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CRYPTO GLOSSARY

Wash sale

Selling at a loss and buying the same thing again within 30 days. US law limits the loss for stocks and securities.

Wash sale in more detail

For stocks, the US has a wash sale rule. If you sell at a loss and buy the same thing within 30 days before or after, you cannot claim the loss yet.

That may change. On 16 September 2026 a committee of the US House of Representatives approved a bill, the Digital Asset Tax Certainty Act, that would extend wash sale rules to digital assets. When this lesson was last reviewed it had not become law. As drafted, it would reach back to sales made after it was introduced in mid-September 2026.

FROM LESSON 57 · 5 MIN READCapital gains and cost basisHow a crypto gain or loss is worked out under US rules: cost basis, fees, short-term and long-term holding periods, which coins count as sold, how losses are used and where the wash sale rule stands.Read the lesson

All 128 terms · Checked against the lesson's sources on 10 October 2026.

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