Cryptocurrency airdrops: taxation in Spain 2025

Airdrops are free distributions of tokens to wallets that meet certain criteria (holders of another crypto, users of a protocol, participants of a campaign). They are a common form of initial distribution of new tokens. And they pay taxes.

What is an airdrop and why is it taxed?

An airdrop is an income in kind: you receive economic value (tokens) without paying money for them. For the Treasury, receiving something of value without paying in return continues to enrich the taxpayer, and that enrichment is taxed.

How are airdrops taxed?

The AEAT classifies airdrops as free capital gain (not derived from transmission), which is integrated into the general tax base of personal income tax.

This is important: the general basis, not the savings basis. The general base rate reaches up to 47% (plus the regional section), compared to the maximum of 28% of the savings base.

Taxation occurs at the time you receive the tokens, not when you sell them.

Airdrop rating

Tokens are valued at market price at the time of receipt.

Difficulty: Many airdrops distribute tokens that are not yet listed on any exchange at the time of distribution. In that case:

• If there is no market price, the value could be considered zero at the time of airdrop.
• When they are subsequently listed and you sell them, all the profit would be equity (savings base).

This is a gray point that the DGT has not clarified with a specific binding criterion. The most conservative approach is to declare at the first available listing price.

Token airdrop with price from day one

Examples such as the ARB (Arbitrum), OP (Optimism) or JUP (Jupiter) airdrop:

• On the day of the airdrop, the token was already trading.
• If you received 1,000 ARB at €1.20/ARB = €1,200 capital gain (general basis).
• It had to be included in the personal income tax for the year in which it was received.

When you later sell those 1,000 ARB:

• Acquisition cost = €1,200 (what you already taxed as profit).
• Capital gain or loss = sale price - €1,200.

Airdrops as a return on economic activity

If you actively participate in protocols with the objective of obtaining airdrops (airdrop farming strategy), the AEAT could argue that it is an economic activity and the tokens are returns from that activity.

In that case, they would be taxed on the general basis as income from economic activities (same rate as the airdrop as a free profit, but with the possibility of deducting expenses).

Retroactive airdrops and past exercises

Some retroactive airdrops reward activity from previous years. The taxable event occurs when you receive the tokens, not when you did the activity that generated them.

If you receive an airdrop in 2025 for transactions you made in 2022, you are taxed in personal income tax in 2025.

What happens if the airdrop is worth 0 when you sell it?

If the airdrop tokens collapse in value before you can sell them:

• You will have already paid the value upon receiving them.
• The loss when selling is a capital loss of the savings base offset with other gains.
• You cannot "deduct" the tax already paid on the airdrop.

This creates a fiscally unfair situation that the sector has been denouncing for some time, with no legislative response yet.

Recommended registration

For each airdrop:

• Date and time of reception.
• Number of tokens received.
• Market price at that time.
• Protocol or project that distributed it.

declaracrypto.es automatically detects airdrops in the blockchain transaction history and correctly classifies them for personal income tax.

Updated: April 2026 | Fiscal year: 2025