How is bridging through Allbridge taxed in Germany?
In short
If you send a stablecoin through Allbridge to your own wallet on another chain and the same stablecoin arrives there, you're not selling anything. It keeps its purchase date and its cost basis, and the one-year holding period keeps running. That's how TaxMaxi reads a bridge. No rule says so explicitly, and there is also the reading that every bridge is a sale.
If a different stablecoin arrives, say USDC instead of USDT, that's a swap at the bridge.
- As of:
- 23 October 2026
- Based on:
- § 23 EStG, BMF letter of 6 March 2025
What is Allbridge?
Allbridge Core moves stablecoins such as USDC and USDT between Solana, Ethereum and other chains. Until July 2026 it did this through Allbridge's own pools: you paid into a pool on one chain, and a pool on the other chain paid you out, sometimes in a different stablecoin. Since an attack on the pools in July 2026, Allbridge has run on Circle's CCTP and LayerZero.
- The app core.allbridge.io You choose the chain, the stablecoin and the amount.
- The send Allbridge's contract on the chain you're leaving Your stablecoin goes to Allbridge with a number, along with the gas for the other chain.
- The receive Allbridge's program on the other chain It pays you out and names the same number.
For tax, what counts is what reaches you: the same stablecoin in your own wallet, or a different one.
Allbridge at a glance
- Type
- Bridge between chains
- Solana
- BrdgN2RPzEMWF96ZbnnJaUtQDQx7VRXYaHHbYCBvceWBAllbridge Core program
- Solana
- CctpV8uRiXws7KZxpUXfPWy9BhCiWaeBRzsJgELvQKvuAllbridge Core program
- Solana
- APayVahY528MUoKcNeZC5NsjwvLiuj5Nxm59SbTYctLMAllbridge Core program
- Solana
- AMsgYtqR3EXKfsz6Rj2cKnrYGwooaSk7BQGeyVBB5yjSAllbridge Core program
- Ethereum
- 0x609c690e8F7D68a59885c9132e812eEbDaAf0c9eBridge (old pools)
- Ethereum
- 0xC51397b75B783E31469bFaADE79913F3f82210d6CCTP interface
- Ethereum
- 0x7972d6907739593C00e6284c53C83dB3ECd15c33CCTP v2 interface
- Ethereum
- 0xeC455fFC19811e573eb5700a1bDff6ee1C47AB7BOFT interface
An Allbridge transfer on both chains
A real USDC transfer through Allbridge's pools from Ethereum to Solana, from a stranger's public wallets, the way TaxMaxi reads it: paid in on Ethereum, paid out on Solana, and tied together by the number both sides carry.
- −192.364017 USDC Sent via Allbridgeto your own wallet on Solana: not a disposal, purchase date and cost go with it
- −0.000530911950733149 ETH Allbridge feefor the transfer; the ETH paid count as disposed of
- −0.000496980516644071 ETH Network feethe ETH paid count as disposed of, and the fee isn't deducted anywhere
- +191.926678 USDC Arrived via Allbridgethe same token, with its purchase date and cost from there: not an acquisition
The ETH Allbridge receives pays for the payout on Solana. Whatever USDC goes missing between the two sides, Allbridge keeps.
An example in euros
You buy SOL, send it a few months later to your own wallet on Ethereum, and sell it there after more than a year. This is how TaxMaxi works it out, for Allbridge as for any bridge:
- 10 January 2024Bought 10 SOL for €1,000.00
- 1 June 2024Via Allbridge to your own wallet on Ethereum, worth €1,500.00: not a disposal
- 1 February 2025Sold the 10 SOL on Ethereum for €2,000.00
- Proceeds
- €2,000.00
- Cost basis 10 SOL from 10 January 2024
- − €1,000.00
- Gain after 388 days since the purchase, tax-free
- +€1,000.00
Sale on 1 February 2025
- Proceeds value of the SOL sent
- €1,500.00
- Cost basis 10 SOL from 10 January 2024
- − €1,000.00
- Gain after 143 days, taxable
- +€500.00
If ETH arrives instead: a swap at the bridge
If it stays the same token, the bridge doesn't interrupt the one-year period: it has been running since the purchase, so the gain of €1,000.00 is tax-free and doesn't count toward the exemption limit either. If ETH arrives, the gain of €500.00 up to the bridge is taxable, within the exemption limit of €1,000 a year.
Anyone who reads the bridge as a sale calculates differently: on 1 June 2024, €500.00 of gain would have been taxable, and the one-year period would have started again. The sale 245 days later would then be taxable too.
Worked out by TaxMaxi's tax engine, on the same principles as for your wallet.
The legal basis
No law and no letter says outright whether a bridge costs tax: neither § 23 EStG on private sales nor the finance ministry's letter of 6 March 2025 mentions bridges. TaxMaxi calculates them by the principles the letter sets for swaps and for transfers between your own wallets.
The letter is divided into numbered paragraphs (Randnummern). Each principle below says what it rests on; a click opens the letter at that spot.
-
1
Over a bridge to your own wallet
If you send a token over a bridge to your own wallet on another chain and it arrives there as the same token, backed 1:1, that's not a disposal: it keeps its acquisition date and cost basis, just in a wallet TaxMaxi can't see, and the report says so. Whether a bridge is a disposal instead is disputed: the DeFi guide of CoinTracking sees every bridge as a disposal with a new acquisition, which realizes the gain since the purchase and restarts the holding period. The finance ministry's letter says nothing about bridges.
-
2
Between your own wallets on two chains
If a token leaves one of your wallets and arrives in another of your wallets in a separate transaction, over a bridge to another chain or through an exchange, that's one single move and not a disposal: it keeps its acquisition date and cost basis, and its holding period keeps running. A token the bridge backs 1:1 on the other chain is the same token. The number the bridge gives the transfer, which both chains show, links the two ends with certainty. If it's missing, TaxMaxi offers a send and an arrival of the same coin, close in time, with the arrival smaller by at most the route's fee, as a pair for you to confirm. What the bridge keeps along the way is part of what was moved.
- 3
The other reading
Not everyone reads a bridge this way. The DeFi guide by CoinTracking (as of 17 April 2026) says of bridges between chains, in our translation: "The tax administration treats this as a disposal plus a new acquisition."
On that reading every bridge would be a sale: the gain since the purchase would be realized for tax, and the one-year period would start again for the token on the new chain. TaxMaxi reads a bridge to your own wallet differently, because nothing goes to anyone else. Until a court or the ministry settles the question, a tax advisor can tell you which reading fits your case.
Common questions
Is a transfer through Allbridge taxable?
Not if the same stablecoin arrives in your own wallet: it only changes chain, and its purchase date and cost basis go with it. If a different one arrives, it's a swap.
USDT went out and USDC came in. What now?
Then you swapped at the bridge. The USDT counts as disposed of, at the value of the USDC that arrived, and the one-year holding period starts for the USDC. Between two stablecoins the gain is usually small, but it counts.
What about Allbridge Classic?
That's Allbridge's older bridge from 2021 and 2022, with its own tokens at the destination. TaxMaxi doesn't read it yet, so it puts a transfer through it in front of you in the review.
Does the one-year holding period start again after a bridge?
Not on TaxMaxi's reading, as long as the same stablecoin arrives. Anyone who reads every bridge as a sale has the period start again. The finance ministry's letter of 6 March 2025 says nothing about bridges.
More bridges
This page explains how TaxMaxi calculates. It is not tax advice and does not replace a tax advisor.