Two-thirds of crypto investors unaware of new IRS tax rules that could cost them thousands of dollars, Coinbase and CoinTracker warn

Nearly two-thirds of US crypto investors are heading into tax season unaware of new reporting rules that could cost them up to $100,000, says a Monday report by Coinbase and CoinTracker shared with DL News.

Based on a survey of 3,000 American crypto investors, the 2026 Crypto Tax Readiness Report found that 61% of respondents said they are unaware of specific new rules introduced by the Internal Revenue Service for reporting 2025 taxes.

“The story this data tells is one of confusion,” Lawrence Zlatkin, Coinbase’s vice-president of tax, said in a statement shared with DL News.

“Users are struggling to navigate the complexities of crypto taxation, which is why it's so important for us to help bridge that knowledge gap,” Zlatkin said.

The findings come ahead of April 15, the IRS federal income tax filing deadline for 2025.

Criminal tax fraud can lead to a fine of up to $100,000 and five years in prison, according to Cornell Law School. That would be the worst-case scenario for individuals convicted of serious and intentional wrong-doing, and not for people who made filing errors.

The understanding gap lands at a delicate moment. The new tax rules — found in the IRS’ new Form 1099-DA — means that investors should report gross proceeds from digital assets transactions.

The problem for individual investors is that they are responsible for calculating and reconciling their own adjusted cost basis across platforms as brokers aren’t required to provide cost basis accounting to the IRS for 2025.

“The cost basis issue is uniquely hard to solve,” Shehan Chandrasekera, head of tax strategy at CoinTracker, said in a note shared with DL News.

“If a crypto investor has transactions and transfers between multiple wallets and exchanges or is involved in decentralised finance, it will be almost impossible for them to reconcile crypto taxes manually,” Chandrasekera said.

Other findings

The report described the digital assets industry as an “environment of high compliance intent but low functional understanding highlights a critical need for accessible, accurate, and integrated crypto tax solutions.”

It found that 74% percent of crypto users say they know their activity is taxable, with 56% rating their own knowledge of crypto taxes as excellent.

Crypto investors also look increasingly mainstream. Of the people polled,  76% say they also invest in traditional stocks, and 83% hold other assets such as bonds, property or commodities.

Lance Datskoluo is DL News’ Europe-based markets correspondent. Got a tip? Email him at lance@dlnews.com.