One thing he said offline after we were talking is that even though technically it should be reported as taxable income - the IRS likely won't know about it unless it passes through an exchange. It's definitely still a bit of a landmine out there with figuring this stuff out and there of course ways around all of this - but if you wanted to be 100% above board then, yes, I believe you would report it as regular income and then would trigger another taxable event in the future if you sold for a different crypto or exchanged to fiat. Their tax team would be able to clarify that more though if you reached out to them!