Exporting CSV files from exchanges
- Author
- CRYPTO PORT Editorial
- Published
- Updated
- Reading time
- 6 min
In short
Exporting CSVs looks trivial, but it is where data quietly goes missing — wrong date range, a record type you did not export, an encoding that mangles the file. Always open what you exported and check the period, the row count and the contents. Confirm the required scope of records with the National Tax Agency and take judgement calls to a tax accountant.
Key points
- Exports are usually split by type: trades, transfers, rewards
- The date range often defaults to something recent — set it to the whole year
- Open the file and check the first and last dates and the row count
- Name files consistently: year, service, type
Definition
Pulling transaction history out of an exchange or service as a CSV file and saving it locally.
Exchanges usually split exports by type — trades, fiat and crypto transfers, staking rewards, fees — each behind a different menu. Exporting one and moving on is how quantities stop matching later. Walking through every menu and taking everything available is faster in the end.
Watch the date range. Defaults are often 'last month' or 'last three months', and running one unchanged silently drops the first half of the year. Set explicit start and end dates, then open the file and confirm the first and last rows fall where you intended. Check the row count too, in case the export was truncated at a limit.
Exported files do not always open cleanly. CSVs containing Japanese are easily mangled by encoding, and spreadsheets have a habit of reformatting dates or rounding off the trailing digits of a quantity. Keep the original file untouched and do your work on a copy — if you overwrite the original and the export is no longer available, there is nothing to go back to.
Decide on a filing convention: names like '2026_exchangename_trades.csv' that show the year, service and type at a glance, folders split by year, and two copies — cloud and local. Cloud alone fails when an account becomes inaccessible; local alone fails when a drive does.
Finally, export regularly rather than once a year. Services close, formats change, and retention windows expire, after which the history is simply unavailable. Taking data while you still can is the single most important habit in this step.
Watch out for
- · This page is a general orientation, not tax advice
- · Keep original exports unedited and work on copies
- · What must be kept, and for how long, is set by the rules — check National Tax Agency guidance
Frequently asked questions
What if the exported CSV comes out garbled?
Keep the original and reopen it through your spreadsheet's text-import option, specifying the encoding. Quantities can also lose trailing digits on import, so compare against the original file rather than trusting what you see on screen.