Koinly Review: Is This the Easiest Crypto Tax Software for DeFi, NFTs and Exchanges?

• What it is: Koinly is a crypto tax calculator and portfolio tracker that pulls in your trading, DeFi and NFT activity from exchanges, wallets and blockchains, then generates country-specific tax reports.
• Core value: It centralizes your entire crypto history in one dashboard, classifies transactions (trades, swaps, income, staking, airdrops and more), calculates gains and losses, and exports reports you or your accountant can file with your local tax authority.
• Workflow: The typical loop is connect sources → auto-import and classify → fix any missing data → review P&L and tax summary → download reports → file or hand off to your accountant.
• Who it’s for: Anyone with more than a handful of trades, especially users juggling multiple exchanges, DeFi protocols, NFTs, airdrops, staking rewards and on-chain wallets who want to avoid spreadsheet hell.
• Who it’s not for: People with extremely simple activity (e.g., one or two buy-and-hold transactions) who may not need dedicated software, or users who refuse to reconcile data and just want “push button, magic answer.”
• DeFi & NFTs: Koinly can import many DeFi, DEX and NFT activities via direct integrations and public addresses, but you still need to double-check classifications, especially for complex protocols.
• Pricing: You can usually import data, track your portfolio and preview your tax position for free, then pay per tax year to unlock downloadable reports at different transaction tiers.
• Biggest strengths: Broad integrations, clear tax summaries, accountant-friendly reports, and strong support for multi-chain portfolios.
• Main drawbacks: Some edge cases still require manual edits, high-volume DeFi/degenerate activity can be time-consuming to reconcile, and you pay per tax year — so you should actually use the reports.

1) What is Koinly and where does it fit in your stack?

Koinly is a crypto tax platform and portfolio tracker. It doesn’t hold your coins or replace your exchange or wallet. Instead, it connects to your existing crypto infrastructure and acts as a:

• Data aggregator that imports transactions from exchanges, wallets, and on-chain activity.
• Classification engine that labels trades, swaps, income, DeFi activity, NFTs, and more.
• Tax calculator that applies your local rules (FIFO, LIFO, specific ID, cost basis rules, disposals, income, etc.) to compute gains, losses and taxable income.
• Report generator that produces downloadable summaries and forms that map to your country’s tax authority or popular filing tools.
• Portfolio dashboard that helps you understand your holdings, performance and historical activity.

You still file taxes with your country’s tax office or through software like TurboTax. Koinly just makes sure your crypto data is clean, consistent and correctly formatted so filing is actually possible without weeks of manual work.

2) How Koinly works: from raw data to tax reports

Crypto tax software lives or dies by its workflow. A nice interface is useless if the process is unclear. Koinly’s core loop is straightforward:

1. Connect your sources.
   Link exchanges and wallets via API, public addresses or CSV uploads. Koinly pulls your full history into one ledger.
2. Auto-classify transactions.
   The engine detects trades, swaps, transfers, income, mining, staking, airdrops, liquidity pool deposits/withdrawals, NFT buys/sells and more. You can override or refine any classification.
3. Resolve issues and missing data.
   If there are gaps (e.g., missing cost basis from an old CSV, unsupported protocol behaviour), Koinly flags them so you can fix or adjust.
4. Apply tax rules.
   Based on your selected country and method, Koinly calculates capital gains, losses and income using a tax lot strategy (FIFO, LIFO or others where supported).
5. Review and download reports.
   You get high-level summaries plus detailed line-items. From there, you export into specific forms, CSVs or integrations for filing.

3) Integrations: exchanges, wallets, DeFi and NFTs

One of Koinly’s biggest selling points is its ability to pull data from a wide range of crypto platforms. Instead of manually downloading dozens of CSVs, you can often just connect and sync.

3.1 Centralized exchanges and custodial platforms

Koinly can connect to many major exchanges via API or CSV import. Typical examples include:

• Large global exchanges (spot, margin and derivatives).
• Popular regional exchanges and brokers where supported.
• Custodial platforms that provide yield, staking, or savings products.

For each connection, you can usually choose between:

• Read-only API keys for automatic, ongoing sync, or
• CSV uploads if you prefer not to use APIs or if an exchange is partially supported.

3.2 Self-custody wallets and blockchains

For self-custody wallets (e.g., hardware wallets or browser wallets), Koinly often works by:

• Using your public address to pull transactions directly from the blockchain for supported chains.
• Letting you add multiple addresses across different networks to track a full wallet setup.
• Supporting major networks and many L2s, with new chains added over time.

Because Koinly reads public blockchain data, there is no need to share private keys. You are simply pointing it to the ledger entries associated with your addresses.

3.3 DeFi protocols, liquidity pools and yield farming

DeFi is where crypto tax gets messy. Koinly can:

• Detect swaps on DEXes as trades between tokens.
• Identify liquidity pool deposits and withdrawals and attempt to classify them as appropriate disposals and receipts.
• Track some staking, lending and borrowing protocols as income, interest or rewards, depending on the transaction type.

That said, the more exotic the protocol, the more likely it is that you will need to:

• Manually tag transactions (e.g., “reward”, “airdrop”, “margin fee”).
• Split or merge complex entries when a single on-chain event contains multiple economic actions.
• Review Koinly’s assumptions against your tax advisor’s interpretation.

3.4 NFT marketplaces and collectibles

For NFTs, Koinly relies heavily on the underlying blockchain data:

• NFT purchases are usually treated as acquisitions (using the token you spent as cost).
• NFT sales are treated as disposals with potential capital gains or losses.
• Royalties, mints and airdropped NFTs may be classified as income or other types of receipts that could be taxable in your jurisdiction.

You’ll want to double-check NFT-related entries because tax treatment for NFTs can differ from fungible tokens in some countries.

4) Tax reports: countries, forms and export formats

The entire point of Koinly is to generate tax reports that align with your jurisdiction’s rules. The platform supports many countries with templates tailored to local requirements, and also offers more generic reports if your country is not explicitly listed.

Typical report types include:

• Capital gains reports: showing disposals, cost basis and profit/loss.
• Income reports: summarizing taxable income from staking, mining, lending, airdrops, referral rewards and more.
• End-of-year holdings: snapshots of your portfolio and cost basis for record-keeping.
• Tax software exports: CSVs or files that plug into filing tools where supported.
• Accountant-friendly summaries: high-level PDFs plus line-item exports for deeper review.

5) Portfolio tracking and analytics

While tax reporting is the headline use case, Koinly also functions as a portfolio tracker. Once your sources are connected, you get:

• Holdings overview: balances across all exchanges, wallets and chains in one view.
• Historical P&L: realized and unrealized gains or losses over time.
• Cost basis tracking: per-asset cost basis and acquisition history.
• Transaction explorer: a unified ledger showing each transaction and how it was classified for tax.

This can be useful even outside tax season, you can see how your trading or investing decisions are playing out over months and years, not just at filing time.

6) Pricing, plans and who each tier suits

Koinly uses a “free to import, pay for reports” model. You can typically:

• Sign up and connect your exchanges and wallets for free.
• Import a substantial amount of historical data (up to a limit, depending on plan changes).
• Preview your overall gains, losses and tax position before paying.
• Only pay when you need to download final reports for a tax year.

Paid tiers are usually structured around:

• Number of transactions per tax year (e.g., casual investor vs high-frequency trader).
• Report types and advanced features unlocked.
• Support level or extra help for complex situations in some regions.

7) Security, privacy and compliance

Any tool that touches your financial data should be held to a high standard. Koinly emphasizes:

• Data security: using encryption and industry-standard controls to protect stored data and communication between your browser and their servers.
• Read-only connections: exchange APIs and wallet imports are typically configured without withdrawal rights, reducing the risk of direct fund loss.
• Compliance posture: policies and controls designed to align with data protection and privacy regulations in the regions they serve.

That said, as with any online platform, you should:

• Use unique, strong passwords and enable additional security features where available.
• Limit API keys to read-only access and restrict IPs when possible.
• Review what data you’re sharing and prune old connections you no longer need.

8) Limitations, edge cases and manual fixes

No crypto tax tool is perfect. Koinly can save huge amounts of time, but there are trade-offs and edge cases to be aware of:

• Very new or obscure protocols: If a DeFi protocol or chain is brand new, Koinly may not fully understand the transaction types yet. You might see them show up as generic deposits/withdrawals that need manual tagging.
• Exotic derivatives and complex products: Perpetual swaps, options, leveraged tokens and structured products may require extra care to ensure they’re treated correctly for tax purposes in your country.
• Bridging, wrapping and cross-chain activity: Moving tokens across chains or wrapping/unwrapping can be interpreted differently depending on the jurisdiction. You may need to align Koinly’s treatment with your advisor’s guidance.
• Lost, stolen or hacked funds: Koinly can help you tag these events, but whether they are deductible depends on local law and documentation quality.
• Old missing data: If you can’t recover CSV files or API history for older trades, Koinly may need manual entries or balance adjustments to make the math line up.

[HOW TO HANDLE EDGE CASES IN KOINLY]
• Use tags (e.g., "lost", "stolen", "reward", "airdrop") consistently.
• Keep separate notes for large or unusual transactions (TX hash, screenshots, context).
• Ask your tax advisor how they want specific scenarios handled, then mirror that logic in Koinly.
• When in doubt, be conservative and keep documentation.
    

9) Step-by-step: getting started with Koinly

Here is a simple roadmap to get value from Koinly in your first week without drowning in details.

1. Create your account and set your country.
   Sign up, choose your home country and base currency, and skim through the main sections: Dashboard, Transactions, Tax Reports, Settings.
2. Make an inventory of your crypto footprint.
   List every exchange, wallet, DeFi protocol and NFT marketplace you’ve used. This becomes your checklist.
3. Connect the easy integrations first.
   Start with major exchanges and wallets that support read-only APIs or direct blockchain imports. Let Koinly sync your history.
4. Upload CSVs for anything older or unsupported.
   For platforms without APIs or partial support, download CSV exports and import them into Koinly. Keep those CSVs stored as backup.
5. Run an initial tax calculation.
   Once most data is in, let Koinly calculate and then inspect the tax summary and transaction list. Expect to see some warnings or “missing data” flags.
6. Resolve warnings and obvious issues.
   Work through flagged items: missing cost basis, duplicate imports, incorrect labels. Add manual entries or adjustments if truly necessary.
7. Tag special transactions.
   Mark airdrops, rewards, loans, fees and other non-standard events with the correct tags, based on guidance from your advisor or Koinly’s docs.
8. Lock in the year and export reports.
   Once you are happy with a tax year, lock it (so future changes don’t accidentally alter it), then generate the reports you need to file or send to your accountant.

10) Best practices: making Koinly actually work for you

Koinly can dramatically simplify your crypto tax life, but only if you use it with intention. A few best practices:

• Keep it updated during the year. Instead of panicking in tax season, add new exchanges and addresses when you start using them and let Koinly sync regularly.
• Reconcile after big activity spikes. If you have a crazy DeFi weekend or NFT flip spree, log in soon after and clean the data while it’s still fresh in your mind.
• Use tags consistently. Develop your own tagging conventions for income, gifts, self-transfers, loans, and more. Consistency makes your reports easier to defend.
• Separate personal and business accounts. If you trade in a company, DAO, or fund structure, keep that activity in separate Koinly profiles from your personal portfolio.
• Sync Koinly with your accountant’s expectations. Share sample reports early and ask what format and categorization they prefer. Then adjust Koinly to match, not the other way around.

[KOINLY DISCIPLINE CHECKLIST]
1. Connect new exchanges/wallets within a week of first use.
2. Reconcile large trades or DeFi/NFT bursts within a few days.
3. Tag income, airdrops and rewards accurately.
4. Lock completed tax years once signed off by your accountant.
5. Store reports and CSV backups securely for audit trails.
    

11) Pros and cons vs other crypto tax tools

Koinly operates in a crowded space of crypto tax calculators and portfolio tools. Here is how it broadly positions itself.

11.1 Major strengths

• Broad integration coverage: Supports a wide range of exchanges, wallets, chains, DeFi protocols and NFT activity, reducing manual data entry.
• Clear tax reports: Produces structured capital gains and income summaries that map to many countries’ reporting needs.
• Portfolio view: Doubles as a historical portfolio tracker with realized and unrealized P&L.
• Free preview model: You can often see your situation before paying, which lowers the risk of trying it.
• Focus on tax: Rather than being a trading platform, Koinly is centered around tax-compliant record keeping and reporting.

11.2 Key trade-offs and limitations

• Learning curve for DeFi/NFT power users: The software helps, but you still need to understand the tax implications of the complex strategies you’re using.
• Heavy users may outgrow lower tiers: If you do serious volume, you’ll likely need a higher plan, which costs more, but still usually far less than a fully manual accountant job.
• Not all edge cases are automated: You will still find transactions that need manual review, especially for cutting-edge protocols.
• Annual mindset: You pay per tax year for reports, so Koinly makes the most sense if you’re committed to staying compliant long term, not just “trying it once”.

12) FAQ: common questions about Koinly

13) Verdict: Should you use Koinly for your crypto taxes?

Koinly is a serious tool for handling crypto taxes in the real world. Its strength lies in how it pulls together:

• Broad integrations across exchanges, wallets, DeFi and NFTs.
• Consistent transaction classification with editable tags and notes.
• Tax reports tailored to many different countries.
• Portfolio tracking that helps you understand your performance, not just your tax bill.
• A workflow that encourages you to stay organized year after year.

Used well, Koinly turns crypto tax from an annual nightmare into a manageable project that you can systematize and improve over time.

14) Official resources and further reading

Before relying on any crypto tax tool, you should combine reviews like this with primary sources and professional advice. Useful next steps:

• The official Koinly website for the latest integrations, pricing and feature updates.
• The Koinly help center and documentation for detailed guidance on specific transaction types and country-level settings.
• Sample tax reports and exports from a test account so you can see how they match your local forms.
• Independent reviews and comparison articles that position Koinly against other crypto tax platforms.
• A conversation with a qualified tax professional in your jurisdiction to validate how Koinly’s outputs should be used in your specific case.

Combine those with a small-scale test: pull in a subset of your data, see how Koinly handles it, and then decide whether to roll out across your full history. In the end, the real question is simple: does this tool make my crypto taxes clearer, faster and less stressful?