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Coinbase Form 1099-DA

Coinbase 1099-DA shows no cost basis (noncovered): what to do

If your Coinbase Form 1099-DA shows proceeds but no cost basis, and the asset is marked noncovered, the form is working as designed. The gap is yours to document, and you can often close it yourself.

Written by Vitalii Radionov, founder of BasisRestore · For US Coinbase users and tax preparers whose Form 1099-DA shows a noncovered asset with no basis. · Updated 2026-10-07

What “noncovered” means on a Coinbase 1099-DA

Coinbase's help pages describe two groups of noncovered assets: crypto acquired on Coinbase before January 1, 2026, and all crypto you transferred into your account from an external wallet or another exchange, regardless of when you originally bought it. Coinbase says it does not have the original purchase records for transferred-in coins.

For those assets Coinbase reports the sale proceeds, leaves the cost basis section blank, and checks the noncovered box. Coinbase's help pages say you, the customer, are solely responsible for tracking and reporting your own basis. The IRS makes the same point on its Form 1099-DA page: you must calculate basis before you file, and a Form 1099-DA does not replace your own records.

“Covered” is the other group: crypto acquired on or after January 1, 2026 and held at the same exchange until sold. Basis reporting for covered assets starts with the 2026 tax year, the one filed in 2027. A form for 2025 shows proceeds only.

  • Bought on Coinbase before 2026: noncovered, basis blank.
  • Deposited from another exchange or a self-custody wallet, any date: noncovered, basis blank.
  • Bought on Coinbase in 2026 and never moved off it: covered, so the form may show basis.

What a blank basis does and does not mean

A blank field is not a statement that you paid nothing. It means the broker had no acquisition record to report. Coinbase's own tax tools make the same distinction: for crypto received from an external source, the Retail Tax Center estimates a basis of $0 as a placeholder, shows an unknown gain or loss, and warns that the IRS may assume a $0 basis if you never report your real figure.

Coinbase also records the date you received transferred-in coins as the acquisition date for its internal lot selection. That date is a system placeholder, and Coinbase says to use your actual original purchase date when working out holding periods.

Timing can matter at the edges of the year: Coinbase uses Eastern Time for tax reporting, so a trade just after midnight ET on January 1 lands on the next year's form.

What to do yourself, step by step

None of this is tax advice. It is a way to turn a blank basis into documented evidence that you or your preparer can use. How the numbers are reported is a decision for you and your tax professional.

  1. 01List the noncovered sales on your Form 1099-DA: asset, sale date, units, proceeds. Keep the original PDF or CSV.
  2. 02For each one, find the deposit that brought those coins into Coinbase. Your Coinbase transaction history shows receives from external sources with the date, asset and amount.
  3. 03Trace each deposit to where it came from. Match the amount and time against the sending exchange's withdrawal record, or look the transaction hash up in a public block explorer. The guide on finding the cost basis of crypto transferred from another exchange covers this in detail, and the Coinbase missing cost basis checklist lists the source records to collect.
  4. 04Collect the acquisition evidence for the coins in that deposit: purchase date, units, price in US dollars, and any fees. One deposit can contain several purchases, so build one row per lot.
  5. 05Enter the lots in Coinbase: Add transaction details, Needs review tab, select the transaction, Add details, then Split this transfer if there are several lots. Enter the date acquired and total cost basis for each lot and save. Coinbase says it may not be able to issue a new Form 1099-DA, so this mainly makes its own reports match your records.
  6. 06Keep your own lot table with one row per lot: date, units, cost, source file, and the transaction hash or withdrawal ID that links it to the Coinbase deposit.
  7. 07Give your preparer or tax software the Form 1099-DA proceeds plus the lot table. Where each digital-asset sale goes on Form 8949 depends on whether the 1099-DA reported basis, so check your filing year's Form 8949 instructions on irs.gov and let your preparer decide.

When free help is enough

If the coins came from one exchange with a clean export, the steps above plus Coinbase's own transaction editor are usually enough, and they cost nothing. Coinbase Support can help with the editor and with errors in your name, tax ID or state on the form. If you already use tax software such as Koinly or CoinTracker, start with its import guides and support team, since importing the other exchange's history is a core job for those tools.

You do not need a paid service for a single clean deposit. A tax preparer can also tell you quickly whether your numbers are ready to file.

When the records are too scattered for that

Some cases do not fit a spreadsheet and an afternoon: several exchanges, deposits that mix many purchases, transfers that do not line up, an old account that is hard to reach, or a preparer waiting on a traceable file. See the synthetic sample Evidence Pack for what a reviewed result looks like, or read what an accountant-ready Evidence Pack should contain.

BasisRestore reviews qualified cases and prepares an Evidence Pack: source map, reconciled ledger, decision log and open-items list. The free no-upload check tells you whether your case fits. A $149 Record Diagnostic is offered only after an accepted scope. BasisRestore does not give tax advice or file returns, and never asks for seed phrases, private keys, exchange passwords or withdrawal-enabled API keys.

Sources and boundaries

These links are source context, not a substitute for advice from a licensed tax or accounting professional. BasisRestore reconciles records and documents evidence; it does not decide filing treatment.