Most crypto sales on Form 1099-DA are reported transaction by transaction. Two categories are different. Treas. Reg. 1.6045-1(d)(10) gives brokers optional reporting methods for qualifying stablecoins and for specified nonfungible tokens, with thresholds that keep small activity off the form entirely and report larger activity in aggregate.

That sounds like good news, and partly it is. But aggregate reporting changes what the IRS sees, and it changes how your return has to line up with the form. Here is how the rules work and where the enforcement risk sits.

What counts as a qualifying stablecoin

Under Treas. Reg. 1.6045-1(d)(10)(ii), a qualifying stablecoin is a digital asset that meets three conditions for the entire calendar year:

  • It is designed to track on a one-to-one basis a single convertible currency issued by a government or central bank, including the U.S. dollar.
  • It uses a stabilization mechanism that keeps its unit value from fluctuating from the tracked currency by more than 3 percent over any consecutive 10-day period during the year, or its issuer is required by regulation to redeem it one-to-one for that currency.
  • It is generally accepted as payment by persons other than the issuer.

A coin that loses its peg badly enough during a year can fall out of the definition for that year.

The stablecoin rule: $10,000 of designated sales

Under the optional method, a broker reports only “designated sales” of qualifying stablecoins. A designated sale is generally any sale of a qualifying stablecoin other than a sale in exchange for different digital assets that are not qualifying stablecoins. In plain terms, cashing a stablecoin out to dollars is a designated sale. Using a stablecoin to buy Ether is a non-designated sale and is not reported under this method.

If a customer’s aggregate gross proceeds from designated sales of qualifying stablecoins at that broker do not exceed $10,000 for the year, no report is required. If they exceed $10,000, the broker files a separate Form 1099-DA for each qualifying stablecoin with designated sales, reporting aggregate information for the year, even if a particular stablecoin’s own total is under $10,000. See Treas. Reg. 1.6045-1(d)(10)(i)(A) and (B).

The NFT rule: $600 of specified NFT sales

A specified nonfungible token, under Treas. Reg. 1.6045-1(d)(10)(iv), is a digital asset that cannot be subdivided without losing its intrinsic value or function, that contains a unique digital identifier other than a digital asset address, and that does not give the holder an interest in excluded property such as a security, commodity, or a fungible digital asset.

Under the optional method in Treas. Reg. 1.6045-1(d)(10)(iii), a broker must report a customer’s sales of specified NFTs if aggregate gross proceeds exceed $600 for the year. At or below $600, no report is required. The 2026 Instructions for Form 1099-DA describe boxes for this aggregate reporting, including box 11a for the reason the asset is eligible for an optional method, box 11b for the number of transactions, and box 11c for proceeds from a primary sale of specified NFTs.

Why aggregate reporting cuts both ways

Aggregate reporting means the IRS gets one number for a year of stablecoin cash-outs, or one number for a year of NFT sales, from each broker. It does not get each trade.

That is less detail for the IRS. It is also less detail on the form for you to rely on. When you prepare your return, you still report each disposition with its own basis and holding period. Your Form 8949 entries for those transactions then need to add up to something you can reconcile to the broker’s aggregate number. If they do not, the IRS sees a total on a 1099-DA that it cannot match to your return.

For stablecoins, the gain on a well-pegged coin is usually small or zero, because basis and proceeds track the dollar. The risk is not big tax. The risk is a mismatch notice proposing tax on gross proceeds because the return did not show the sales. For NFTs, the gain can be anything, and the collectibles rules may apply. See the existing guide on NFT capital gains.

Under the threshold is not off the books

If your designated stablecoin sales at a broker were $9,000 for the year, you may not get a form. If your NFT sales were $500, you may not get a form. Neither fact changes your obligation.

The 2025 Form 1040 instructions tell taxpayers to answer the digital asset question whether or not they received a Form 1099-DA, and to check “Yes” if during the year they sold, exchanged or otherwise disposed of a digital asset. And the IRS told crypto holders as far back as its 2019 letters that virtual currency transactions must be reported “regardless of whether you received a payee statement.” See the three IRS crypto letters.

Thresholds decide when a broker reports. They do not decide what is taxable.

Primary sales for NFT creators

Creators should look closely at box 11c. The 2026 Instructions for Form 1099-DA tell brokers to enter in box 11c the aggregate gross proceeds “attributable to first sales by a creator or minter,” and to keep those amounts out of box 1f.

For a creator in the business of making and selling NFTs, those proceeds are not a capital transaction in the ordinary sense. They look more like business income. If a platform reports your primary sales in aggregate and your return reports nothing, or reports them somewhere the matching program cannot see, the mismatch looks like unreported income. Report primary sales where they belong, keep the platform statements, and reconcile the totals. The existing guide on NFT creator reporting covers the underlying tax treatment.

Depegs and edge cases

The stablecoin definition is tested for the entire calendar year. If a coin breaks the 3 percent band over a 10-day stretch and its issuer is not under a regulatory redemption requirement, it may not be a qualifying stablecoin for that year. Then the optional aggregate method is unavailable for it, and the broker reports those sales transaction by transaction like any other digital asset.

That has a tax side too. A coin that actually lost value can produce a real loss on disposal, which you can only claim with records of what you paid. Treat a depeg year as a records year.

Brokers choose the method

The optional methods are optional for the broker. Treas. Reg. 1.6045-1(d)(10) says a broker may use them instead of transactional reporting for some or all customers, may change methods for a customer from year to year, and must apply the chosen method for that customer for the whole year.

So one exchange may report your stablecoin sales one by one while another reports them in aggregate. Read each form. Do not assume two brokers handled the same activity the same way.

A practical checklist

For stablecoins and NFTs, do this every year:

  • Collect every 1099-DA, and note which ones use aggregate reporting. Box 11a tells you the optional method applies.
  • Pull the underlying transactions from each broker so you can compute gain or loss per disposition.
  • Report each disposition on Form 8949 in the correct digital asset box, then confirm your totals reconcile to each aggregate form.
  • Keep the reconciliation in your file. If the IRS asks about a number on an aggregate form, you want a one-page answer, not a reconstruction.
  • For activity below the thresholds, report it anyway, from your own records.

If a form is simply wrong, see how to handle a broker error. For the bigger picture of what brokers report and when, see the 1099-DA effective dates.