How is bridging through Wormhole taxed in Germany?
In short
If you send a token through Wormhole to your own wallet on another chain, you're not selling anything. It arrives there as the same token, 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 the token goes to someone else, it's a sale or a payment, like any other transfer to another person.
- As of:
- 23 October 2026
- Based on:
- § 23 EStG, BMF letter of 6 March 2025
What is Wormhole?
Wormhole is a bridge that carries messages between Solana, Ethereum and many other chains. A network of verifiers, the Guardians, confirms each message, and only then does the other chain release the token. This works in two ways. With Portal, your token is locked on one chain and issued on the other as a Wormhole version, backed 1:1. With an issuer's Native Token Transfers, as with W, it's burned on one chain and newly issued on the other.
- The app portalbridge.com You choose the chain, the token and the amount, or you use an app that runs Wormhole in the background.
- The message Wormhole's program on the chain you're leaving It locks or burns the token and writes a message with its number.
- The redemption Wormhole's contract on the other chain With the Guardians' confirmation, it releases the token to your wallet there.
For tax, what counts is what reaches you. With Wormhole that's the same token, either the token itself or its backed Wormhole version.
Wormhole at a glance
- Type
- Bridge between chains
- Solana
- worm2ZoG2kUd4vFXhvjh93UUH596ayRfgQ2MgjNMTthWormhole program
- Solana
- wormDTUJ6AWPNvk59vGQbDvGJmqbDTdgWgAqcLBCgUbWormhole program
- Ethereum
- 0x98f3c9e6E3fAce36bAAd05FE09d375Ef1464288BCore
- Ethereum
- 0x3ee18B2214AFF97000D974cf647E7C347E8fa585Token Bridge
A Wormhole bridge on both chains
A real transfer of W, Wormhole's own token, from Solana to Ethereum, from a stranger's public wallets, the way TaxMaxi reads it: burned on Solana, newly issued on Ethereum, and tied together by the message number both sides carry.
- −22,203.384368 W Sent via Wormholeto your own wallet on Ethereum: not a disposal, purchase date and cost go with it
- −0.00492082 SOL Wormhole feefor the transfer; the SOL paid count as disposed of
- −0.00002582 SOL Network feethe SOL paid count as disposed of, and the fee isn't deducted anywhere
- +22,203.384368 W Arrived via Wormholethe same token, with its purchase date and cost from there: not an acquisition
- −0.002913833173365888 ETH Network feethe ETH paid count as disposed of, and the fee isn't deducted anywhere
The SOL Wormhole receives pays for the message and its delivery. On Ethereum, the wallet pays the redemption fee itself.
An example in euros
You buy SOL, send it a few months later through Wormhole 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 Wormhole 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
The bridge didn'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.
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.
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 Wormhole taxable?
Not if it goes to your own wallet: the token only changes chain, and TaxMaxi carries it forward with its purchase date and its cost basis. If it goes to someone else, it's a sale or a payment.
Is the Wormhole token on the other chain the same token?
For TaxMaxi, yes. Portal issues only as much on the other chain as is locked on the first, 1:1. So the Wormhole version is a claim on exactly your token, not a new crypto asset.
Does the one-year holding period start again after a bridge?
Not on TaxMaxi's reading. 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 message number they both carry. If it sees only one side, it asks you once per bridge whose wallet that was.
More bridges
This page explains how TaxMaxi calculates. It is not tax advice and does not replace a tax advisor.