Crypto Tax Canada: How Bitcoin and Other Crypto-Assets Are Taxed and Reported

Crypto-assets are taxed when you dispose of them, and the CRA’s question for every disposition is whether the result is a capital gain or business income. This page covers which transactions count, how the CRA separates investing from carrying on a business, how to work out a gain, mining and staking, losses, records and reporting. It is part of the investment tax hub; the ACB guide and the NFT tax page go deeper on related topics.

The CRA’s current guidance, Information for crypto-asset users and tax professionals, doesn’t treat crypto as a currency or describe it as a commodity: it describes the tax result of each kind of transaction, set out below.

Which crypto transactions are taxable

The CRA says a disposition of a crypto-asset may occur when you do any of the following:

• Trade or exchange it for government-issued currency or another type of crypto-asset
• Use it to buy goods or services
• Transfer ownership of it by way of gift or donation

The CRA notes the list doesn’t cover every situation. Paying for goods or services with cryptocurrency is treated as a barter transaction for income tax purposes, because cryptocurrency isn’t government-issued currency. A transfer of crypto-assets between wallets that you own doesn’t result in a taxable disposition. Buying crypto with Canadian dollars is an acquisition: it sets your cost, and the tax comes when you later dispose of it.

Giving crypto away is a disposition too; the gifting page explains how a gift of property is valued for tax.

Business income or capital gain

Every disposition produces either a capital gain (or loss) or business income (or loss), and the two are taxed and reported differently. This is the CRA’s test, from its page on reporting income from crypto-asset transactions.

In short. Whether income from disposing of crypto-assets (which the CRA's crypto-asset guide says include NFTs) is business income or a capital gain is decided case by case. The CRA's guide lists factors that may point to a business: frequent buying and selling, holding for short periods, knowledge of or experience in crypto-asset markets, spending a substantial part of your time studying them, financing purchases with debt, and advertising that you buy them; even a single transaction can be business income if it is an adventure or concern in the nature of trade, and transactions that aren't on account of business income are generally capital.

The general test. You are generally considered to be carrying on a business if your course of conduct indicates that you are disposing of crypto-assets in a way capable of producing gains, with that object in view, and the transactions are carried out in a manner similar to a trader or dealer in securities. The CRA bases this on Paragraphs 9 to 13 of Interpretation Bulletin IT-479R, Transactions In Securities, while noting that crypto-assets aren’t necessarily securities for income tax purposes.

The factors the CRA lists. Any of these may indicate that you are carrying on a business:

Case by case. Whether you are carrying on a business must be determined on a case-by-case basis and consider all the factors of your transaction. No single factor decides it, and the CRA adds that an isolated crypto-asset transaction could be determined to be on account of business income when it is considered an adventure or concern in the nature of trade: a non-habitual, profit-seeking activity separate from your ordinary occupation.

Otherwise, capital. Generally, if a crypto-asset transaction is not made on account of business income, it would be considered capital in nature.

Why it matters.

A business that holds crypto as inventory values that inventory at year end, consistently from year to year, using one of two methods the CRA describes on its valuation page: Value each item in the inventory at the cost when it was acquired or its fair market value at the end of the year, whichever is lower; or Value the entire inventory at its fair market value at the end of the year. The exception is inventory of a business that is an adventure or concern in the nature of trade, which the CRA says must be valued at the cost for which you acquired the property.

How to calculate a capital gain on crypto

A capital gain is the proceeds of disposition minus your adjusted cost base (ACB) and the outlays and expenses of making the disposition, all in Canadian dollars at the time of each transaction. The CRA says the ACB of a crypto-asset is usually the weighted average cost of a crypto-asset; the ACB guide explains how average cost works for identical properties, step by step.

Crypto-to-crypto trades

Trading one crypto-asset for another is a disposition of the one you give up, valued at fair market value at the time of the trade. The crypto you receive is an acquisition, and its cost is that same value.

For fair market value, the CRA accepts a reasonable valuation method as long as you use it consistently from year to year and keep a record of how you used it; one example it gives is rates from the exchange you trade on.

Mining and staking

From the CRA’s mining and staking page:

• Mining. In most cases, mining activities will be considered as carrying on a business due to the scale and resources involved. If you are in the business of mining, the value of the crypto-assets you receive must be included in your business income at the time it is earned. The CRA considers that ASIC miners and GPU mining rigs can fall within capital cost allowance Class 50, so the equipment is claimed through CCA.
• Staking. Rewards from staking on a centralized exchange platform will generally be considered as income under the Income Tax Act at the time the rewards are credited to your wallet on the platform.

The CRA also notes that a non-resident who uses mining equipment located in Canada may be carrying on a business in Canada and have to file a Canadian return.

Crypto losses

The CRA’s crypto tax tip adds that if you’ve been scammed, you may be able to claim a loss.

Selling crypto at a loss and buying the same crypto back around the sale can make the loss a superficial loss. When you buy it back yourself, the loss is usually added to the cost of the crypto you bought back, so it is deferred rather than lost. A TFSA or RRSP can’t hold crypto directly: the CRA’s folio on qualified investments says cryptocurrencies “are not qualified investments”. The registered-plan trap applies to crypto ETF units instead: if you sell units of a crypto ETF at a loss and buy the same ETF in a TFSA or RRSP inside the window, the addition goes to the plan’s holding, where it has no tax use, so the loss is effectively lost for good (registered plans and superficial losses). The superficial loss rules page covers the window and the exceptions, and tax-loss harvesting covers using losses on purpose.

GST/HST on crypto

Selling crypto-assets that meet the definition of a virtual payment instrument, such as bitcoin, ether (the native token of the ethereum blockchain), and litecoin, is exempt: the sale is an exempt supply of a financial service, so no GST/HST applies (CRA GST/HST and crypto-assets). Other tokens can be different: the CRA’s GST/HST guidance includes non-fungible tokens among property that may be excluded from the definition of a virtual payment instrument. When a resident of Canada sells a crypto-asset that is not a virtual payment instrument, the sale is likely a taxable sale of intangible personal property: the seller has to collect GST/HST and can generally claim input tax credits, unless the person is a small supplier that is not registered for GST/HST purposes or the supply is otherwise zero-rated, such as certain exported supplies of intangible personal property. The NFT tax page covers what that means for NFT creators. A GST/HST-registered business that accepts crypto as payment calculates the GST/HST on the fair market value of the crypto at the time of the sale.

Records to keep

The CRA’s records page lists the transaction information to keep:

• The number of units and type of crypto-asset for each transaction
• The date and time of each transaction
• The value of the crypto-asset (in Canadian dollars) at the time of each transaction
• A description of the nature of each transaction and the other party to the transaction (even if it is just their crypto-asset address)
• The addresses associated with each digital wallet used
• The beginning wallet balance (and its cost) and ending wallet balance for each crypto-asset for each year

Keep them for at least six years from the end of the last tax year they relate to. If you use an exchange, the CRA suggests exporting your history regularly, in case the exchange stops operating or you lose access to your account. It doesn’t endorse any tracking software.

How to report crypto on your return

• Capital gains and losses: Schedule 3, in the section for Bonds, debentures, promissory notes, crypto-assets, and other similar properties.
• Business income: report the full profit or loss as self-employment income; the CRA points to Guide T4002, which covers Form T2125.
• Past errors: the CRA says you may be able to reduce or avoid penalties and interest by changing a return or applying to the Voluntary Disclosures Program.

Reporting by platforms. Canada has proposed adopting the OECD’s Crypto-Asset Reporting Framework, under which crypto platforms would report information about their users and transactions. The legislative proposals were released on August 15, 2025, with a deferred application date of January 1, 2027; the government’s Spring Economic Update 2026 lists it among previously announced measures it intends to proceed with. Your obligation to report your own crypto transactions doesn’t depend on it.

Related reading

• NFT taxes in Canada
• How to calculate adjusted cost base
• Superficial loss rules
• Tax-loss harvesting
• Capital gains inclusion rate
• Capital gains tax calculator
• How to complete Form T2125