Yes - in the US, selling an RWA token for more than you paid generates a capital gain, and you owe tax on the profit. This works just like selling a stock or other investment property: your gain is the sale price minus your cost basis, and how long you held the token decides the rate. The key points are knowing what counts as a taxable event (selling or exchanging, not buying or holding), how the holding period affects your rate, and how losses can offset gains. The token being on a blockchain does not exempt it - if anything, it creates a clear record of each transaction.

What triggers the tax

A capital gain is realized when you dispose of the token - most commonly by selling it, but also by exchanging it for another asset. Until then, an unrealized gain on a token you still hold is not taxed, however much its value has risen.

So buying an RWA and holding it is not a taxable event; receiving income from it is taxed as income (covered separately); and selling or swapping it is the capital-gains event. This distinction matters for timing: you control when you realize gains by choosing when to sell.

Short-term vs long-term

The holding period sets the rate. If you held the security token for one year or less before selling, the gain is short-term and taxed at your ordinary income rates. Hold it longer than a year, and it is a long-term gain, taxed at lower long-term capital-gains rates.

This can be a large difference. For many investors, crossing the one-year mark before selling meaningfully cuts the tax on a gain - a reason not to sell a profitable position just before a year is up without considering the cost.

Cost basis and losses

Your gain is proceeds minus cost basis - what you paid, including fees. Track this per purchase, because if you bought tokens at different times and prices, each lot can have a different basis and holding period.

Losses are useful: if you sell an RWA token for less than you paid, the capital loss can offset capital gains elsewhere, and a limited amount of net loss can offset ordinary income, with the rest carried forward. This is why recording both gains and losses accurately matters - losses have real tax value.

The actual rates, and the 3.8% surtax

It helps to put numbers on it. For 2026, long-term capital gains are taxed in three federal brackets - 0%, 15%, or 20% - depending on your taxable income, which is why the long-term rate is almost always lower than the short-term one. Short-term gains, by contrast, are stacked onto your ordinary income and taxed at those rates, which reach 37% at the top. On a $10,000 gain, the difference between a 15% long-term rate and a 32% ordinary rate is $1,700 - decided entirely by whether you crossed the one-year mark.

There is also a surtax many investors forget: the 3.8% Net Investment Income Tax applies to investment income (including these gains) once your modified adjusted gross income passes $200,000 single or $250,000 married filing jointly. And the loss rules have a specific limit - net capital losses offset ordinary income only up to $3,000 per year, with anything beyond that carried forward indefinitely. These thresholds are federal and do not include any state tax, which stacks on top.

The real-estate wrinkle

Selling tokenized real estate tokens can carry extra considerations, because the gain on the underlying asset may interact with things like depreciation claimed along the way (which can be "recaptured" and taxed). The mechanics depend on the structure. And remember that selling property tokens requires a buyer in the first place - the practical side is covered in selling real estate tokens.

Because holding periods, basis tracking, and recapture get intricate, confirm the treatment of a specific sale with a tax professional, especially for larger gains.

Where to go next

• Next: tokenized Treasury interest tax treatment.
• The exit side: selling real estate tokens.
• Glossary: capital gains.

Sources: U.S. IRS (irs.gov), as of 2026.