A crypto CPA handles the tax side of your crypto: rebuilding cost basis, reporting every sale and swap on Form 8949, reconciling Form 1099-DA, reporting staking and airdrop income, and filing the return. A financial advisor handles where crypto fits in your finances: how much of your net worth it should be, when to sell it for a house or retirement, and how it sits next to your other accounts. If crypto is a large part of your net worth, you usually need both. Few people find both in one place: only 5% of planners in a 2025 FPA survey used crypto, and a tax preparation engagement covers filing, not planning, unless the engagement letter says otherwise. Check which half the person you hire covers.
Software sits underneath both. CoinTracker imports your wallet and exchange history and calculates gains and losses. A CPA reviews and files from those reports. An advisor plans around the balances.
What does a crypto CPA do?
The IRS treats digital assets as property, so selling, swapping, or spending crypto is generally a taxable disposal. A crypto CPA turns that history into a correct return.
| Task | What the CPA does |
|---|---|
| Cost basis | Matches buys to sales; fixes transfers logged as sales |
| Form 8949, Schedule D | Reports each disposal (boxes G to L) |
| 1099-DA reconciliation | Checks broker figures against your records |
| Staking and airdrops | Income when received (Rev. Rul. 2023-14, 2019-24) |
| Estimated taxes | Sizes quarterly payments after a gain |
| Notices, amendments | Answers IRS letters; usually billed separately |
Reconciling the 1099-DA takes the most work. Brokers began reporting gross proceeds on Form 1099-DA for 2025 sales. Starting with 2026 sales, they must also report basis, but only for “covered” assets: coins acquired in 2026 or later in the same custodial account and sold there. A coin you bought in 2021 or moved in from a hardware wallet will show proceeds with no basis. File it as reported and the IRS sees your full sale price as gain. The Form 8949 instructions assign separate boxes for 1099-DA transactions with basis reported, without basis reported, and with no 1099-DA at all.
Does the wash sale rule apply to crypto?
Not to crypto you hold directly, under current law. Section 1091 disallows a loss when you buy back “stock or securities” within 30 days, and coins held directly are property. You can sell bitcoin at a loss in December, buy it back the next day, and keep the loss. Two cautions: shares of a crypto ETF are securities, so assume the rule applies to them, and Congress has considered extending the rule to digital assets several times without enacting it as of October 2026.
What does a financial advisor do for crypto?
An advisor decides how crypto fits your goals, not how it is taxed:
- Allocation. What share of your net worth crypto should be, and when to rebalance.
- Concentration. If bitcoin is 40% of your net worth, a 50% drop cuts your net worth by 20%. An advisor sets a ceiling and a selling schedule.
- Goal funding. Which assets to sell for a down payment, tuition, or early retirement, and in what order.
- Estate. Whether your heirs can reach the coins. Crypto in a self-custody wallet is lost if no one else can access the keys.
Many advisors skip all of this. In the FPA and Journal of Financial Planning 2025 Trends in Investing survey of 195 planners, cryptocurrency use stood at 5%. An advisor who cannot hold self-custodied coins may leave them off your plan, which understates your risk.
When do you need each?
| Your situation | Who to bring in |
|---|---|
| One exchange, few trades, basis reported | Software may be enough |
| Many wallets, missing basis, or DeFi | Crypto CPA + software |
| Staking, mining, or airdrops | Crypto CPA |
| IRS letter on crypto proceeds | Crypto CPA or EA |
| Crypto is much of your net worth | Financial advisor |
| Selling crypto for a big purchase | Both: advisor sizes, CPA times |
| Moving states before a big sale | Both |
| Donating appreciated crypto | Both |
What does each cost?
Tax preparation. In the National Society of Accountants’ 2024 survey of 183 practitioners, the average fee for an itemized Form 1040 was $300 to $600, and 67% of firms charged extra for disorganized or incomplete files, averaging $100 to $200. Of the respondents, 51% were enrolled agents and 34% were CPAs. Crypto reconciliation is usually quoted on top, often hourly. Ask for software, reconciliation, and filing as three separate numbers; how much a crypto tax accountant costs breaks those down.
Financial advice. A 2017 Kitces analysis of a survey of nearly 1,000 advisors put the median fee for assets under management at 1% up to $1 million. On a $500,000 portfolio that is $5,000 a year. Confirm whether the percentage applies to crypto the advisor does not manage. Flat-fee planners charge a set annual amount regardless of balances.
Both together. Nino’s Advisor plans include a CPA, a CFP, and federal and state filing for a flat annual fee: Essential at $3,600 a year for one person, Plus at $4,800 for two people with joint and multi-state filing, and Premier at $12,000, which adds business and international filing. Final pricing can vary with the complexity of your finances.
How does crypto affect the rest of your plan?
Selling to buy a home. The gain lands in the year you sell. Long-term gains are taxed at 0%, 15%, or 20%; for 2026 the 20% rate starts at $545,500 of taxable income for single filers and $613,700 for joint filers, per Rev. Proc. 2025-32. The 3.8% net investment income tax applies above $200,000 of modified AGI ($250,000 joint). Splitting a sale across December and January puts it in two tax years. Plan an estimated payment for the quarter of the sale.
Donating appreciated crypto. Coins held more than one year can be deducted at fair market value, which avoids the capital gain, generally up to 30% of AGI for gifts to a public charity. Claims above $5,000 need a qualified appraisal, per Chief Counsel Advice 202302012. Starting in 2026, itemized gifts count only above 0.5% of AGI, and the 37% bracket deducts at 35%; see 2026 tax changes.
State residency. A capital gain is generally taxed by the state where you live when you sell. Moving to a state without an income tax after the sale does not change that, and a move timed for a sale needs records showing you changed your domicile.
Concentration and the rest of the portfolio. A large crypto gain or loss changes how much risk the rest of your accounts should carry, whether you can afford a larger 401(k) contribution, and how much cash you hold for taxes.
Red flags and questions to ask
Red flags in a crypto CPA:
- They ask for a seed phrase or private key. Tax work needs records, not control of your assets.
- They plan to file 1099-DA proceeds without checking basis.
- They cannot explain how they treat a transfer between your own wallets.
Red flags in an advisor:
- They promise a return or push a single token.
- They do not appear on the SEC’s Investment Adviser Public Disclosure site or FINRA’s BrokerCheck. Verify a CPA’s license with your state board, and see the IRS guide to choosing a tax professional.
Questions for either:
- How many returns with crypto did you file last season?
- Which crypto tax software do you work from, and who fixes missing basis?
- How do you handle a 1099-DA that shows proceeds but no basis?
- Is reconciliation priced separately from filing? Is audit support included?
- Will you plan sales and estimated payments during the year, or only file?
- Do you charge a percentage fee on assets you do not manage?
Where CoinTracker and Nino fit
CoinTracker is the record: it tracks your transactions and produces the tax reports. Nino is built by the team behind CoinTracker, and its CPA Shehan Chandrasekera is also Head of Tax Strategy at CoinTracker. When you connect CoinTracker to Nino, Nino reads your wallet and exchange balances, holdings, and cost basis, refreshed hourly. It does not import individual transactions. Your CFP sees that crypto next to your bank, brokerage, retirement accounts, and home, and your CPA files from the CoinTracker tax reports you upload to your filing checklist. Nothing is filed until you approve it. See how the team works.