Understanding the Tax Implications of NFTs, Staking and Yield Farming

Individuals and institutions should carefully consider their tax obligations and, in the absence of official guidance, consult tax professionals or take the most conservative approach to avoid costly future audits.

As crypto adoption deepens, especially in terms of emerging technologies like NFTs and the shift toward proof-of-stake blockchains, it's crucial to understand the tax implications of these activities. Here's a brief overview of how NFTs, staking and yield farming are taxed in the U.S.

Despite the massive growth in NFT initiatives by leading enterprises, such as Meta's announcement that Instagram will soon allow creators to mint and sell NFTs directly on the platform, or Reddit's entry into the NFT market, with over 2.5 million new wallets created and cumulative sales surpassing $6.5 million, there's still a lack of clear guidance on how NFTs are taxed in the U.S.

However, based on the available information and the nature of NFTs, here's a general understanding of how they're taxed:

When an NFT is created and sold for the first time, any proceeds from the sale will be taxed as ordinary income. This applies to both the creator of the NFT and the initial buyer. For instance, if an artist mints and sells an NFT for 1 ETH, the artist's income from this sale will be 1 ETH, which is taxable as ordinary income at their applicable federal and state income tax rates.

If an NFT is purchased and later sold on a secondary marketplace, such as OpenSea, the tax treatment will depend on whether the NFT was held for more than one year. If the NFT was held for one year or less, any proceeds from the sale will be taxed as short-term capital gains at the seller's applicable federal and state income tax rates.

On the other hand, if an NFT was held for more than one year before being sold, any proceeds from the sale will be taxed as long-term capital gains at the seller's applicable federal and state income tax rates. Short-term capital gains are taxed at ordinary income rates, while long-term capital gains are taxed at lower rates, depending on the seller's income and filing status.

It's important to note that the tax basis for an NFT sold on a secondary marketplace will be the original purchase price of the NFT. For example, if someone purchased an NFT on a primary sale for 0.5 ETH and later sold it on OpenSea for 1.2 ETH, their short-term capital gain would be 0.7 ETH (1.2 ETH - 0.5 ETH), which would be taxed at their applicable ordinary income tax rates.

As part of the historic upgrade of Ethereum to proof-of-stake, many leading exchanges, such as Coinbase, are offering custodial staking opportunities, like 4-5% annual percent staking yields on ETH. Given these high yields and the fact that many people prefer to stake their crypto assets rather than sell them, especially in a down market, there's a lot of interest in how staking rewards are taxed.

Although there's no official guidance on this matter, the Internal Revenue Service appears to view staking rewards as taxable, based on the following points:

The IRS includes a question on the 2022 U.S. individual income tax return about digital assets, which asks taxpayers to indicate if they received any new digital assets as a result of mining, staking and similar activities at any time during the year. This question is highly relevant to people who earned staking rewards in 2022.

The inclusion of “similar activities” in the tax return question suggests that the IRS broadly defines any receipt of a digital asset that was not made through a purchase with cash or exchange of another property as a taxable event.

The IRS also appears to be focusing on digital asset taxation more broadly, with a priority on issuing guidance relating to tax treatment of digital asset transaction validation, including staking, during 2023.

Given the lack of official guidance on how staking rewards are taxed, an alternative view has been posited that rewards received from staking are not taxable upon receipt. Instead, any rewards received from staking may not be taxable until they're sold. Upon eventual sale, the rewards would be taxable as ordinary income (rather than capital gains), so they will not receive a favorable tax rate.

This view was being litigated in federal court in Tennessee regarding Tezos staking rewards as part of a claim for a tax refund, but the government ultimately granted the refund and the case was dismissed. So, unless the IRS makes an express statement about the matter or it arises in litigation again, the issue will remain unresolved.

In the case of Ethereum staking rewards via a centralized exchange like Coinbase, the platform may issue a 1099-MISC to both individuals and the IRS for users who earn at least $600 in “miscellaneous” income. This means that the exchange will report any staking rewards to the IRS and the user, regardless of whether or not rewards can be unlocked.

To avoid any potential issues or disputes with the IRS, especially considering the high tax rates that may apply