Survey: Over half of U.S. crypto investors are concerned that new IRS tax rules will lead to penalties

According to CoinDesk, a survey by the crypto tax platform Awaken Tax shows that over 50% of U.S. crypto investors are concerned about facing IRS penalties this year.

New regulations require brokers like Coinbase to report all digital asset transactions for 2025 to the IRS using Form 1099-DA to combat tax evasion. The IRS will obtain internal exchange data for the first time and compare it with taxpayer filings. Founder Andrew Duca pointed out that the rule equates crypto assets to stocks, but the actual operation is complex: users often transfer assets between multiple wallets and interact with DeFi, while brokers can only report sales proceeds and cannot provide the tax basis (purchase cost), resulting in incomplete forms. Taxpayers need to supplement cost information themselves using Form 8949. Currently, the crypto tax compliance rate is below 20%.