Staking reward cost basis is the amount you are treated as having paid for reward units, which is the value at which they were included in your income. Each reward is its own tax lot, with its own basis and its own acquisition date, separate from the principal you staked.
Basis is what a later gain or loss is measured against. For units you bought it is the purchase price plus fees. For reward units nothing was paid, and the basis is set instead by the income event: the value at which the reward went into gross income becomes the amount treated as paid for it. A reward included at $50 has a basis of $50; sold later for $80 it produces a $30 gain, not $80.
Because rewards arrive continuously, a staking wallet holds many small tax lots next to the original principal. Each lot has its own basis and its own acquisition date, and they never merge. A year of daily rewards is 365 lots, and a disposal from the wallet takes units from specific lots according to the cost basis method in use.
The amount that was included. Under Section 1012 principles basis is cost, and the cost of property received as income is the amount of income recognised on receipt; Revenue Ruling 2023-14 sets that amount as the fair market value of the rewards when the taxpayer gains dominion and control over them. The holding period of the reward units starts when they are received, so whether a later sale is short-term or long-term is measured from the reward date, not from the date the principal was acquired.
Two consequences follow. A reward never included in income has no basis to claim: the basis is created by the inclusion, and a reward left off the return is a zero-basis unit at sale. And the basis is fixed at the value used for income, so an income figure taken from one price source and a basis taken from another leaves a gap that surfaces as a phantom gain or loss.
From 1 January 2025 basis is tracked wallet by wallet, so reward lots belong to the wallet or account that received them and move with the units when they are transferred out, carrying their basis and holding period to the new location.
Basis that stays behind on a transfer. Reward units moved from a staking wallet to an exchange arrive as transferred-in assets the exchange has no basis for, and its Form 1099-DA reports the later sale with proceeds only. If the wallet record of the reward lots is not carried across, the return reports the full proceeds as gain on units that were already taxed as income at their full value on receipt.
Read our Are Crypto Staking Rewards Taxed? Yes, Here's How in 2026
CountDeFi provides done-for-you crypto tax accounting, including reward lot records, basis transfers between wallets and multi-chain activity. See pricing.
