Kraken, a cryptocurrency exchange, has filed 56 million forms with the US Internal Revenue Service for the 2025 tax year, with approximately 18.5 million of these forms covering transactions valued at less than $1. Over half of the forms were for transactions worth $10 or less. According to the company, this creates a substantial reporting burden, with each form also being sent to the customer, resulting in a reconciliation task for the taxpayer. The company estimates that the additional burden on an active cryptocurrency holder could be between $250 and $500 per year for specialized tax software, on top of standard filing costs.
The lack of a minimum exemption threshold for cryptocurrency payments and staking rewards is cited as a major issue, with even small purchases triggering a taxable event. Kraken argues that this results in a disproportionate cost to taxpayers, with the Tax Foundation estimating that individual returns already cost Americans a combined $146 billion in time and expenses. The company is advocating for a broader, inflation-indexed exemption and the option for taxpayers to choose when staking rewards are taxed, either at receipt or at sale.