Survey: Over half of US crypto investors worried about penalties from new IRS tax rules

PANews reported on February 18th that, according to CoinDesk, a survey by crypto tax platform Awaken Tax revealed that over 50% of US crypto investors are concerned about facing IRS penalties this year. New regulations require brokers like Coinbase to report all digital asset transactions for 2025 to the IRS via Form 1099-DA to combat tax evasion. For the first time, the IRS will access internal exchange data and compare it with taxpayer reports.

Founder Andrew Duca points out that while the rule equates crypto assets to stocks, its actual operation is complex: users frequently transfer assets between multiple wallets and interact with DeFi, while brokers can only report sales proceeds, not the tax base (purchase cost), resulting in incomplete forms. Taxpayers must supplement cost information themselves using Form 8949. Currently, the crypto tax compliance rate is less than 20%.