Coins Stolen in an Exchange Hack: What the German Tax Office Accepts as a Loss

On September 24, 2026, the trading platform Bitget reported unauthorised outflows from several of its hot wallets. The loss stood at $351.6 million in the first statement and was revised upward to $387.5 million in the following days, once further holdings had been added. For those affected in Germany this raises a question that barely appears in the reporting on the incident: can a loss like this be claimed on a tax return? Under the prevailing reading today the answer is no, and it hangs on a single term in the Income Tax Act. Anyone who loses crypto-assets to a hack has not sold them. Without a sale, what the law calls a disposal is missing, and without a disposal there is no loss for tax purposes that the tax office could offset against gains. This article explains what that rule rests on, which counterarguments specialist law firms put forward, and which records to secure while the incident is fresh. Exchange hack and tax: why theft is not a disposal transaction Under German income tax law, crypto-assets count as other assets. Gains and losses from selling them therefore fall under private disposal transactions pursuant to section 23 of the Income Tax Act. The provision ties t...