An even trickier task is determining the cost of each unit of cryptocurrency that was spent in a taxable transaction, such as a sale. Since the value of my 1 bitcoin has increased since I mined it, when I make the trade on the exchange, I have to claim the increase in price as income. It’s not unfair, but it’s insanely complex. The ethereum had just been sitting in my Coinbase account for 13 months. If you have to pay a lot in taxes on bitcoin, it means you’ve made a lot of money with bitcoin! Popular Courses. Creates tax forms.