Holding Period Tracker: How It Works
If you've registered a German tax identification number with BISON, the app automatically shows you which crypto assets you've held for more than one year and which haven't reached that threshold yet. Please note: This feature is designed for persons subject to taxation in Germany and does not constitute investment, tax, or financial advice.
For tax-related questions, please consult a tax or legal advisor.
How is the holding period calculated?
BISON calculates the holding period using the FIFO method (First In – First Out): When you sell or withdraw crypto, the oldest units of a coin are always considered first. As a result, a position may consist of multiple partial holdings that each reach the one-year holding period at different points in time.
Holding period start date:
- Purchases in the BISON app:
The exact purchase date. - Crypto deposits, staking rewards, and other credits:
The date credited to your account.
What happens if you withdraw crypto and send it back?
If you transfer crypto from BISON to an external wallet (e.g., a Ledger or another exchange) and later send it back to BISON, the holding period tracker resets to zero for those coins.
The reason: Once crypto leaves our platform, the uninterrupted transaction history is broken from our system's perspective. Even if you send back the exact same amount later, we cannot technically verify what happened to those coins in the meantime. Therefore, our system treats the transfer out as a "disposal" and the return as a "new inflow" and the tracker starts again from Day 1.
Important for your tax return
The BISON holding period tracker is a service feature that can only track holdings kept continuously in your BISON account. This does not mean your actual tax-relevant holding period is lost. If you simply stored your coins in your own wallet (without selling or swapping them), you can declare these transfers as a tax-neutral "custody transfer" in a tax tool such as Blockpit.
Your original holding period is then correctly preserved there.