The majority of crypto customers still don’t understand how crypto is taxed, mistakenly believing simple transfers trigger tax events.

Well intended crypto-tax confusion

Although most crypto investors intend to comply with tax law, major confusion reigns amongst traders about cost basis, taxable events and evolving IRS regulations, Coinbase’s new 2026 Crypto Tax Readiness Report shows. The survey was conducted between September and October 2025, with a population of 3.000 U.S. crypto users.

Regulators are ramping up enforcement and data collection while retail users remain confused about what is actually a taxable event and how to track it across wallets, CEXs and DeFi. The legislation evolves way too fast for users to keep track,…