US crypto hodlers: You have about 2 weeks before the 1099-DA goes into effect.

Just a friendly reminder:

Starting January 1st, 2025 (in 2 weeks), all US exchanges (e.g. Kraken, Coinbase) will start reporting your crypto transactions directly to the IRS via the 1099-DA.

For pretty much the entire existence of crypto so far, US users have had to self report crypto gains on their taxes (many didn't, or simply underreport). But if you have any sale transactions next year (2025) within the exchange of your choosing, they will automatically be reported to the IRS.

Especially noteworthy: If you have coins that you've held for a long time (e.g. from this year or before) and you sell them next year, the IRS will see that you have $0 cost basis. And you will have to show them when you acquired your coins (if it's been too long and you somehow can't find these transactions, then too bad, the IRS will just auto-calculate your cost basis as $0).

For example, if you held DOGE from 2020 and your cost basis is $0.002 (and DOGE is now $0.40), you'll have to provide the 2020 transaction where you bought DOGE for $0.002 and pay all the capital gains on the difference. Plus they'll likely audit your other trades from back then and bill you for any other unreported gains.

TL;DR: you have about 2 weeks to tidy up your books, lock in your gains, and make sure you have crypto and USD exactly where you want them to be when January 1st rolls around.