1099-DA Form: What It Is and Why Crypto Traders in North America Need to Know

When the 1099-DA form, a new IRS tax form designed to track cryptocurrency transactions and report them to the government. It's not just paperwork—it’s the IRS’s way of closing the gap on unreported crypto income. If you traded, sold, or earned crypto in 2024, this form could land in your mailbox—or your broker’s. Unlike the old 1099-B, which only covered sales, the 1099-DA demands details on every crypto transaction: buys, sells, swaps, staking rewards, airdrops, even DeFi interest. It’s the first time the IRS has created a form built specifically for how people actually use crypto today.

The IRS, the U.S. federal agency responsible for tax collection and enforcement rolled out the 1099-DA in 2024 after years of pressure to track digital asset activity. It’s not optional. Crypto exchanges and platforms with over 200 transactions or $20,000 in gross proceeds must file it for each user. That means if you used Coinbase, Kraken, or even a smaller DeFi protocol that partners with a U.S.-based service, you’re likely on their radar. The crypto tax reporting, the process of documenting and submitting cryptocurrency transaction data to tax authorities system is no longer just about self-reporting. It’s now automated, enforced, and tied directly to your identity through Social Security numbers and bank accounts.

Why does this matter? Because the 1099-DA form changes how you think about crypto gains. Staking Cardano? That’s income. Swapping ETH for SOL? That’s a taxable event. Getting an airdrop like RACA or CMP? That’s taxable too—at fair market value on the day you received it. You can’t just ignore it. The IRS now has tools to match your 1099-DA with your personal tax return. If they see a $5,000 airdrop you didn’t report, you’ll get a notice. And penalties start at $100 per unreported transaction.

North American traders are caught in the middle. On one side, you’ve got platforms like EXIR in Iran or Arbidex that shut down because they couldn’t comply. On the other, you’ve got U.S.-based exchanges now collecting data you didn’t even know they had. The cryptocurrency taxation, the legal and financial process of calculating and paying taxes on cryptocurrency gains and income rules aren’t changing—they’re just getting harder to avoid. And the data is already flowing.

What you’ll find below isn’t a tax guide. It’s a collection of real stories from traders who’ve faced the consequences of missing this form. You’ll see how Turkey’s crackdown forced users to rethink reporting, how Algeria’s ban made crypto invisible to tax authorities, and how Vietnam’s $91 billion in crypto activity still leaves people guessing what they owe. You’ll read about airdrops that turned into tax bills, mining pools that didn’t track earnings, and stablecoins like mCEUR that created unexpected income. These aren’t hypotheticals. They’re real cases—and they all connect to the 1099-DA form.