Capital Gains Tax Crypto: What You Owe When You Sell Bitcoin and Other Coins

When you sell capital gains tax crypto, the tax you pay on profit from selling cryptocurrency. Also known as crypto taxation, it applies whenever you trade, sell, or spend digital assets for more than you paid. It doesn’t matter if you turned Bitcoin into USD, swapped Ethereum for Solana, or bought coffee with Dogecoin—if you made a profit, the IRS and many other tax agencies want their cut.

Most people think crypto is tax-free because it’s decentralized, but that’s not true. crypto selling, any disposal of cryptocurrency for value. Also known as crypto disposal, it triggers a taxable event. That includes trades between coins, NFT sales, and even using crypto to pay for goods. The moment you profit, you owe tax. The amount depends on how long you held it: short-term (under a year) gets taxed like regular income, while long-term (over a year) usually gets a lower rate. This isn’t theoretical—thousands get audited every year for failing to report crypto gains.

What makes this messy? crypto taxation, the legal requirement to report gains and losses from digital asset transactions. Also known as cryptocurrency taxation, it varies by country and even by state. In the U.S., the IRS treats crypto as property, not currency. In the EU, rules differ by member state. Some countries like Portugal offer exemptions; others like Germany tax after one year. You can’t guess your way out of this. You need records: purchase dates, prices, wallet addresses, and trade history. Tools like Koinly or CoinTracker help, but you’re still responsible for accuracy. Even if an exchange doesn’t send you a 1099, you still owe tax.

And here’s the kicker: many people don’t realize they owe tax on small trades. Buying a $50 NFT with $100 worth of ETH? If that ETH was bought for $60, you just made $40 in gains. That’s taxable. Selling 0.01 BTC for $300 after buying it for $200? That’s a $100 gain. These tiny moves add up fast—and they’re easy to miss without tracking. The same goes for staking rewards, airdrops, and mining income. Those are taxable too, often at the time you receive them, not when you sell.

What you’ll find in the posts below aren’t tax guides or accounting software reviews. They’re real-world examples of how crypto moves through the system—whether it’s a meme coin with zero taxes, a regulated exchange that tracks your trades, or a country that banned crypto entirely. You’ll see how tax rules shape what platforms you use, what coins you hold, and how long you wait before selling. You’ll learn why some projects avoid taxes by design, why some exchanges refuse to serve certain users, and how governments are catching up with blockchain. This isn’t about dodging tax. It’s about knowing exactly what you owe so you don’t get blindsided.