Crypto capital gains tax.

Is crypto taxed as a capital gain or as business income in Canada?

It depends on your activity. The CRA's own guidance says: “Based on your crypto-asset activities, you may realize business income (or loss) or capital gain (or loss).” It points to activity consistent with “a person carrying on a business” as the trigger for business-income treatment, and lists these factors: frequency of transactions (a history of extensive buying and selling), a short period of ownership, knowledge of or experience in crypto-asset markets, spending substantial time studying the markets, financing purchases with debt, and advertising that you buy or sell crypto-assets.

A capital gain is only 50% taxable. Business income is 100% taxable, same as employment income, but a business loss is also fully deductible against any other income — a capital loss is only deductible against capital gains. No single factor decides it; CRA weighs your activity as a whole.

Does trading one cryptocurrency for another trigger tax?

Yes. The CRA lists trading or exchanging a crypto-asset for another crypto-asset as a disposition, exactly like selling it for Canadian dollars. You calculate the gain or loss by valuing both sides of the trade in Canadian dollars at their fair market value on the transaction date — there is no tax-free "like-kind" swap for crypto in Canada, unlike some other property. The same applies to spending crypto directly on goods or services.

What is the capital gains inclusion rate for crypto?

The same 50% that applies to any other capital property — there is no separate, higher rate for crypto. CRA's guidance states it directly: “If you have disposed of a crypto-asset on account of capital, you must include half of your capital gains (known as taxable capital gains) in your income.” A proposed increase to a two-thirds inclusion rate on gains above $250,000 was widely reported in 2024 but never proceeded; the rate remains 50%. Confirm the current rate with CRA before acting on a large disposition, since the rules do change.

Does CRA treat crypto as a commodity or as currency?

Not as currency. CRA lists trading crypto for government-issued currency as one of the events that creates a taxable disposition — treating your own crypto holdings as money would make that meaningless. Instead, crypto-assets are taxed under the same property rules as any other capital property: the gain or loss framework, the business-vs-investment test, and the record-keeping requirements are the general ones CRA applies to stocks, real estate and other assets, not a foreign-currency regime.

I bought the same coin at different prices — which price is my cost base?

Neither, on its own. Canada's identical-property averaging rule (the same one used for identical shares) applies to crypto: pool every unit of the same crypto-asset you hold into one running average cost per unit, and use that average as the adjusted cost base for every disposition, not the price of whichever coins you assume you're selling. This calculator computes one trade at a time; if you've bought the same asset at several prices, work out your average cost per unit first, then enter that as the buy price here.

Do I owe tax on crypto I'm still holding?

No. Tax applies only on disposition — selling, trading it for another crypto-asset, spending it, or gifting it. Simply holding a crypto-asset that has gone up in value creates no taxable event and nothing to report, no matter how large the unrealized gain.