Actually you are partially correct, but the coins are not still in any account and there is a proper way to treat it.
If the fee were paid in USD then there would be no further treatment needed, it is a broker/exchange/transfer fee and no longer deducitible, but the fee is paid in cryptocurrency.
This is no different than buying a pizza or coffee with cryptocurrency.
Fee of .05 with a 20 dollar cost. at time of paying the fee the FMV of the fee is let's say 25 dollars. So you paid a capital gain on the fee of 5 dollars.
Remember any time you use crypto to buy anything the IRS looks at is as if you sold that crypto to make the payment.
So he sold .05 of the crypto for 25 dollars which cost him 20 originally, that is a 5 dollar capital gain, then he spent that 25 dollars on the fee which is not deductible.
