Did he actually pay for his support, not could he/she have?  If sitting in his crypto account  or reinvested and not spent on support then obviously no.  I would be surprised to hear he/she paid for college, housing, food, etc. as per the listing the IRS has for determining support.

I'm really shocked at your $85k.  I've had a ton of client crypto this year and hardly anybody made any real money.  Curious, what's the kid's major?  Finance or Art History?

If he under age 24 and was considered a full-time student, the Kiddie Tax applies to him.

He is finance.  I have a 113 page schedule D from Crypto transactions.  he trades every day multiple times a day and i am thinking it is really his "job"  he did not pay for all his tuition, but some and used some to purchase a moped/scooter to get around campus.  I just think it is crazy that kiddie tax should apply

i previously posted I had one over 18,000 pages with 270,000+ transactions.  Far exceeded IRS attachment file size limit so had to borrow a friends software to create the pdf file for attachment.  Thought about mailing the 18,000 pages but that would be my entire tax season profit. 

"but this is sort of his job"

But it's not. It's not Earned Income.

"He only had $2500 in W-2 wages."

There's the Job.

I understand your comments.  Just trying to see if there is a way to avoid the kiddie tax.  Parents are in high tax bracket so it is substantial difference in tax owed.

Is support relevant for a student under 24?  To get out of kiddie tax he needs earned income >50% of his support.  We don't have all of the facts but my guess is kiddie tax applies here.

In addition to learning how to make money; now he learns the tax consequences of making money.