Koinly Review (Australia): How the ATO-Ready Crypto Tax Tool Stacks Up

Koinly is the most widely used crypto tax tool among Australian investors and accountants. Founded in Sweden in 2018, it became an early leader in Australian-aware reporting partly because of how seriously it took ATO-specific concepts like the personal-use asset exemption, the CGT discount, and the distinction between investor and trader classification. This Koinly review covers what it does well, what it does not, how it handles Australian-specific cases, the pricing, and where the Sydney-built CryptoTaxCalculator beats it on local detail.

What Koinly is

Koinly is a transaction-aggregating tax tool that pulls data from exchanges, wallets and on-chain addresses, normalises the trades into AUD using market data, then generates an ATO-aware report covering capital gains, ordinary income and a long list of edge cases like airdrops, hard forks, mining and staking rewards. It supports a country-specific report for Australia that maps directly into the labels used on the ATO myTax cryptocurrency section.

Exchanges and wallets supported

Koinly supports more than 800 exchanges and wallets globally. On the Australian side, it has direct API or CSV import for CoinSpot, CoinJar, Swyftx, Independent Reserve, BTC Markets, Digital Surge, Kraken, Coinbase, Binance and every other significant Australian-accessible venue. For on-chain transactions, it supports Bitcoin, Ethereum and all major EVM chains, Solana, Cardano, Polkadot, Cosmos, Polygon, Arbitrum, Optimism, Base and most other Layer 1 and Layer 2 networks.

Wallet support covers MetaMask, Phantom, Ledger, Trezor and most other major wallets — though wallets are imported by address, not by direct API, so the import is identical regardless of which wallet manages the key.

Pricing

Koinly has a free tier that lets you import transactions and preview your tax position but not download the final report. Paid plans for Australians are priced in AUD at the time of writing roughly: Newbie (100 transactions) ~AUD $69 per tax year, Hodler (1,000 transactions) ~AUD $139, Trader (3,000 transactions) ~AUD $239, Pro (10,000+ transactions) ~AUD $419. Pricing is per tax year — you pay once for each year you want to download a finalised report.

For most Australian retail investors with under 1,000 transactions per year, the Hodler tier is the right pick. The free tier is useful for previewing what your tax liability looks like before you commit.

ATO-specific handling

Koinly handles the major ATO-specific concepts correctly. The 12-month CGT discount is applied automatically to qualifying disposals. Personal-use-asset exemption is available as a setting for sub-$10,000 transactions where the asset was acquired and used to buy goods or services. The investor-vs-trader distinction is configurable at the account level. Staking rewards and airdrops are categorised as ordinary income at the AUD value on the day received. Hard forks are handled appropriately.

Koinly also produces the underlying transaction-level reconciliation that lets you audit how a specific capital gain or loss was calculated. For Australian investors whose accountant will be reviewing the data, this is non-negotiable — Koinly produces a clean trail that an accountant can sign off on.

Where Koinly is strongest

Three areas. First, sheer breadth of exchange and chain support — almost nothing in the Australian-accessible market is unsupported. Second, the cost-basis algorithms — Koinly supports FIFO, LIFO, HIFO and average-cost methods, with the ATO-typical specific-identification method also available. Third, the report formats — Koinly outputs a full myTax-aligned summary as well as supporting accountant-friendly downloads.

Where Koinly is weakest

Koinly is built as a global tool with local extensions. That has two consequences. First, some Australian edge cases — particularly around SMSF segregation, the personal-use-asset exemption at the boundary, and the more obscure DeFi tax positions taken by the ATO — are handled less crisply than they are by CryptoTaxCalculator, which was built in Sydney by Australians for Australians. Second, customer support is global, which means the agent answering an Australian-specific question may not be the deepest authority on it.

How accountants use Koinly

Most Australian crypto-aware accountants will happily work with a Koinly export. The standard workflow is: client imports all sources into Koinly, reviews the transactions for any obvious errors or missing wallets, downloads the Australian tax report and the underlying transaction CSV, and provides both to the accountant. The accountant reconciles the report into the client’s broader return.

Verdict

Koinly is the safe default recommendation for Australian crypto tax. It supports almost every exchange and chain an Australian retail investor will touch, it handles the major ATO-specific concepts correctly, and the pricing is fair for what you get. For Australian SMSFs and investors with deep DeFi exposure where every Australian-specific nuance matters, CryptoTaxCalculator is worth a serious look. For most retail Aussies, Koinly is the easiest pick.

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Frequently asked questions

Is Koinly free in Australia?

Koinly has a free tier that lets you import transactions and preview your tax position but not download the report. Paid plans start at around AUD $69 per tax year (for up to 100 transactions) and scale up.

Does Koinly support Australian tax law?

Yes. Koinly produces an Australia-specific tax report aligned with the ATO myTax cryptocurrency section. It handles the CGT discount, ordinary-income treatment of staking/airdrops, and personal-use-asset exemption correctly.

Which Australian exchanges does Koinly support?

All major ones — CoinSpot, CoinJar, Swyftx, Independent Reserve, BTC Markets, Digital Surge, Kraken Australia, Coinbase, Binance and most others — via direct API or CSV import.

Does Koinly handle DeFi transactions?

Yes, including major EVM chains, Solana, Cosmos and most Layer 2 networks. Complex DeFi positions (liquidity pools, restaking, lending) can require manual review and re-categorisation.

Koinly vs CryptoTaxCalculator — which is better in Australia?

Koinly is the broader and easier-to-use default. CryptoTaxCalculator is built in Sydney and tends to handle Australian-specific edge cases (SMSF segregation, fine-grained DeFi treatment) more cleanly. For most retail investors Koinly is sufficient; for complex Australian cases CryptoTaxCalculator wins.

Important Australian disclosure — The information in this article is general and educational only. It does not constitute personal financial product advice and should not be relied on as such. Cryptocurrency products are highly volatile and many crypto exchanges or platforms operating in Australia are not licensed by ASIC. You should consider whether crypto suits your objectives, financial situation and needs before making any decision. Tax treatment varies by individual circumstance — consult a registered tax agent or financial adviser, and refer to the official guidance at ato.gov.au and moneysmart.gov.au.