When you sell cryptocurrencies, you should calculate whether you have made a profit or a loss.
Profit or loss is the difference between the purchase price and the selling price.
If you have bought several of the same type of cryptocurrency and sell some of it, you have to calculate your profit and loss according to the First In First Out Principle (FIFO Principle). This means that if you bought 8 bitcoins in April and 5 in May and you want to sell 4 in June, you have to apply the purchase price of the first 4 bitcoins you bought in April to calculate your taxable profit or loss.
If, on the other hand, you sell all your bitcoins at the same time, you do not have to apply he FIFO principle but use the total purchase price for your entire stock of bitcoins to calculate your profit or loss.
You have to calculate the profit or loss for each transaction individually, which means that you cannot deduct a loss from one transaction from a profit from another transaction.
If you use one type of cryptocurrency (such as bitcoins) to pay for another type of cryptocurrency (such as ribbles), you are considered to have sold bitcoins in order to buy ribbles. That means that you also have to calculate any profit or loss you resulting from the transaction.
See how you calculate your transactions according to the FIFO principle and establish whether you have made a profit or a loss in examples 1 and 2 below.

There may be exceptions from the FIFO Principle and you are welcome to contact us if you need further information.
Please note that you enter any profit or loss in your tax assessment notice. You are normally not allowed to offset a loss against any profits you have made. As a rule, you should declare them in separate boxes: Losses in box 58 and profits in box 20 of your tax assessment notice.
Example 1:
Examples of calculations according to the FIFO Principle
You bought 10 bitcoins at a value of DKK 1,000 apiece in January and 10 bitcoins at a value of DKK 2,000 in February.
You sell 8 of these in March at a value of DKK 3,000 apiece
Purchase price: |
|
8 x DKK 1,000 |
|
|
DKK 8,000 |
Selling price: |
|
8 x DKK 3,000 |
|
|
DKK 24,000 |
Profit: |
|
DKK 24,000 |
|
- |
DKK 8,000 |
|
|
DKK 16,000 |
You should enter the profit of DKK 16,000 in your tax assessment notice in box 20.
You are now left with 2 bitcoins from the purchase in January with a purchase price of DKK 1,000 a piece.
At a later point, you sell the remaining 12 at a value of DKK 1,000 apiece.
Purchase price: | | 2 x DKK 1,000 |
| + | 10 x DK 2,000 |
| | DKK 22,000 |
Selling price: | | 12 x DKK 1,000 |
| | DKK 12,000 |
Loss: | | DKK 12,000 |
| - | DKK 22,000 |
| | - DKK 10,000 |
You should enter your loss of DKK 10,000 in box 58 in your tax assessment notice.
You have no bitcoins left as you sold all 20 of them.
Example 2:
How to calculate profit or loss when you use one type of cryptocurrency as payment for another type
You bought 2 bitcoins in January for DKK 1,000 each and 1 bitcoin in February for DKK 2,000 each.
Next, you buy 10 ripples and use 2 of your bitcoins as payment for these.
This means that you have sold 2 bitcoins to buy 10 ripples. At the time of transaction, the value of the bitcoins has increased with the result that you get DKK 5,000 for each of them.
Since you should make the calculation according to the FIFO principle, you have to use the two bitcoins you bought first for DKK 1,000.
Purchase price for the 2 bitcoins: | | 2 x DKK 1,000 |
| | DKK 2,000 |
Sales price for buying the 10 ripples: | | 2 x DKK 5,000 |
| | DKK 10,000 |
Profit: | | DKK 10,000 |
| - | DKK 2,000 |
| | DKK 8,000 |
You enter the profit of DKK 8,000 in box 20 of your tax assessment notice.
Later, you use your 10 ripples to pay for 1 bitcoin.
At the time of transaction, the value of the ripples has fallen with the result that you get DKK 500 for each of them. The purchase price for the 10 ripples equals the sales price of your 2 bitcoins, which, in this example, is DKK 10,000. This means that 1 ripple has a value of DKK 1,000 each.
Purchase price for the 10 ripples: | | 10 x DKK 1,000 |
| | DKK 10,000 |
Sales price for buying 1 bitcoin: | | DKK 10 x 500 |
| | DKK 5,000 |
Loss: | | DKK 5,000 |
| - | DKK 10,000 |
| | DKK 5,000 |
You enter the loss of DKK 5,000 in box 58 of your tax assessment notice.