Crypto giving produces an unusual pair of records. On one side is the strongest proof of payment any donor has ever had: a permanent, publicly verifiable entry on a blockchain. On the other is a paperwork question that trips people up every spring, because a cryptographic proof that money moved is not the same document as a tax receipt from a registered charity.
This article separates the two, and lists exactly what to keep.
This is general information, not tax or legal advice. The rules depend on where you live and on your own circumstances. For anything that will appear on a return, talk to a qualified professional.
The distinction that matters
Two different things get called a "receipt."
A confirmation of a gift says: this amount, in this asset, moved from you to this organisation, on this date. Crypto makes that trivially provable. The blockchain records it independently of either party, and neither of you can alter it afterwards.
A tax receipt — in the United States, a contemporaneous written acknowledgement from a qualified organisation — says something the blockchain cannot: that the recipient holds a particular tax status, and therefore that your gift may reduce your taxable income. For gifts of $250 or more the IRS expects that acknowledgement to come from the charity and to state whether you received anything of value in return.
The first is about the money. The second is about the recipient's legal status. A transaction hash proves the first beautifully and says nothing whatsoever about the second.
This is why TraceGood's confirmation email states plainly that it is a confirmation of your donation and not a tax receipt. TraceGood is newly founded and its charitable registration is still being finalised, so please don't rely on that email for a deduction. Whether any gift is deductible depends on the recipient's status in your jurisdiction — confirm it before you claim, for us or for anyone else.
What to keep, for every crypto donation
Keep these at the moment you give, not in April when the price data has scrolled away:
| Record | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| Date and time of the transfer | Fixes the valuation moment and the tax year |
| Amount in crypto, with the ticker and network | The gift's actual denomination — 0.0043 BTC, 120 USDT on Tron |
| Fair market value in your currency at that time | What a deduction, if any, would be measured against |
| Transaction hash | Independent, permanent proof the transfer happened |
| Recipient address | Shows where the funds went |
| Your sending address | Shows the gift came from your holdings |
| The charity's confirmation | Ties the on-chain transfer to a named organisation and program |
| Acquisition date and cost basis of the donated coin | Determines whether it was held long-term, and what gain you avoided |
That last row is the one donors forget. In the US, crypto is treated as property, and how a charitable gift of property is valued turns on how long you held it. If you can't show when you acquired the asset and what you paid, you may have no way to support the more favourable treatment.
Our tax calculator is a quick way to sketch the shape of a gift before you make it. It produces estimates for planning, not figures to file.
Why the transaction hash is your strongest evidence
Every other record in that table is something you or the charity wrote down. The hash isn't. It's a fingerprint of a transaction that thousands of independent nodes recorded and that no one can quietly amend.
Paste it into a block explorer and anyone can see the amount, the sending and receiving addresses, the timestamp and the number of confirmations. Ten years from now it will still resolve, whether or not you still have the email or the wallet app you used is still maintained. Compare that with a PDF acknowledgement, which is only as good as the organisation's willingness to reissue it.
If you've never looked one up, our walkthrough on verifying a donation on the blockchain takes about two minutes.
There's a second layer at TraceGood: every confirmed gift also appears on the public ledger, with its date, amount, coin, network, the program it supports, and a link to the transaction on a block explorer. That's a corroborating record you don't have to ask anyone for.
What the hash does not prove is the fair market value at the time or your cost basis. Those are yours to document.
Valuing the gift
The value of a crypto donation is normally its fair market value at the time of the transfer — which means you need a defensible price for a specific moment, from a source you can cite later.
Practical approach:
- Screenshot or export the price from a major exchange or a reputable price index on the day you give.
- Note the exact timestamp of your transaction, which the block explorer will show you.
- Record whether you used the price at the time of broadcast or at confirmation, and then be consistent about it across gifts.
- For stablecoins this is mercifully simple, though don't assume a stablecoin is exactly at par at the moment you send — record what it was. Our note on stablecoin donations covers why some donors prefer them for exactly this reason.
Fees change the arithmetic slightly: what left your wallet and what arrived at the charity differ by the network fee, and the fee calculator shows how large that gap is on each network. Document what actually arrived, since that's what the ledger and the charity's confirmation will show.
US specifics worth knowing about
Framed for US donors, because that's where the thresholds are most concrete. All of it is subject to change and to your own circumstances.
- Deductions are generally available only if you itemise. Many households take the standard deduction and get no benefit from charitable gifts at all.
- $250 or more in a single gift calls for a contemporaneous written acknowledgement from the organisation.
- Non-cash gifts over $500 bring Form 8283 into the picture, and crypto is treated as non-cash property, not cash.
- Over $5,000, the rules for non-cash property have historically called for a qualified appraisal, and the IRS has taken the position that publicly quoted exchange prices do not substitute for one in the case of cryptocurrency. If your gift is anywhere near that size, get professional advice before you send it.
- Giving appreciated crypto held long-term directly to a qualifying charity is often more efficient than selling first and donating the proceeds, because the sale itself would be a taxable event.
Each of those points hinges on the recipient being a qualifying organisation. That is a question about the charity, not about the blockchain, and it's on you to verify it. Our overview of whether crypto donations are tax-deductible covers how other jurisdictions approach the same question.
A filing system that takes one minute per gift
Make a folder, per tax year, and drop in four things each time you give:
- A screenshot of the checkout page showing the amount, coin and network.
- The transaction hash, in a text file, along with the explorer link.
- A price screenshot with the date and time.
- The charity's confirmation email, if you provided an address.
Then add one line to a spreadsheet: date, asset, quantity, fiat value, recipient, hash, program. That spreadsheet is what you'd hand an accountant, and it takes longer to describe than to maintain.
If you gave without providing an email and later need a record from us, the hash is how we find your gift — get in touch through our contact page with it.
In short
The blockchain gives you extraordinary proof that you gave. It gives you no proof at all about who received it and what their tax status is. Keep both kinds of record, value the gift at the moment you make it, and confirm a recipient's registration before you rely on a deduction.
Ready to give? Make a donation, then check it on the public ledger and save the hash.