- If you hold crypto as private assets, gains when you sell are tax-free capital gains, and losses are not deductible.
- Your crypto counts as wealth. You declare it at its market value on 31 December, and the canton and commune levy wealth tax on it. There is no federal wealth tax.
- Staking rewards and airdrops are taxable income, valued in Swiss francs when you receive them. Mining income is taxable too.
- If you trade like a professional, your gains become taxable income from self-employment. The ESTV applies five criteria to decide this.
This page covers income and wealth tax for private individuals who hold crypto in Switzerland. When and how to file is on filing and deadlines, and companies are on business tax. It is general information, not tax advice.
How crypto is taxed
Switzerland taxes income at three levels: the Confederation, the canton and the commune. The Federal Tax Administration (ESTV) sets out the federal practice for crypto in its working paper on cryptocurrencies and ICOs/ITOs, dated 14 December 2021, which replaced the version of 27 August 2019. The ESTV calls bitcoin and similar coins “payment tokens” (Zahlungs-Token). The cantons assess and collect the taxes, so check your canton’s tax authority for the details. Buying and selling payment tokens is treated for tax purposes like transactions in ordinary currencies.
| Situation (2026) | Tax treatment | Legal basis |
|---|---|---|
| Gain on selling crypto held as private assets | Tax-free capital gain | Art. 16(3) DBG |
| Loss on selling crypto held as private assets | Not deductible | ESTV working paper, section 2.2.2 |
| Just holding payment tokens | No income, as a rule | ESTV working paper, section 2.2.2 |
| Crypto you own on 31 December | Wealth tax (cantons and communes only), at market value | Art. 13 and 14 StHG |
| Staking rewards, airdrops | Income from movable assets | Art. 20(1) DBG |
| Mining rewards, salary in crypto | Taxable income | Art. 16(1), 17(1), 18(1) DBG |
| Professional trading | Gains are income from self-employment; booked losses are deductible | Art. 18(2) DBG, ESTV Circular No. 36 |
| Top marginal rate of federal income tax | 11.5% | Art. 36 DBG |
Cantonal and communal income tax comes on top of federal income tax, and each canton sets its own rates. Withholding tax and stamp duties do not apply to payment tokens, according to the ESTV.
A worked example
This is our own example, applying the ESTV’s rules. A private investor living in Switzerland, who does not trade professionally, has the following in tax year 2025:
| Event in 2025 | Amount | Tax treatment |
|---|---|---|
| Sells bitcoin bought for CHF 10,000 at CHF 25,000 | Gain of CHF 15,000 | Tax-free private capital gain; nothing to declare as income |
| Sells another coin at a loss | Loss of CHF 2,000 | Not deductible |
| Receives staking rewards through a staking pool | CHF 600 in total, valued when each reward came in | Taxable income from movable assets, in the return for 2025 |
| Still holds crypto on 31 December 2025 | Value on that day | Declared as wealth, at the ESTV Kursliste value where the coin is listed |
The wealth tax on the year-end holding depends on the canton and commune: each sets its own tax-free amount and rates. This is an illustration, not a tax calculation for your situation. If the investor met the criteria for professional trading, the CHF 15,000 would be taxable and the CHF 2,000 loss deductible.
Wealth tax on crypto
For the ESTV, payment tokens are a valuable, movable, tradable and intangible asset, and count as movable capital assets. They are subject to the cantonal wealth tax and are declared at their market value at the end of the tax period. Coins in your own wallet are treated the same way as coins on an exchange.
- Kursliste. The ESTV publishes official year-end tax values for the most common cryptocurrencies in its rate list (Kursliste) on ictax.admin.ch, only for completed calendar years. Its tax information of October 2023 says these values are the average of several trading platforms.
- Coins not on the list. You use the year-end price of the trading platform you used. If no current price can be found, you declare the coin at its original purchase price in Swiss francs.
- Where it goes. The canton of Zurich, for example, says crypto belongs in the list of securities and other assets (Wertschriften- und Guthabenverzeichnis), with the name of the cryptocurrency, and asks for a printout of your wallet at the end of the tax period as evidence.
Mining, professional trading and salary
Mining. The ESTV treats the coins a miner receives as taxable income. If the general criteria for self-employment are met, it is income from self-employment.
Professional trading. Depending on the nature, scope and financing of your transactions, the ESTV may decide that you are not managing private assets but are self-employed. Your gains are then taxable income, and losses are deductible if they have been booked. The ESTV applies by analogy the criteria of its Circular No. 36 on professional securities trading. You count as a private investor if you meet all of these:
- You held the assets you sold for at least six months.
- Your total transaction volume in the year is no more than five times your holdings at the start of the tax period.
- Your capital gains are less than 50% of your net income in the tax period.
- You did not buy with borrowed money, or your taxable investment income is higher than the interest you pay.
- You use derivatives only to hedge your own positions.
If you do not meet all five, the tax authority looks at your whole situation before deciding.
Salary in crypto. If your employer pays salary or benefits in payment tokens, this is taxable employment income. The employer shows it on your salary certificate (Lohnausweis) at its value in Swiss francs when you received it.
Staking, airdrops, NFTs and DeFi
- Staking through a pool or provider. The reward is in principle income from movable assets (Art. 20(1) DBG), at its value in Swiss francs when you receive it. The ESTV’s tax information of October 2023 adds that fees a validator or custodian keeps for managing the stake will mostly be deductible asset management costs, while costs for opening, funding or closing a staking deposit are probably non-deductible transaction costs.
- Your own validator. The tax authority checks whether running it is self-employment. If it is, the rewards are income from self-employment (Art. 18(1) DBG). The ESTV expects that a private investor will mostly run a validator as a hobby.
- Airdrops. Airdropped tokens are taxed as income from movable assets at their market value when they are allocated. Because airdrops usually have a business purpose, the ESTV does not treat them as gifts. In narrow cases an airdrop can count as a promotional prize, which is tax-free below CHF 1,000 (Art. 24(j) DBG), but only if the number of winners is limited in advance, winners are chosen at random, taking part requires a stake of money, and the organizer has its seat in Switzerland.
- NFTs. Buying an NFT is a reallocation of private assets and has no income tax effect. A gain or loss on selling one is a tax-free capital gain or a non-deductible loss, unless you trade or create NFTs as a business. Royalties a creator receives on resales are taxable income.
- DeFi, lending and liquidity pools. We found nothing on these in the ESTV publications we used. The ESTV’s working paper gives an address for questions, [email protected], and your canton’s tax authority is responsible for your assessment.
Moving to or from Switzerland
- Tax residence. You are taxed in Switzerland on your worldwide income and wealth if you live here with the intention of staying, or if you stay here for at least 30 days while working, or at least 90 days without working, ignoring short interruptions (Art. 3 DBG).
- Start and end. Tax liability begins on the day you take up residence and ends when you move away (Art. 8 DBG). For a part of the year, income tax is levied only on the income of that period (Art. 40 DBG), and wealth tax only on the corresponding part of the year, based on your wealth at the end of your tax liability (Art. 17 StHG).
- No tax on leaving. Neither the federal tax act nor the tax harmonization act contains a tax on unrealized gains on private assets when you leave Switzerland, and private capital gains are tax-free anyway (Art. 16(3) DBG). We found no official ESTV statement on departure taxes for crypto. Your new country of residence may tax gains differently, including gains that built up before you moved.
- Moving between cantons. If you move within Switzerland, you are taxed for the whole year by the canton where you live at the end of it (Art. 4b StHG).
- Lump-sum taxation. People without Swiss citizenship who take up residence for the first time, or after at least ten years away, and do not work in Switzerland can ask to be taxed on their living expenses instead of their income. For federal tax the base is at least CHF 435,000 (Art. 14 DBG); cantonal rules apply for cantonal tax.
Inheritances and gifts are free of federal income tax (Art. 24(a) DBG). Inheritance and gift taxes are levied by the cantons, and the rules and rates differ by canton.
Upcoming changes
The ESTV and State Secretariat for International Finance (SIF) pages we checked announce no change to how individuals are taxed on crypto. What is changing is reporting: Swiss crypto providers are to report customer data to the ESTV under the OECD Crypto-Asset Reporting Framework (CARF) from 1 January 2027 at the earliest, once parliament approves the partner states. The ESTV’s crypto page was last updated on 22 September 2026 and still refers to the working paper of 14 December 2021. Details are on filing and deadlines.
Sources
- ESTV: Kryptowährungen, Besteuerung (last checked October 2026)
- ESTV: Arbeitspapier Kryptowährungen und Initial Coin/Token Offerings, 14 December 2021 (PDF) (last checked October 2026)
- ESTV: Steuerinformation Kryptowährung, October 2023 (PDF) (last checked October 2026)
- ESTV: Kreisschreiben Nr. 36, gewerbsmässiger Wertschriftenhandel (PDF) (last checked October 2026)
- ESTV: Kursliste (ictax) (last checked October 2026)
- Fedlex: Bundesgesetz über die direkte Bundessteuer (DBG), Art. 3, 8, 14, 16, 17, 18, 20, 24, 36 and 40 (last checked October 2026)
- Fedlex: Steuerharmonisierungsgesetz (StHG), Art. 4b, 13, 14 and 17 (last checked October 2026)
- Kantonales Steueramt Zürich: Steuerliche Behandlung von Kryptowährungen (ZStB 16.5) (last checked October 2026)
- SIF: Automatischer Informationsaustausch über Kryptowerte (last checked October 2026)
This page is general information, not tax advice. Rules and rates change, so check the official sources above and your canton’s tax authority before you act.