Crypto Tax in Australia 2025: What Traders & Hodlers Need to Know

Australia’s taxman is coming for your crypto—whether you’re a day trader or just HODLing. Here’s how to avoid a nasty surprise at tax time.

Capital Gains or Income? The ATO Decides

Every trade, swap, or NFT purchase could trigger a taxable event. The ATO treats crypto as property—meaning capital gains tax applies if you’ve held assets over 12 months (discount alert!). But day traders? You’re likely on the hook as ordinary income.

DeFi Loopholes? Nice Try.

Staking rewards, liquidity mining yields, and even airdrops count as assessable income. The ATO’s 2025 guidance explicitly targets DeFi—no hiding behind ‘I didn’t cash out’ excuses.

Crypto Losses: Your Silver Lining

Got rekt by a meme coin? Capital losses can offset gains. Just make sure your records survive a tax audit—because ‘trust me bro’ won’t cut it.

Pro tip: The ATO gets blockchain data from exchanges. They’re watching. (Meanwhile, traditional banks still can’t detect a money laundering red flag if it bit them.)

How is crypto tax Australia operated?

Under the current framework, crypto is seen as an investment. Therefore, crypto assets fall under the capital gains tax mechanism. According to the website, activities that involve making transactions with crypto —such as selling, swapping or spending crypto— is considered a capital gains tax event.

On the other hand, the revenue generated from mining, staking, or earning crypto counts as ordinary income instead of capital gains. In those cases, then the ordinary income tax WOULD be applied to the profit.

However, crypto assets meant for personal use with a value of below AUD 10,000 ($6,503) is considered an exemption to the capital gains tax. But anything above the threshold would be subject to CGT under the crypto tax Australia framework.

Most recently, Australia introduced cash transaction limits for crypto ATMs. The regulation mandates crypto ATM operators to implement a cash deposit and withdrawal cap of 5,000 Australian dollars or equal to $3,251. Not only that, operators must also display notices, warning users of potential fraud risks.