ASC 350-60 explained: what the FASB crypto standard means for your books

The short answer: ASC 350-60 makes US GAAP filers measure qualifying crypto assets at fair value every reporting period, with the change running through net income. It replaced the impairment-only model for fiscal years beginning after December 15, 2024. Bitcoin and ether qualify. NFTs, most stablecoins, and self-issued tokens do not.

Updated September 2026. Standard references checked against FASB ASU 2023-08, issued December 13, 2023. Every source used is listed at the end of this post.

For years, US GAAP treated crypto like a trademark. You held it at cost, wrote it down when the price dipped, and could never write it back up. ASC 350-60 ended that. If your company or your clients hold bitcoin, ether, or another qualifying token, the balance sheet now moves with the market and the income statement feels every swing. This guide covers what changed, where ASC 350-60 sits in the wider FASB and SEC crypto guidance, which assets are in scope, the journal entries, and where the new close workload lands.

What ASC 350-60 is and when it took effect

The FASB issued ASU 2023-08 in December 2023, after years of preparers and investors arguing that impairment-only accounting made crypto balance sheets misleading. Respondents to the board's 2021 agenda consultation put crypto accounting near the top of its priority list, and the board agreed that recording the decreases in value but never the increases failed to show the economics of the asset. The update created subtopic 350-60 inside the intangibles codification.

The standard is effective for fiscal years beginning after December 15, 2024, including interim periods within those years. Calendar-year companies have applied it since January 1, 2025. Early adoption was permitted for statements not yet issued, and some filers moved fast. Marathon Digital, now MARA Holdings, adopted the standard effective January 1, 2023 and booked an $11.5 million cumulative-effect adjustment in its first-quarter 2024 filing.

It applies to every entity reporting under US GAAP, public, private and not-for-profit alike. There is no small-company exemption.

Old rules vs ASC 350-60 at a glance

	Before (indefinite-lived intangible)	Under ASC 350-60
Measurement	Cost less impairment	Fair value every reporting period
Price increases	Never recognized until sale	Recognized in net income as they occur
Price decreases	Impairment loss, permanent	Unrealized loss, reversible next period
Impairment testing	Annually, and again whenever indicators appeared	Eliminated for in-scope assets
Balance sheet	Buried in intangibles	Presented separately from other intangibles
Income statement	Impairment losses, gains only on sale	Fair value changes shown separately

The practical difference is easiest to see with numbers. Say a company bought 1 BTC at $30,000. The price fell to $20,000, then recovered to $50,000. Under the old model the books showed $20,000 forever, because the dip triggered an impairment and the recovery could not be recognized. Under ASC 350-60 the books show $50,000, and each leg of that journey ran through income in the period it happened.

What FASB says about crypto beyond ASC 350-60

Searches for "FASB crypto guidance" or "the FASB bitcoin ruling" assume one document holds the answer. It does not. A crypto balance sheet under US GAAP draws on four places in the literature, and the SEC wrote one of them.

Topic	Where it lives	What it says	Date
Fungible crypto assets such as bitcoin, ether and SOL	ASU 2023-08, codified as Subtopic 350-60	Fair value at every reporting date, gains and losses in net income, separate presentation, per-asset disclosures and an annual rollforward	Issued December 13, 2023, effective for fiscal years beginning after December 15, 2024
NFTs, self-issued tokens, wrapped tokens with an enforceable claim on a crypto intangible	Subtopic 350-30, general intangibles other than goodwill	Cost, no amortization, impairment test at least yearly, no reversal	Scope paragraph 350-30-15-4 amended December 13, 2023
Stablecoins redeemable for a known amount of cash	Financial asset guidance, Topic 230 for cash equivalent status	The right to cash is the asset, so it is a financial asset, not a crypto intangible. A proposed update adds examples on when it is a cash equivalent	Proposed ASU issued August 18, 2026, comments due November 19, 2026
Crypto held in custody for customers	SEC Staff Accounting Bulletin 121, rescinded by SAB 122	SAB 121 put a safeguarding liability and matching asset on the custodian's balance sheet at fair value. SAB 122 withdrew it and points to ASC 450-20 or IAS 37	SAB 121 dated March 24, 2022. SAB 122 dated January 23, 2025, effective January 30, 2025

FASB never issued anything with bitcoin in the title. The bitcoin ruling people search for is ASU 2023-08, whose codification amendments carry the date December 13, 2023, and it covers any token that passes the six scope criteria in the next section, ether and SOL included.

The row most people forget is Subtopic 350-30. ASU 2023-08 amended its scope paragraph, 350-30-15-4, to exclude crypto assets accounted for under 350-60 "except for recognition and initial measurement", so everything else stays in 350-30. KPMG's April 2026 handbook fills in the mechanics. Every crypto intangible is recognized at cost plus transaction fees. A 350-30 asset is then treated as indefinite-lived, tested for impairment annually or sooner on indicators, and paragraph 350-30-35-20 prohibits reversing an impairment once booked. Your NFT collection or your own protocol token still carries a permanent write-down while the bitcoin next to it moves with the market.

Stablecoins mostly leave the intangibles topic. KPMG treats a stablecoin that gives the holder a contractual right to redeem for a known amount of cash as a financial asset, one that may also qualify as a cash equivalent. FASB is now writing that down. Its exposure draft on Topic 230, issued August 18, 2026, adds illustrative examples on when digital assets such as stablecoins meet the cash equivalents definition, leaves the Master Glossary definition unchanged, and would require annual disclosure of the significant components of cash equivalents, stablecoins among them. Comments are due November 19, 2026.

FASB is not the only author of crypto GAAP for SEC registrants. SAB 121, dated March 24, 2022, told a platform holding crypto for its users to present a safeguarding liability at the fair value of the crypto held, with a corresponding asset. SAB 122, dated January 23, 2025 and effective January 30, 2025, rescinded it, and custodians now apply ASC 450-20 under US GAAP or IAS 37 under IFRS to the safeguarding obligation. For exchanges and custodians, that is the part of the map that moved, and it moved off the balance sheet.

Use the map one holding at a time. Ask whether the token gives the holder an enforceable claim on something else, whether it is fungible, and who issued it. The answers place it in a row, and the row sets the measurement model. A wallet holding ETH, an NFT and USDC runs three rows at once, which is the strongest argument for a crypto subledger that tags each asset with its model.

Which assets are in scope

The scope test sits in ASC 350-60-15-1, and a holding has to clear all six criteria. The asset is an intangible under US GAAP, it does not give the holder enforceable rights to underlying goods, services, or other assets, it lives on a distributed ledger, it is secured through cryptography, it is fungible, and it was not created by the reporting entity or a related party.

Asset	In scope?	Why
Bitcoin, ether, SOL and similar L1 tokens	Yes	Meet all six criteria
NFTs	No	Not fungible
Stablecoins (USDC, USDT)	Generally no	A right to redeem for a known amount of cash fails the no-enforceable-rights test
Wrapped tokens (wBTC)	Judgment call	An enforceable right to the underlying crypto pushes the token out of 350-60 and into 350-30
Your own protocol token	No	Created by the entity or a related party

KPMG reads the last three rows the same way in its April 2026 crypto assets handbook, which treats a stablecoin redeemable for a known amount of cash as a financial asset rather than a crypto intangible, and says a wrapped token carrying an enforceable claim on the asset underneath it belongs in subtopic 350-30. Whether that claim is enforceable is a facts-and-circumstances call your auditor will want documented.

Out-of-scope crypto intangibles keep their old treatment under ASC 350-30, cost less impairment. Stablecoins usually leave the intangibles world altogether. A portfolio that mixes bitcoin with NFTs and stablecoins runs two or three measurement models side by side, which is worth reflecting in the chart of accounts setup from day one. The stablecoin question may move again soon. FASB proposed guidance in August 2026 on when a digital asset meets the definition of a cash equivalent, and comments close on November 19, 2026.

Chart of accounts and journal entries

Neither Xero nor QuickBooks has a native concept of fair value remeasurement for crypto, so the structure lives in your chart of accounts. Three accounts do the work:

• Digital Assets, ideally one per major asset, presented separately from other intangibles
• Unrealized Gain/Loss on Digital Assets, an income statement account for remeasurement
• Realized Gain/Loss on Sale of Digital Assets, for disposals

The recurring entries look like this:

Event	Debit	Credit
Price up at period end	Digital Assets	Unrealized Gain/Loss
Price down at period end	Unrealized Gain/Loss	Digital Assets
Sale above carrying value	Cash	Digital Assets + Realized Gain
Sale below carrying value	Cash + Realized Loss	Digital Assets

Every line balances on its own, and the two unrealized rows are the ones an auditor will trace back to your period-end price source, so name that source in your accounting policy before the first close under the standard.

What this does to month-end close

Fair value sounds simpler than impairment testing, and in one sense it is, because the event-driven impairment monitoring is gone. The work moved rather than disappeared.

Every reporting date now needs a fair value per asset from its principal market. A quarterly filer has four measurement dates a year at minimum, and monthly management reporting takes that to twelve.

Lot tracking did not go away either. Realized gains on disposal still depend on cost basis, the per-holding disclosure asks for cost basis next to fair value, and the annual disclosure names the method you used to compute it. Your cost basis method still drives the realized side of the books and the tax return.

Then there is the disclosure package. At interim and annual dates, each significant holding needs its name, units, cost basis and fair value, with contractual sale restrictions disclosed separately. Annual statements add an aggregate rollforward of additions, dispositions, gains and losses. Auditors ask for the support behind every line.

Tax did not move when book did. The IRS still treats digital assets as property, with gain or loss recognized when you sell, exchange or otherwise dispose of them, while book income now reprices every period. Deferred tax entries follow.

For a firm closing books for several crypto-holding clients, the recurring mechanics cost far more than the concept ever did.

What about IFRS filers?

ASC 350-60 is a US GAAP standard. Under IFRS, the IFRS Interpretations Committee concluded in June 2019 that a cryptocurrency held for sale in the ordinary course of business falls under IAS 2, and that IAS 38 applies to everything else. IAS 38 then offers a policy choice per class of intangible. The cost model means cost less impairment. The revaluation model is only available when an active market provides an observable price for an identical asset, and even then an increase above cost lands in a revaluation reserve through other comprehensive income rather than profit or loss, while a decrease below cost hits profit or loss.

Groups that consolidate across both frameworks now carry a fresh GAAP difference on every crypto position, and the reconciliation needs the same lot-level records that the US disclosure package does. Keep one source of truth for lots and let each framework draw its own measurement from it.

How adoption works

Adoption runs through a cumulative-effect adjustment to opening retained earnings in the year you apply the standard, and prior periods are not restated. The adjustment equals the difference between the carrying amount of the holdings at the end of the prior annual period and their fair value at the start of the adoption year. If a holding was carried at $20,000 of impaired cost and fair value on the adoption date was $42,000, the $22,000 difference lands in retained earnings, not in income. From that date forward, normal period-end remeasurement applies. Grant Thornton describes the same mechanic as a modified-retrospective adoption in its December 2023 summary of the update.

How a subledger automates the fair value work

Everything above is a spreadsheet job for one wallet and a handful of lots. At real transaction volume it stops being one, and that is the argument for a crypto subledger.

Breezing connects across 80+ blockchains and exchanges, holds the transaction-level record behind each balance, and posts journal entries into Xero, QuickBooks Online or Bexio. When a classification changes, it updates the entry in place instead of deleting and reposting it, which keeps the audit trail readable. It supports opening balances too, so an adoption-date step-up does not force you to rebuild history first. Every tier includes unlimited wallets and unlimited users, and pricing starts at $29 per month, so adding a client's fourth wallet does not change the bill.

Quick answers

What is ASC 350-60?

ASC 350-60 is the FASB accounting subtopic, created by ASU 2023-08 in December 2023, that requires companies reporting under US GAAP to measure qualifying crypto assets at fair value each reporting period, with changes recognized in net income. It replaced the old cost-less-impairment model for those assets.

What is the FASB guidance on crypto?

FASB's crypto guidance is ASU 2023-08, issued December 13, 2023, which created Subtopic 350-60. It requires fair value measurement for fungible crypto assets such as bitcoin and ether, with changes in net income, plus per-asset disclosures. NFTs and self-issued tokens stay under Subtopic 350-30, and a separate August 2026 FASB proposal covers when stablecoins count as cash equivalents.

Does FASB require bitcoin to be measured at fair value?

Yes. Under ASU 2023-08, the update people call the FASB bitcoin ruling, a US GAAP reporter measures bitcoin at fair value at every reporting date and takes each period's gain or loss through net income. The rule took effect for fiscal years beginning after December 15, 2024, and early adoption was allowed from December 2023.

When did ASC 350-60 take effect?

ASC 350-60 is effective for fiscal years beginning after December 15, 2024, including interim periods within those years. Calendar-year companies have applied it since January 1, 2025. Early adoption was permitted, and Marathon Digital applied it a year early, effective January 1, 2023.

Which crypto assets are in scope for ASC 350-60?

An asset qualifies if it is an intangible asset under US GAAP, is fungible, lives on a distributed ledger, is secured through cryptography, does not give the holder enforceable rights to underlying goods, services, or other assets, and was not created by the reporting entity or a related party. Bitcoin and ether are the clearest examples.

How is cryptocurrency accounted for under US GAAP?

It depends on the asset. Fungible crypto assets like bitcoin and ether sit in Subtopic 350-60 at fair value through net income. NFTs and tokens you issued yourself stay in Subtopic 350-30 at cost less impairment. Stablecoins redeemable for a known amount of cash are financial assets. Public and private companies follow the same rules.

Are NFTs covered by ASC 350-60?

No. NFTs fail the fungibility criterion, so they stay under the older intangible asset guidance of cost less impairment. If your books hold both bitcoin and NFTs, the two follow different measurement models, which is one more reason to track them in separate accounts.

Are stablecoins in scope for ASC 350-60?

Generally no. A stablecoin that gives the holder an enforceable right to redeem for fiat or other assets fails the no-enforceable-rights criterion, so it sits outside ASC 350-60. In August 2026 FASB proposed guidance on when such assets count as cash equivalents, with comments due November 19, 2026.

How do you record unrealized gains and losses under ASC 350-60?

At each reporting date you remeasure in-scope holdings to fair value and post the change to an unrealized gain or loss account that runs through net income. A price increase debits the digital asset account and credits unrealized gains. A decrease does the reverse. Nothing waits for a sale.

What disclosures does ASC 350-60 require?

For each significant holding you disclose the asset name, cost basis, fair value, and units held, plus any contractual sale restrictions. Annually you also present a rollforward of activity showing additions, dispositions, and gains and losses. That level of detail requires lot-level records rather than wallet balances.

How do you transition to ASC 350-60?

Through a cumulative-effect adjustment to the opening balance of retained earnings in the year of adoption. You do not restate prior periods. Holdings carried at impaired cost are stepped up or down to fair value on day one, and the difference lands in retained earnings, not income.

Does ASC 350-60 change how crypto is taxed?

No. It is a financial reporting standard, not a tax rule. Taxable gains and losses are still driven by disposals and your cost basis method. Because book income now moves with fair value while tax does not, expect new book-to-tax differences and deferred tax entries.

Bottom line

ASC 350-60 fixed the most criticized part of crypto accounting. Balance sheets now show what holdings are worth, and a recovery no longer disappears into permanently impaired cost. What you pay for that is a standing close obligation. Period-end pricing, remeasurement entries, lot-level cost basis, and a disclosure package auditors read line by line. Get the chart of accounts right first. Then pick a pricing source, write it into your policy, and automate the remeasurement before the volume makes it the slowest part of your close.

Sources

• Accounting Standards Update No. 2023-08, Intangibles, Goodwill and Other, Crypto Assets (Subtopic 350-60): Accounting for and Disclosure of Crypto Assets (PDF), Financial Accounting Standards Board, dated December 2023 (codification amendments dated December 13, 2023), checked 2026-09-04: supports the six scope criteria in 350-60-15-1, fair value measurement with remeasurement gains and losses in net income (350-60-35-1), separate balance sheet and income statement presentation (350-60-45-1 and 350-60-45-2), the interim and annual per-holding disclosures of name, cost basis, fair value and units (350-60-50-1), the annual aggregate rollforward of additions, dispositions, gains and losses (350-60-50-3), the contractual sale restriction disclosures (350-60-50-6), the effective date of fiscal years beginning after December 15, 2024 including interim periods with early adoption permitted, the cumulative-effect adjustment to opening retained earnings without restatement (350-60-65-1), the elimination of impairment testing for in-scope assets and the old annual-plus-indicators impairment model it replaced, the exclusion of NFTs through the fungibility criterion (BC23), the amendment of paragraph 350-30-15-4 to carve out crypto assets accounted for under Subtopic 350-60 except for recognition and initial measurement, and the December 13, 2023 date carried by every added and amended paragraph in the codification tables.
• ASU 2023-08 clarifies accounting for certain crypto assets, Grant Thornton, published December 21, 2023, checked 2026-09-04: supports the effective date, the six scope criteria, the modified-retrospective adoption through a cumulative-effect adjustment to retained earnings, and the annual reconciliation of opening and closing balances.
• Handbook: Crypto assets, US GAAP (PDF), KPMG LLP, April 2026, checked 2026-09-04: supports NFTs sitting outside subtopic 350-60 because they fail the fungibility criterion, stablecoins that carry a contractual right to redeem for a known amount of cash being accounted for as financial assets, wrapped or receipt tokens with an enforceable right to an underlying crypto intangible falling outside subtopic 350-60 and into subtopic 350-30, with enforceability treated as a judgment, a stablecoin that is a financial asset possibly qualifying as a cash equivalent, crypto intangibles being recognized at cost plus transaction fees under Subtopic 350-30 whichever subtopic measures them afterwards, Subtopic 350-30 crypto intangibles being treated as indefinite-lived and tested for impairment annually or sooner on indicators rather than amortized, and the ASC 350-30-35-20 prohibition on reversing a recognized impairment loss.
• FASB proposes stablecoin disclosures, Accounting Today, published August 18, 2026, checked 2026-09-04: supports the August 2026 proposed update on how the existing cash equivalents definition applies to stablecoins and the November 19, 2026 comment deadline.
• Proposed Accounting Standards Update, Statement of Cash Flows (Topic 230): Cash Equivalents, Disclosure Enhancement and Evaluation of Certain Digital Assets (PDF), Financial Accounting Standards Board, issued August 18, 2026, checked 2026-09-04: supports the illustrative examples on whether digital assets such as stablecoins meet the cash equivalents definition, the statement that the amendments would not revise the Master Glossary definition of cash equivalents, the proposed annual disclosure of the significant components of cash equivalents with stablecoins named among the examples, and the November 19, 2026 comment deadline.
• Staff Accounting Bulletin No. 121, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, dated March 24, 2022, checked 2026-09-04: supports the SEC staff view that a platform holding crypto-assets for its users should present a liability for its obligation to safeguard them, measured at the fair value of those crypto-assets, with a corresponding asset.
• Staff Accounting Bulletin No. 122, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, dated January 23, 2025 and effective January 30, 2025, checked 2026-09-04: supports the rescission of the Topic 5.FF guidance introduced by SAB 121, and the instruction to apply ASC Subtopic 450-20 under US GAAP or IAS 37 under IFRS to the safeguarding obligation.
• MARA Holdings (Marathon Digital Holdings) Form 10-Q for the quarter ended March 31, 2024, filed with the SEC on May 9, 2024, checked 2026-09-04: supports the early adoption example, stating that the company early adopted ASU 2023-08 effective January 1, 2023 and recorded an $11.5 million cumulative-effect adjustment.
• Holdings of Cryptocurrencies, agenda decision (PDF), IFRS Interpretations Committee, June 2019, checked 2026-09-04: supports IAS 2 applying to cryptocurrencies held for sale in the ordinary course of business and IAS 38 applying to holdings outside that case.
• Applying IFRS: Accounting by holders of crypto assets (PDF), EY, updated October 2021, checked 2026-09-04: supports the IAS 38 policy choice per class of intangible, the cost model meaning cost less impairment, the revaluation model being available only where an active market gives an observable price for an identical asset, increases above cost going to a revaluation reserve through other comprehensive income, and decreases below cost going to profit or loss.
• Digital assets, Internal Revenue Service, page last reviewed or updated September 2, 2026, checked 2026-09-04: supports digital assets being treated as property rather than currency for US tax purposes, gain or loss being recognized when they are sold, exchanged or otherwise disposed of, and basis being the asset's cost.