How is bridging through Mayan taxed in Germany?
In short
If you send a token through Mayan to your own wallet on another chain and the same token 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.
Mayan often swaps along the way. If a different token arrives, say SOL instead of ETH, that's a swap at the bridge. The gain on it is taxable if you held the token for no more than a year.
- As of:
- 23 October 2026
- Based on:
- § 23 EStG, BMF letter of 6 March 2025
What is Mayan?
Mayan is the bridge behind many wallets: swap between Solana and Ethereum in Phantom, Backpack or through Jupiter and you're often using Mayan without noticing. On its fastest route, Swift, you place an order and a solver pays you out on the other chain from its own money. With MCTP, Circle's CCTP carries your USDC across.
- The app swap.mayan.finance You choose the chain, the token and the amount, or a wallet that uses Mayan in the background.
- The order Mayan's contract on the chain you're leaving Your token goes into the order, along with the order's number.
- The payout a solver on the other chain It pays you out and reports the order under the same number, often in a different token if that's what you ordered.
For tax, all that counts is what reaches you: the same token in your own wallet, or a different one.
Mayan at a glance
- Type
- Bridge between chains
- Solana
- mayan34VedncxdK2XobtvWFDXQASUTBXhUVzt2kKgnyMayan program
- Solana
- BLZRi6frs4X4DNLw56V4EXai1b6QVESN1BhHBTYM9VcYMayan program
- Solana
- dkpZqrxHFrhziEMQ931GLtfy11nFkCsfMftH9u6QwBUMayan program
- Solana
- Gx9rivpS3YR8pBFwMuP6omYqVxunpLvLkNn7ubNyuZZ5Mayan program
- Solana
- D8C8iW6zmoKg5TRr8nQ7h14TMWqQX8FiBdj2ju5MF3waMayan program
- Solana
- 6u55Hqo1AsGMuJQ31VgNBfVhnpeszxXC4b6KzFaRU2JMMayan program
- Solana
- 5VtQHnhs2pfVEr68qQsbTRwKh4JV5GTu9mBHgHFxpHeQMayan program
- Ethereum
- 0x40fFE85A28DC9993541449464d7529a922142960Swift source
- Ethereum
- 0xD78D199f8C402e7B5Cc2abE278dF0412400a3BAeSwift destination
- Ethereum
- 0xC38e4e6A15593f908255214653d3D947CA1c2338Swift legacy
- Ethereum
- 0x875d6d37EC55c8cF220B9E5080717549d8Aa8EcAMCTP
- Ethereum
- 0xC1062b7C5Dc8E4b1Df9F200fe360cDc0eD6e7741Fast MCTP
- Ethereum
- 0x337685fdaB40D39bd02028545a4FfA7D287cC3E2Forwarder
A Mayan order on both chains
A real order through Mayan's Swift from Ethereum to Solana, from a stranger's public wallets, the way TaxMaxi reads it: the order on Ethereum and the payout on Solana, tied together by the order number both sides carry.
- −155.996986 USDC Sent via Mayanto your own wallet on Solana: not a disposal, purchase date and cost go with it
- −0.000062480616583544 ETH Network feethe ETH paid count as disposed of, and the fee isn't deducted anywhere
- +155.821283 USDC Arrived via Mayanthe same token, with its purchase date and cost from there: not an acquisition
On Solana, the solver pays the transaction fee. Whatever goes missing between the two sides, Mayan and the solver keep.
An example in euros
You buy SOL, send it a few months later through Mayan to your own wallet on Ethereum, and sell it there after more than a year. This is how TaxMaxi works it out:
- 10 January 2024Bought 10 SOL for €1,000.00
- 1 June 2024Via Mayan 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 bridge through Mayan taxable?
Not if the same token arrives in your own wallet: it only changes chain, and TaxMaxi carries it forward with its purchase date and cost basis. If a different token arrives, it's a swap, and the gain is taxable if you held the token for no more than a year.
I swapped between chains in Phantom. Is that Mayan?
Often, yes. Phantom and other wallets send these swaps through Mayan. TaxMaxi identifies Mayan by its programs and contracts, whichever app you went through.
What if nobody fills the order?
Then Mayan gives you your token back. TaxMaxi counts it as your own, with its purchase date and cost basis, and not as a new acquisition.
Does the one-year holding period start again after a bridge?
Not on TaxMaxi's reading, as long as the same token 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.