How is bridging through Relay taxed in Germany?
In short
If you send a token through Relay 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.
If a different token arrives on the other chain, say ETH instead of USDC, that's a swap at the bridge. The gain on it is taxable if you held the token for no longer than a year.
- As of:
- 23 October 2026
- Based on:
- § 23 EStG, BMF letter of 6 March 2025
What is Relay?
Relay is a bridge for sending tokens between Solana, Ethereum and many other chains, often from a wallet app, without ever opening Relay. You pay in to Relay on one chain, and a solver pays you out on the other from its own money, within seconds. It collects your deposit afterwards.
- The app relay.link You choose the chain, the token and the amount, often in a wallet app that uses Relay in the background.
- The deposit Relay's contract on the chain you're leaving Your token goes to Relay with your order's number.
- The payout a solver on the other chain It pays you out and names 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.
Relay at a glance
- Type
- Bridge between chains
- App
- relay.link
- Solana
- 99vQwtBwYtrqqD9YSXbdum3KBdxPAVxYTaQ3cfnJSrN2Relay program
- Ethereum
- 0x4cd00e387622c35bddb9b4c962c136462338bc31Depository
- Ethereum
- 0xa5f565650890fba1824ee0f21ebbbf660a179934RelayReceiver
- Ethereum
- 0xb92fe925dc43a0ecde6c8b1a2709c170ec4fff4fERC20Router v3
- Ethereum
- 0x0729e2a4716d9f7dd17858d5d504426d228697f7Router v3.2
- Ethereum
- 0xf70da97812cb96acdf810712aa562db8dfa3dbefSolver
A Relay bridge on both chains
A real transfer through Relay from Ethereum to Solana, from a stranger's public wallets, the way TaxMaxi reads it: the deposit on Ethereum and the payout on Solana, tied together by the order number both sides carry.
- −1,308.208152 USDC Sent via Relayto your own wallet on Solana: not a disposal, purchase date and cost go with it
- −0.00003428232223965 ETH Network feethe ETH paid count as disposed of, and the fee isn't deducted anywhere
- +1,307.794397 USDC Arrived via Relaythe same token, with its purchase date and cost from there: not an acquisition
On Solana the solver pays the transaction fee, so it doesn't show up on the wallet that receives the USDC. Whatever goes missing between the two sides, Relay keeps as its fee.
An example in euros
You buy SOL, send it a few months later through Relay 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 Relay 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 Relay 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 longer than a year.
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. In every report, TaxMaxi shows you which bridges it counted as your own transfers.
How does TaxMaxi know the wallet on the other chain is mine?
If TaxMaxi reads both wallets, it finds the two sides by the order number they both carry and counts the bridge as your own transfer without asking. If it sees only one side, it asks you once per bridge whose wallet that was and what arrived there.
What about the fee Relay keeps?
It's part of what you transferred: the tokens that arrive carry the cost of all the tokens that left. If you sell them later, your gain is smaller by that part.
More bridges
This page explains how TaxMaxi calculates. It is not tax advice and does not replace a tax advisor.