Do I pay CGT on crypto staking rewards and airdrops in Australia?

The ATO treats cryptocurrency as a CGT asset, and staking rewards and airdrops each have their own tax treatment. Getting this right matters because the ATO has been actively collecting crypto data from exchanges since 2019.

Staking rewards: When you receive staking rewards, the ATO generally treats them as ordinary income at the time you receive them, valued at the Australian dollar market price on that day. This amount is added to your assessable income. When you later sell those staking reward tokens, a separate CGT event occurs — your cost base is the market value you already declared as income, and any gain or loss from that point is treated as a capital gain or loss (with the 50% discount available if held more than 12 months).

Airdrops: If you receive tokens through an airdrop where you did nothing to earn them (no services provided), the ATO currently treats them as having a zero cost base when you receive them, meaning no income tax applies on receipt. However, when you sell them, the full sale proceeds become your capital gain (cost base of zero). If you received airdropped tokens in return for services or promotional activity, the ATO may treat the receipt as ordinary income at market value.

DeFi and liquidity mining: Rewards from DeFi protocols are typically treated as ordinary income at the time received. Wrapping or unwrapping tokens (e.g. ETH to WETH) may or may not trigger a CGT event depending on the specific arrangement — the ATO's guidance here is still evolving. Keep detailed records of all transactions including timestamps, amounts, and AUD values.