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What is a crypto broker?
In US tax rules, a digital asset broker is a business that, in the ordinary course, stands ready to carry out sales of digital assets for others — such as a custodial trading platform, a crypto kiosk operator, or certain payment processors. Brokers report customers' sales to the IRS on Form 1099-DA.
What it means for you
In the US, a sale through a broker produces a Form 1099-DA sent to you and the IRS. Under the form's instructions, a business that only sells or licenses wallet hardware or software letting you control your own keys, or only validates transactions, is not a digital asset middleman, so a sale from a self-custody wallet can come with no broker form; it is still taxable.
How it works
The Form 1099-DA instructions define a broker as any person who, in the ordinary course of business, stands ready to effect sales of digital assets for others. That covers a person who regularly redeems digital assets it created or issued, and anyone who effects customers' dispositions as an agent, a dealer or a digital asset middleman. Middlemen include kiosk operators and processors of digital asset payments that know the nature and proceeds of a transaction. Generally only US digital asset brokers must file. Brokers that provide custody also report basis for covered securities acquired after 2025.
Sources: IRS: Instructions for Form 1099-DA, IRS: Digital assets · checked 4 October 2026
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