NFT and DeFi Tax in Portugal 2026: Cat G vs Cat B Treatment

The 2023 PT crypto reform was written for spot-trading and staking. NFTs and DeFi fit awkwardly into a framework designed for “buy BTC, hold, sell BTC.” Some of this is settled; some isn’t. This guide explains both.

NFTs

Start here, because almost every English-language guide gets this wrong: NFTs are not crypto-assets for Portuguese tax purposes. CIRS art. 10 defines a criptoativo and then expressly excludes criptoativos únicos e não fungíveis com outros criptoativos — unique, non-fungible tokens. They fall outside art. 10 n.º 1 al. k) entirely.

What follows from that:

• The 365-day exemption does not apply to NFTs. Holding one for two years buys you nothing under that rule.
• Neither does the 28% flat rate for short-term crypto disposals, nor Quadro 18 of Anexo G, which is built for crypto-assets.
• This is not the same as “NFTs are tax-free.” It means the crypto regime is silent and your facts decide: an occasional personal sale, a collection you deal in actively, and a creator minting for profit are three different tax positions.

AT has not published guidance mapping NFTs onto the remaining categories. If you have meaningful NFT gains, this is a pedido de informação vinculativa question, not a guide question. Keep the EUR cost basis (purchase price plus gas and marketplace fees) either way — you’ll need it whichever category you land in.

NFT royalties (creator perspective)

If you minted an NFT collection and earn ongoing royalty income from secondary sales, that’s Cat B income, not Cat G. You’re operating a business, even if you also enjoy the art. CAE codes 90.03 (artistic creation) or 74.10 (specialized design) often apply.

Free / airdropped NFTs

Receiving an NFT as a giveaway, promotional drop, or community reward establishes a cost basis equal to fair market value at the time of receipt. If the NFT was effectively worthless (no liquid market at receipt), the cost basis is €0 and any later sale is all gain.

If the drop was tied to activity you performed (early protocol use, social media engagement, beta testing), AT could treat it as business income at receipt - though no published guidance addresses this. Because NFTs sit outside the crypto-asset rules, you can’t fall back on the 365-day exemption here either. Record the receipt date and value and take advice before disposing.

Airdrops and hard forks

This is where AT’s guidance gets thin. Possible characterizations:

Promotional airdrop (free tokens to drive adoption, no action required from you):

• Conservative: treat as Cat G asset with €0 cost basis, taxable on disposal
• Aggressive: argue it’s a gift (non-taxable receipt under PT inheritance/gift tax rules, then full capital gain on disposal)

Reward-based airdrop (fungible tokens distributed to liquidity providers, stakers, governance participants):

• Category E remuneration from crypto-asset operations under CIRS art. 5.º n.º 2 al. u)
• Because it arrives as crypto rather than euros, art. 5.º n.º 11 defers the tax: nothing is due on receipt, and it is taxed as a capital gain when you dispose of the tokens
• Record the receipt date and EUR value anyway - you need them for the eventual disposal

Hard fork (you held BTC, now you hold BTC + BCH after a chain split):

• Conservative: treat the forked token as a Cat G asset with €0 cost basis
• The original BTC retains its original cost basis and acquisition date

No PT-specific case law has settled these definitively. If the amounts involved are meaningful (>€10k), get tailored advice from a contabilista who specifically handles crypto.

Liquidity pool positions

When you deposit two tokens into a liquidity pool (Uniswap, Curve, Balancer), you receive LP tokens representing your share. The PT tax treatment depends on what economic event is happening.

Adding liquidity

The conservative position: the deposit itself is a disposal event for the underlying tokens, even though you control the LP token. The disposed tokens hit Cat G; the new LP token gets a fresh cost basis and a new 365-day clock.

The aggressive position: it’s a non-taxable wrapping (like ETH → WETH). No disposal occurred.

AT hasn’t published clear guidance. The aggressive position is defensible because no value left your control - but if audited you may need to argue it.

Earning LP rewards

Trading fees earned from your share of pool activity: Category E remuneration under art. 5.º n.º 2 al. u), taxed at 28% - unless you’re running this at business scale, which pushes it into Category B.

Token incentives (CRV, COMP, AAVE distributed to LPs): also Category E, and since they arrive as crypto, art. 5.º n.º 11 defers the tax to the moment you dispose of them.

Removing liquidity

Less obviously a taxable event than it looks. You hand back an LP token and receive crypto-assets, and where the consideration for a disposal is itself crypto, art. 10 says no Cat G event arises and the assets you receive inherit the acquisition value of what you gave up. On that reading, exiting a pool defers the gain to the point where you convert to euros. AT hasn’t addressed LP tokens specifically, so track the LP token basis (value at deposit, adjusted for rewards already accounted for) either way and be consistent.

Impermanent loss

Treated as a realized loss only when you actually exit the position. The drift in LP token value while you’re still in the pool isn’t a taxable event.

DeFi yield (Aave, Compound, Yearn, etc.)

Lending stablecoins on Aave, depositing into Yearn vaults, supplying collateral to Compound - all of these produce a return, and that return is Category E capital income under CIRS art. 5.º n.º 2 al. u), taxed at 28%. It is Category B only if you’re running it as a business. And where the return is paid in tokens rather than euros, art. 5.º n.º 11 means nothing is taxed until you dispose of those tokens.

The bookkeeping headache: interest typically compounds continuously. Most contabilistas accept monthly snapshots of yield earned (use the protocol’s reported APY × principal × time, or actual on-chain receipt events if you can extract them). For anything beyond a couple of positions, a crypto tax tool like Koinly that parses on-chain activity saves hours of manual reconstruction. Affiliate link — TAXCLARA earns a commission if you subscribe through it, at no extra cost to you; we only link tools we’d use ourselves.

Borrowing against deposited collateral isn’t a taxable event - it’s a loan. The borrowed funds aren’t income. But:

• If you sell the borrowed asset (typical use case: borrow USDC against ETH), the original ETH deposit still has its cost basis and unrealized position
• If you get liquidated, the forced disposal of your collateral is a Cat G event at the liquidation price

Wrapped tokens (ETH ↔ WETH)

When you wrap ETH into WETH (or any analogous 1:1 wrapper), no economic disposal has occurred. You still control the same underlying asset; you’ve just changed its technical form.

The conservative position: AT could argue wrapping is a disposal of ETH and acquisition of WETH (both at the same price, so €0 gain - but it resets the 365-day clock).

The reasonable position: wrapping is not a disposal because no economic event occurred. Preserve the original acquisition date for the underlying.

In practice, the EUR amounts are usually identical at the wrap/unwrap moments, so the conservative interpretation only matters for the 365-day clock. If you’ve held ETH 350 days and wrap it to use in DeFi, the conservative reading restarts the clock - meaning you’d need to hold WETH for another 365 days to claim long-term exemption. Most contabilistas treat wrapping as non-taxable, but document the position.

Swaps and bridges

Token swaps (BTC for ETH, ETH for USDC - a stablecoin is still a crypto-asset): not a Cat G event at all. Where the consideration is itself crypto, art. 10 says no tax arises and the token you receive takes the acquisition value of the token you handed over. Your basis and your holding clock carry straight through; the gain surfaces when you finally sell into euros.

Cross-chain bridges (ETH on Ethereum mainnet to ETH on Arbitrum): conservative position is non-taxable transfer (same asset, same control). Aggressive position would treat it as a swap. AT hasn’t ruled. Most contabilistas: not a taxable event.

Yield farming strategies

A typical yield farm involves: deposit asset → receive LP token → stake LP token → receive reward tokens → sell reward tokens. Each step has tax consequences:

1. Deposit to LP: crypto in, crypto out - on the art. 10 swap rule, no Cat G event; the conservative reading still treats it as a disposal
2. Stake LP: non-taxable (you still control the LP token)
3. Receive rewards: Cat E, deferred to disposal because they arrive as tokens
4. Sell rewards into euros: taxable at that point (gain/loss vs receipt-day value)
5. Exit LP: same question as step 1

Steps 2-4 are uncontroversial. Steps 1 and 5 are where you choose your interpretation - and be consistent across years.

Stablecoin yield

Depositing USDC on Aave to earn 5% APY: Category E capital income. Even though USDC barely moves in EUR terms, the return is still taxable income rather than a capital gain.

If it’s paid in a non-stable token (CRV, COMP), record the receipt-day EUR value - but under art. 5.º n.º 11 the tax itself waits until you dispose of that token.

Practical recordkeeping

For NFT/DeFi taxpayers, manual tracking breaks down quickly. Use:

• Koinly or CoinTracker for automated transaction import (most major chains and exchanges)
• Manual EUR FX conversions at the Banco de Portugal rate for the date of each transaction (CIRS art. 23 - AT publishes no rate table for this)
• Per-position spreadsheets for DeFi strategies with multiple steps
• CSV exports from every protocol you use, kept for 4+ years

Hand the cleaned-up data to your contabilista. They’ll often charge €100-€300 extra for crypto-heavy returns vs straight Cat A salary filings.

Related reading

• Crypto tax in Portugal 2026 (full guide)
• Crypto mining and staking tax
• Crypto tax calculator
• Foreign income on Anexo J