Staking on exchange to harvest tax loss in UK

[shmod]

Hi,

I find myself having realised gains this year with as swap to ETH that have been significantly reduced in value within the same tax year.

I plan to hold the token but would need to realise the losses as I cannot offset them against the gains in the following year in the UK.

I would need to know if staking ETH on an exchange (eg. Kraken) is considered a token swap and hence realises losses.

Thanks

[Aria_Koinly]

Hi @shmod

Whether staking ETH on an exchange like Kraken is considered an exchange of tokens and triggers a taxable event depends on your jurisdiction. You can check out Crypto Tax UK: Expert Guide 2025.

If you want your ETH → ETH2 transaction to be tax-free in Koinly, you can manually set the worth of the received ETH2 to match the cost basis of the sold ETH (as shown in the screenshot). This effectively nullifies any gain.

That said, we are not tax advisors, and we strongly recommend speaking with a professional accountant to confirm how your staking transactions should be reported under UK tax laws.