRS Form 8949 instructions, 2025).
The columns
- (a) Description of property: for a digital asset, its full name or abbreviated symbol, the exact units disposed of, and the sale transaction ID if available.
- (b) Date acquired: "VARIOUS" may be used for a block acquired on different dates; short-term and long-term parts are still reported separately.
- (c) Date sold or disposed of.
- (d) Proceeds: the amount shown on Form 1099-DA, when one was received.
- (e) Cost or other basis.
- (f) Code and (g) Amount of adjustment: left blank for most transactions; used when an adjustment applies.
- (h) Gain or loss.
Source: IRS Form 8949 instructions, 2025.
Where Coinbase's gain/loss report fits
- Coinbase describes its reports as including "gain-loss summaries and raw transaction history with custom reports", downloaded from the Documents section of Coinbase Taxes (Coinbase tax reports page, archived 2025-09-26).
- Coinbase's gains and losses depend on the cost-basis method chosen in Coinbase Taxes (HIFO, LIFO or FIFO), which Coinbase says determines how gains and losses are calculated for tax purposes (Coinbase cost-basis method page, archived 2025-10-02).
- Coinbase says Token Sales purchases are not reported on Form 1099-DA and appear in the gain/loss report instead, and that Coinbase Taxes covers Coinbase.com activity but not Coinbase Wallet (Coinbase tax information, archived 2026-10-13).
- The IRS receives the information on Form 1099-DA, including proceeds and, where reported, basis in box 1g. The recipient instructions printed on the form say brokers report proceeds, and in some cases basis, to the customer and the IRS on Form 1099-DA, and that any entry in box 1g, including zero, has been reported to the IRS as basis (IRS Form 1099-DA).
Futures: Form 6781, not Form 8949
Regulated futures contracts on digital assets are reported in aggregate on Form 1099-B, boxes 8 to 11, rather than on Form 1099-DA (IRS 1099-DA instructions, 2026; IRS 1099-B instructions, 2026). The recipient instructions on the 2026 Form 1099-B say the aggregate amount in box 11 goes on Form 6781 (IRS Form 1099-B). Coinbase says US customers who traded futures receive a Form 1099-B through Coinbase Taxes (Coinbase tax reports page, archived 2025-09-26).
Related answers
- Coinbase Form 1099-DA: what the 2025 and 2026 forms show, box by box.
- Does Coinbase report to the IRS?
- Glossary and sources
Sources
- IRS, Instructions for Form 8949 (2025). Page last updated 30-Apr-2026.
- IRS, Form 8949 (2025) (PDF).
- IRS, Instructions for Form 1099-DA (2026). Page last updated 30-Apr-2026.
- IRS, Instructions for Form 1099-DA (2025) (PDF, dated May 30, 2025).
- IRS, Form 1099-DA (2026), including the Instructions for Recipient (PDF).
- IRS, Instructions for Form 1099-B (2026). Page last updated 30-Apr-2026.
- IRS, Form 1099-B (2026), including the Instructions for Recipient (PDF).
- Coinbase Help, "Coinbase tax information": Internet Archive capture of 2026-10-13. Live page: help.coinbase.com/en/coinbase/taxes/general-information/tax-info.
- Coinbase Help, "IRS Form 1099-DA": Internet Archive capture of 2026-10-25. Live page: help.coinbase.com/en/coinbase/taxes/forms-reports/1099da.
- Coinbase Help, "Download your tax reports": Internet Archive capture of 2025-09-26. Live page: help.coinbase.com/en/coinbase/taxes/forms-reports/download-report.
- Coinbase Help, "Select your cost-basis accounting method": Internet Archive capture of 2025-10-02. Live page: help.coinbase.com/en/coinbase/taxes/tools/cost-basis-accounting.
- Coinbase Help, "Leverage your account statements": Internet Archive capture of 2025-10-02. Live page: help.coinbase.com/en/coinbase/taxes/tools/statements.