When you buy, sell, or trade crypto tax India, the legal requirement to report cryptocurrency gains and losses to Indian tax authorities. Also known as cryptocurrency taxation in India, it applies to everyone who holds or trades digital assets—whether you bought Bitcoin in 2021 or swapped tokens on a decentralized exchange last month. Since 2022, India has treated crypto as a taxable asset class, not currency. That means every trade, every swap, every airdrop you claim could trigger a tax liability.
It’s not just about selling Bitcoin for rupees. If you trade Ethereum, a major blockchain platform used for DeFi, NFTs, and smart contracts for Solana, that’s a taxable event. Even receiving tokens from an airdrop, a free distribution of crypto tokens to wallet holders, often used as a marketing tool by new projects counts as income. The government uses blockchain forensics to trace transactions, just like authorities in the U.S. or EU. You can’t hide behind anonymity—exchanges like Binance and CoinSwitch report user data to Indian regulators under KYC rules.
There’s a flat 30% tax on all crypto gains, with no deductions for losses. That’s different from stocks, where you can offset losses against profits. Plus, a 1% TDS (Tax Deducted at Source) applies on every crypto trade over ₹10,000. That means even small trades are tracked and taxed at the source. If you used a non-KYC DEX like Bamboo Relay or traded on UZX, you’re still responsible for reporting. The IT department doesn’t care if you didn’t know the rules—you’re expected to know.
People think crypto is tax-free because it’s digital, but India treats it like property. If you bought 0.1 BTC for ₹3 lakh and sold it for ₹5 lakh, you owe 30% on ₹2 lakh profit—that’s ₹60,000. No exemptions. No loopholes. No "it’s just a meme coin" excuse. Even if you lost money on Doge 2.0 or Bitcointry Token, you can’t use those losses to reduce your tax bill. And if you claimed a WELL airdrop, a fraudulent token drop that doesn’t exist but is used in scams to steal wallet credentials and sold the fake tokens? That’s still income you reported—and you’ll be liable if you filed it.
What about mining or staking? If you earned rewards in KNIGHT, a play-to-earn token from Forest Knight’s blockchain game or BTH, the token from Bit Hotel’s metaverse project, those are taxable as income at the market value when you received them. You don’t wait until you sell—tax is due the moment the tokens hit your wallet.
Keeping records isn’t optional. You need dates, amounts, wallet addresses, and transaction IDs for every trade. Use tools like Koinly or CoinTracker to auto-import your history. If the IT department audits you and you can’t prove your numbers, you’ll pay the full tax plus penalties—sometimes up to 200% of the owed amount.
Below, you’ll find real breakdowns of how crypto tax India works in practice—what triggers tax, how to calculate it, what scams pretend to be tax help, and how to stay compliant without overpaying. No theory. No fluff. Just what you need to know before filing.
As of 2025, cryptocurrencies are legal to hold and trade in India but heavily taxed at 30% plus TDS and GST. They are not legal tender. Over 107 million Indians trade crypto under strict compliance rules enforced by RBI, FIU-IND, and SEBI.
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