By Mike Ring | Blockchain Crypto Tax Prep | Updated June 2026
Your Gemini 1099-DA landed in your inbox in February. You opened it, saw a number that looked vaguely threatening, and then noticed there was no cost basis anywhere on it. You’re not alone — and you’re not imagining things. The form is supposed to look that way. For now.
This guide covers what Gemini’s 1099-DA actually shows, how Gemini handles cost basis (spoiler: mostly it doesn’t, yet), and what you need to do before you file so the IRS doesn’t assume you made money on proceeds you already spent on gas fees and bad altcoin calls.
We’ve also published exchange-specific 1099-DA breakdowns for Coinbase, Kraken, Robinhood, Crypto.com, and Binance.US if you’re running a multi-exchange situation — which most of our clients are.
What Is Form 1099-DA, and Why Did Gemini Send You One?
The requirement for brokers to report digital asset transactions stems from changes to Internal Revenue Code §6045 made by the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. Treasury and the IRS issued final regulations on reporting by brokers on dispositions of digital assets, and that reporting is required to be made on Form 1099-DA beginning with transactions on or after January 1, 2025.
In plain terms: the IRS finally has a standardized form to track crypto sales, the same way Form 1099-B tracks stock sales. Form 1099-DA (Digital Asset Proceeds from Broker Transactions) is the IRS’s new mandatory reporting form for cryptocurrency transactions. You can find the official form and instructions at irs.gov/form1099da.
Any U.S. account holder who sold, traded, or otherwise disposed of crypto on Gemini in 2025 will receive this form — including selling crypto for cash, swapping one coin for another, or spending crypto. Simply buying and holding crypto does not trigger the form, and there is no minimum dollar amount — even small transactions are reported.
Gemini issued Form 1099-DA by February 15, 2026 for the 2025 tax year. You’ll receive an email notification when the form is ready, and it’s available in your account under Settings > Statements.
What Gemini’s 1099-DA Actually Reports
Here’s what the form contains — and what it conspicuously does not.
What Goes to the IRS
What Gemini reports to the IRS for 2025 activity: proceeds only (sale amount). Cost basis is not reported to the IRS for 2025 activity.
That’s it. The IRS receives a line-item list of every disposal you made on Gemini in 2025 — dates, asset types, and gross proceeds. No cost basis. No gain or loss. Just the top-line number.
The statements reflecting information reported on Form 1099-DA are different from some other statements taxpayers receive showing information reported on other IRS forms, because most of these statements will not provide the basis of the taxpayers’ digital asset transactions for the 2025 tax year.
This is the core tension of the 2025 filing season: the biggest tax trap for 2025 is that the IRS receives your sale amounts but not what you originally paid. For the 2025 tax year, Gemini’s 1099-DA forms will not report cost basis to the IRS. While your customer copy may include gain/loss information, the IRS only receives the proceeds from your sales.
What’s on Your Customer Copy (But Not the IRS Copy)
Gemini does something most exchanges don’t: it provides a gain/loss statement on your copy of the form, for your reference. Customer Form 1099-DA recipient statements include gain/loss information that is not reported to the IRS. The gains/losses are determined using the basis of assets that were purchased and held on the exchange, acquired on the exchange but not purchased (such as credit card rewards), or transferred into the account with customer-provided basis information.
Each row represents a sale or trade of a digital asset in 2025. Fees paid in crypto will appear as small disposals. If you acquired the assets that were disposed of in multiple acquisitions, that single disposition may be represented by numerous lines in the report showing the separate tax lots that were disposed of.
If you dispose of assets that were acquired via staking or Earn rewards, a single disposition may show up as a very long list of acquisitions. That’s not a formatting bug — that’s every reward lot getting matched against the sale. Fun in theory. Less fun when you’re staring at 200 rows for one ETH sell.
Important: gain/loss information that is indicated as not provided to the IRS is not required to be used for your U.S. tax filings. Customers can rely on their own calculations for gain/loss reporting on their 2025 U.S. tax return. Gemini’s customer-facing number is a reference point, not a mandate.
How Gemini Handles Cost Basis
The Covered vs. Noncovered Divide
This is the concept that everything else hangs on. Mandatory basis reporting will be phased in, applying only to “covered securities” — a term narrowly defined as digital assets acquired on or after January 1, 2026, and held continuously in a broker’s account. Any asset acquired before that date or transferred into a broker’s platform is considered a “noncovered security,” for which brokers are not required to report basis.
For 2025 specifically: all crypto sold in 2025 is considered “non-covered,” meaning Gemini has no legal obligation to report cost basis to the IRS. This includes any crypto bought on Gemini before January 1, 2026, and crypto transferred into Gemini from external sources.
Starting in 2026, the picture shifts. Cost basis reporting to the IRS begins in 2026 for certain covered assets — generally assets purchased on Gemini on or after January 1, 2026, and held on Gemini until sold.
Gemini’s Default Accounting Method
Gemini offers customers the ability to select an accounting method for sales made in the account. Method adjustments are made in real time. If you have not selected a method for your account, the default method of First In First Out (FIFO) is applied to your sales.
FIFO is often the worst outcome for long-term holders who bought early. If you bought BTC in 2020 and sold some in 2025, FIFO matches those sales to your oldest, cheapest lots — meaning larger gains. If you haven’t deliberately selected a cost basis method in your Gemini Tax Center, check it now. If you change your method, the new method will be applied to all sales after the selection. It does not retroactively fix past 2025 sales, so this matters more for ongoing 2026 activity.
What Happens with Transferred-In Assets
This is where most of the chaos lives. Cost basis information on Gemini’s Form 1099-DA may be incorrect or missing, especially if you transferred crypto from another wallet or exchange.
If there are transferred assets in the account that the customer has not provided basis information — acquisition cost and date — for, Gemini will not be able to provide gain/loss information. Cost basis marked with an asterisk (*) on the statement indicates missing information for transferred assets.
Any crypto transferred into Gemini from an external wallet or another exchange is treated as non-covered. Gemini is not required to report the cost basis of non-covered assets to the IRS. On the 1099-DA forms, the sales proceeds will be reported; however, the cost basis section may show as “non-covered.” This means you are solely responsible for tracking, calculating, and reporting the correct cost basis on your tax return.
Gemini can’t know what you paid on Coinbase in 2019. That’s your job.
Gemini-Specific Gotchas
GUSD Is a Non-Event (Usually)
Transactions involving Gemini Dollars (GUSD) show no gains/losses as they trade 1:1 with USD. If you see GUSD swaps on your form, you can generally treat them as non-events for gain/loss purposes — though they’ll still appear as line items.
Staking and Earn Rewards Create Basis Complexity
Gemini issues Form 1099-MISC to eligible U.S. users who earn $600 or more from staking rewards, referral bonuses, or other income programs. The income on that 1099-MISC becomes your cost basis in those reward tokens. When you later sell those tokens, you need to report that basis — and Gemini will try to include it on your gain/loss statement if you’ve held those rewards on-platform, but the lot list can get unwieldy fast.
Sub-Penny Disposals
You may find a small disposal showing proceeds of $0.00 on your statement. This happens when the asset disposed of is less than one cent in value. These will still show as line items on your 1099-DA. They’re real taxable events. They’re also generally immaterial. Report them, move on.
Gemini Does Not Prepare Form 8949 for You
Gemini does not prepare or issue Form 8949 for customers. Your 1099-DA and gain/loss statement are inputs, not outputs. Use the statement to complete Form 8949 for your U.S. tax return. Gemini does not provide Form 8949 directly. That bridge — between the 1099-DA and your actual Schedule D — is something you (or your tax preparer) have to build.
Off-Platform Activity Is Invisible to Gemini
Gemini has no visibility into transactions on other platforms. You are required to keep your own records across all wallets and exchanges. Transfers, off-platform trades, and DeFi transactions are not covered by Gemini’s reporting and must still be included in individual tax returns. The 1099-DA covers your Gemini activity only. Everything else is your problem.
How to Fix Missing or $0 Cost Basis
This is the part that actually matters. The 1099-DA showing $0 or blank cost basis isn’t an error per se — it’s the system working as designed. The fix happens at the return level, not the form level.
Step 1: Gather Your Source Records
For every disposal on your Gemini 1099-DA, you need to know:
- What you originally paid for each lot (acquisition cost in USD at time of purchase)
- When you acquired it (to determine short-term vs. long-term holding period)
- Where you acquired it (Gemini itself, another exchange, a wallet, a DeFi protocol)
For assets bought directly on Gemini, this is straightforward — export your transaction history from the Tax Center and work backwards through your buy history.
For transferred-in assets, you need records from wherever those assets came from: Coinbase transaction history, Kraken trade history, on-chain records from your self-custody wallet, DEX trade records. Basis must be calculated by taxpayers before their 2025 tax return can be filed. Detailed recordkeeping is critical for reporting the basis accurately.
Step 2: Match Lots to Disposals
Your Gemini 1099-DA reports disposals. Your records tell you what lots those disposals consumed. You need to match them under whichever accounting method applies — FIFO by default unless you specifically elected something else.
For accounts with Earn or staking activity, if you acquired the assets disposed of in multiple acquisitions, that single disposition may be represented by numerous lines in the report showing the separate tax lots disposed of. A single sale in your account may touch dozens of acquired lots. Work through each one.
Step 3: Report the Correct Basis on Form 8949
This is where your actual tax return gets built. You report each disposal from your Gemini 1099-DA on Form 8949, using:
- Column (d): Proceeds (from the 1099-DA)
- Column (e): Your reconstructed cost basis
- Columns (f)/(g): Adjustments if applicable
- Column (h): Gain or loss
Because these are noncovered transactions for 2025, you’ll check Box C (short-term noncovered) or Box F (long-term noncovered) on Form 8949. The IRS knows cost basis wasn’t reported — that’s fine. What matters is that you report it correctly yourself.
Step 4: Update Basis for Transferred Assets in Gemini (For Future Filings)
If there are missing cost basis details on assets you transferred, you can update them through the Tax Center in your Gemini account. If you make these edits after February, it is unlikely to change your 1099-DA for the reported tax year, but it positions you better for 2026 — especially as Gemini begins reporting cost basis to the IRS for covered assets acquired after January 1, 2026.
For a deeper look at the mechanics of reconstructing missing cost basis across exchanges, see our pillar guide: 1099-DA Missing Cost Basis: The Full Breakdown. If you’d rather have someone else handle this, our missing cost basis resolution service walks through exactly what we do.
Other Exchange 1099-DA Guides
If you traded on more than just Gemini — and most people who traded in 2025 did — each exchange has its own quirks. We cover them all in the BCTP Insights hub:
- Coinbase 1099-DA — the highest-volume exchange, and the one most likely to trigger IRS matching issues
- Kraken 1099-DA — staking treatment and international complications
- Robinhood 1099-DA — no self-custody, but the form still has gaps
- Crypto.com 1099-DA — rewards programs and card cashback add complexity
- Binance.US 1099-DA — limited product suite now, but historical activity still matters
If you used multiple exchanges, your total Form 8949 must consolidate all of them. Each 1099-DA is one input; your return is the output.
FAQ
1. My Gemini 1099-DA shows $180k in proceeds. Does that mean I owe tax on $180k?
No. Proceeds are the gross sale amount — not your gain. If you bought that crypto for $160k and sold it for $180k, you have a $20k gain. The 1099-DA shows the $180k; your cost basis documentation is what gets you to $20k. File Form 8949 with the correct basis, and you’re taxed on the gain, not the proceeds. This is the most common source of panic we see.
2. Why is cost basis blank or missing on my Gemini 1099-DA?
In its first year, Form 1099-DA will not include cost basis, and that’s expected. As a result, many taxpayers will receive forms that look incomplete. Cost basis is not reported to the IRS for 2025 activity. Cost basis reporting to the IRS begins in 2026 for certain covered assets — generally assets purchased on Gemini on or after January 1, 2026, and held on Gemini until sold.
3. I transferred crypto into Gemini from another exchange. Does Gemini know my cost basis?
The biggest issue with Gemini’s IRS reporting is the cost basis gap: Gemini doesn’t know what you originally paid for crypto that came from elsewhere. You need to supply that information yourself when you file — either by reconstructing records from the originating exchange or from your own purchase history.
4. What accounting method does Gemini use by default?
If you have not selected a method for your account, the default method of First In First Out (FIFO) is applied to your sales. You can change this in your Gemini Tax Center settings. Be aware that changes apply going forward, not retroactively to 2025 disposals.
5. I earned staking rewards on Gemini. How does that affect my 1099-DA?
Staking rewards are income when received — generally reported on a 1099-MISC if they exceeded $600. Rewards from Gemini Earn are treated as ordinary income. The fair market value at the time of receipt becomes your cost basis in those tokens. When you later sell them, that basis offsets your proceeds. If you dispose of assets acquired via staking or Earn rewards, a single disposition may show up as a very long list of acquisitions — one for each reward lot. It’s messy but traceable.
6. Does Gemini report to the IRS if I don’t receive a 1099-DA?
IRS rules require taxpayers to report all gains, losses, and income from cryptocurrency, even if no form is issued. The absence of a 1099 does not remove the obligation. Not receiving a form means the IRS might not have a specific cross-reference for your account — but it doesn’t make the transactions non-taxable.
7. Can I just use Gemini’s customer gain/loss statement to file my taxes?
You can use it as a reference, but treat it carefully. The statement’s accuracy depends on the inputs you provide, such as transferred asset data and cost basis selections. Incorrect inputs lead to inaccurate statements. If you transferred assets in without providing cost basis, the gain/loss statement will be incomplete. Your Form 8949 needs to reflect your actual basis — from all sources — not just what Gemini could calculate.
Bottom Line
Gemini’s 1099-DA is more useful than most exchanges’ first-year attempts — the customer-facing gain/loss statement is a genuine differentiator. But it has the same structural limitation every exchange faces in 2025: proceeds are reported to the IRS, cost basis is not, and anything that came from outside Gemini is your responsibility to document.
The IRS has the top-line number. Your job — or your tax preparer’s job — is to make sure your return gives them the full picture: proceeds, basis, holding period, gain or loss. If any of those are wrong, you’re either overpaying or underreporting. Neither outcome is great.
If you’ve got transferred-in assets, staking reward lots, or a multi-exchange situation that’s making your head spin, the missing cost basis resolution process is where we start. Or browse the full library of exchange guides and IRS guidance breakdowns in the BCTP Insights hub.
This post is educational and does not constitute tax advice. Your specific situation may differ from the general guidance described here. Consult a qualified tax professional before filing.
Need help with your crypto taxes? Mike Ring and the BCTP team handle the messy stuff — multi-chain DeFi, 1099-DAs that don’t add up, prior-year amendments. Free consult at cryptotaxprep.io or call 410-216-4632.
This isn’t tax advice. Talk to a professional about your specific situation.
