--- title: "Arbitrum" description: "Add your Arbitrum address and Recap turns bridging, swaps and gas into a ready-to-file tax report." --- # Automated Arbitrum Crypto Tax Calculator Add your Arbitrum address and Recap turns bridging, swaps and gas into a ready-to-file tax report. Bridge ETH onto Arbitrum, swap across a couple of its decentralised exchanges, and pick up an airdrop along the way. What started as one transaction is now scattered across a dozen. None of it shows up as a single balance you can hand to an accountant. Add your Arbitrum address to Recap and it reads that activity straight from the chain. That covers swaps, bridge deposits, gas paid in ETH and any rewards. Recap classifies each entry and works out the gain, loss or income under your tax residency's rules. The report below comes from your own on-chain history, not a guess. > **Disclaimer** > > The information provided in this content does not endorse Arbitrum. Furthermore, it does not constitute tax advice. If anything financial or tax-related is unclear, speak to a qualified tax professional. You can also share your Recap account with your accountant or tax adviser directly. ## Why on-chain history on Arbitrum is difficult to reconcile An Arbitrum address gives you a full record of what happened, but it is a list of contract calls, not a statement. A few things make the tax side harder than it looks: ### Bridging is not the same as buying Moving ETH or a token from Ethereum onto Arbitrum through the canonical bridge is not a disposal. It is the same asset arriving on a different chain. It is easy to mistake for a sale, and it can sit pending for a few minutes while it finalises. ### Swaps and DeFi positions add up fast Arbitrum carries a large share of Ethereum's decentralised exchange and lending activity. A couple of afternoons of trading across different apps can generate more disposals than a year of exchange trading. Each swap is a disposal even though no ordinary money changes hands. ### Gas is paid in ETH, not in whatever you are trading Every transaction costs a small amount of ETH in gas, even when the trade itself is between two other tokens. That gas payment is a disposal of the ETH spent, on top of whatever the transaction itself does. It is one of the easiest costs to leave out of a manual reconciliation. ## How to add your Arbitrum address to Recap Arbitrum imports into Recap from your public address, the same one you already use on the network. Add it once, and Recap reads your full on-chain history automatically, including receives, sends, swaps, bridge deposits and fees. It stays up to date as new transactions land. ## How Arbitrum activity is taxed Tax treatment depends on the transaction type and where you are tax resident. Here is how the main Arbitrum activities are generally treated: ### Swaps and DEX trades Swapping one token for another, including trades into stablecoins, is a disposal of the token you give up. It is also an acquisition of the token you receive, each measured against your cost-basis pool. ### Bridging between Ethereum and Arbitrum Bridging through the canonical Arbitrum bridge is not a disposal, since it is the same asset arriving on Arbitrum rather than a sale. The same applies moving funds back the other way, and to transfers between your own accounts on either chain. ### Network fees Paying a gas fee in ETH is a disposal of the ETH spent. The fee also becomes part of the cost basis of the transaction it relates to. It affects your gain or loss twice over rather than once. ### Rewards and airdrops Reward tokens earned through a protocol on Arbitrum are treated as income at their value when they arrive. That value also becomes their cost basis going forward. An airdrop, such as the ARB distribution in March 2023, works differently. It is recorded as an acquisition rather than income, since you did nothing in exchange for it. This table shows Recap's default classification for common Arbitrum activity. It is not an exhaustive list or a ruling on your own position, and the right treatment can depend on your circumstances and jurisdiction. Confirm anything material with a qualified tax adviser, and recategorise any transaction where your facts differ. Refer to our [UK crypto tax guide](https://recap.io/guides/crypto-tax-uk-a-comprehensive-guide) and [US crypto tax guide](https://recap.io/en-US/guides/us-crypto-tax-guide) for a fuller look at how these rules apply. ## What we handle on Arbitrum that Arbiscan does not Arbiscan shows you every transaction, but it does not say which ones are disposals. It does not value anything at the point you received it, or carry a cost basis forward between transactions. Recap does all three, and keeps your cost-basis pool consistent across everything you do on the chain. We have also kept improving how Arbitrum syncing works. An error fetching transactions was fixed in December 2024, and a sync failure affecting some transaction types was fixed in August 2026. If your history has ever looked incomplete, it is worth re-syncing your account. ## What's in your Arbitrum tax report Recap turns your Arbitrum activity into a single tax report. Swaps are treated as the disposals and acquisitions they are, and bridge deposits and transfers between your own accounts are excluded. Gas fees are counted as disposals and folded into the cost basis of the transactions they relate to. Capital gains, losses and income are worked out under the rules for your jurisdiction. The result is a clear year-by-year summary you can file yourself or hand to your accountant. ## Why Arbitrum users choose Recap Arbitrum users choose Recap because a raw address, full of bridge deposits, swaps and gas payments, is slow and easy to get wrong by hand. Bring it into Recap instead, and your gains, losses and income come back as one report, ready to file or hand to your accountant. ## FAQs ### Are Arbitrum transactions taxable? Yes, in most cases. Swaps, spending and rewards earned on Arbitrum are treated as disposals or income depending on the activity, while moving crypto between your own accounts, including bridging from Ethereum, is not a taxable event. See our [UK](https://recap.io/guides/crypto-tax-uk-a-comprehensive-guide) and [US](https://recap.io/en-US/guides/us-crypto-tax-guide) guides for the fuller position. ### How do I import my Arbitrum account into Recap? Add your public Arbitrum address to Recap and it reads your full on-chain history automatically, including swaps, bridge deposits, fees and any rewards. There is no export or upload to do. ### Is bridging between Ethereum and Arbitrum taxable? No. Moving an asset across the canonical bridge is the same asset arriving on a different chain, not a disposal. Recap excludes it from your gains automatically in either direction. ### How is the ARB airdrop taxed? Recap records the ARB airdrop, and airdrops like it, as an acquisition rather than income, since you gave nothing in return. For portfolios created after 6 April 2024 the tokens enter your pool at zero cost by default, so the full proceeds are chargeable when you later sell; older portfolios default to market value on the day of receipt. You can change the setting per portfolio or recategorise the transaction. ### Does Recap handle network and gas fees on Arbitrum? Yes. Gas on Arbitrum is paid in ETH, and Recap records each payment as a disposal of that ETH as well as part of the cost basis of the transaction it relates to. --- Canonical HTML: https://recap.io/integrations/arbitrum Site map: https://recap.io/sitemap.xml ยท AI manifest: https://recap.io/llms.txt Any page listed above is available as Markdown by appending `.md`, or by sending `Accept: text/markdown`.