The wash-sale statute is about stock or securities. Tokenized securities are in the broker instructions. Bitcoin held as property is a narrower question than the slogans.
Not tax advice · reviewed 25 October 2026
Wash sales and bitcoin in 2026
A wash sale, in IRC section 1091, is a loss on stock or securities that is disallowed when you acquire substantially identical stock or securities inside the window the statute describes. The loss is generally added to the basis of the replacement position. People repeat two opposite shortcuts: “crypto is exempt,” and “crypto is already covered.” Neither shortcut is the text below. The worksheet in this repo does not apply the adjustment. It remains a review with a tax pro.
What the written authorities say
- Section 1091 names stock or securities. It does not contain the word bitcoin.
- Notice 2014-21 treats convertible virtual currency as property. Property is a wider word than security. The notice does not declare a wash-sale rule.
- June 2023. A Joint Committee on Taxation staff report said digital assets are not expressly within the scope of section 1091. A staff report is not a statute. It is evidence that, as of that date, the section had not been written to say “digital assets.”
- 2025 Instructions for Schedule D. The wash-sale rules generally apply to digital assets that are also stock or securities. The case the instructions are talking about is a tokenized security, not a coin that is only property.
- 2026 Instructions for Form 1099-DA, box 1i. Brokers report wash-sale loss disallowed when the digital asset is a tokenized security treated as stock or securities under section 1091, in the same account, with the same CUSIP. Wash sales outside that pattern, including across accounts, are optional for the broker to report. Optional reporting is not the same thing as “no rule.”
Plain bitcoin is not a tokenized security and it has no CUSIP. On these instructions, a loss on bitcoin you hold as property is outside the wash-sale sentence that covers tokenized stock. A loss on a tokenized share can be inside it. Congress has discussed extending section 1091 to digital assets more broadly. If you are filing under a newer instruction than the ones named here, the newer text wins. This page was reviewed on 25 October 2026 and will not update itself.
What BasisFix does
Nothing. FIFO, HIFO, and specific identification assign lots. They do not look 30 days forward or back, they do not add disallowed loss to a replacement lot, and they do not read box 1i of a 1099-DA. That limit is honest for a stack of bitcoin the instructions treat as property. It is incomplete for a tokenized security. Do not use the worksheet as a wash-sale engine for either one.
Related reading: Form 1099-DA explained and Form 8949 for bitcoin.
Questions
Does section 1091 currently name bitcoin?
Section 1091 is written for stock or securities. A June 2023 Joint Committee on Taxation staff report said digital assets are not expressly within that section. That is not a promise that a later statute will leave bitcoin alone.
What do the 2025 and 2026 instructions actually cover?
The 2025 Schedule D instructions say wash-sale rules generally apply to digital assets that are also stock or securities. The 2026 Form 1099-DA instructions, box 1i, tell brokers to report disallowed wash-sale loss for tokenized securities treated as stock or securities under section 1091, in the same account, with the same CUSIP. Plain bitcoin is not that instrument.
Does BasisFix adjust a loss for a wash sale?
No. BasisFix computes no wash-sale disallowance for bitcoin or for tokenized securities. A preparer has to add that adjustment when the law requires it.