No, that’s not true. The IRS has given guidance on this.

> explaining that virtual currency is treated as property for Federal income tax purposes and providing examples of how longstanding tax principles applicable to transactions involving property apply to virtual currency.[0]

Also, every crypto tax software does exactly what you say is not required. A bit of signal there.

[0] https://www.irs.gov/individuals/international-taxpayers/freq...

I am not a tax expert, but you should read this:

https://www.irs.gov/taxtopics/tc429

If you use one of the various mark-to-market rules, then you may well “only pay taxes on your overall annual trading profits”, but you pay it every year on unrealized gains too. Choose your poison.

Don't you have to have some special tax license to treat earnings that way?

You've never heard of a 8949, have you?