Although cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin are virtual currencies, they are treated as an asset for capital gains tax purposes, and “ordinary” investors who purchase Bitcoin as an investment will experience a capital gain or loss when they exchange it for traditional currency, products, or services.
“If you were to wake one morning to find that crypto has been banned by the developed nations and it became worthless, would you be OK?” Frederick Stanield, a CFP with Lifewater Wealth Management in Atlanta, Georgia, told NextAdvisor recently.
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There are thousands of different cryptocurrencies available today. The most popular — and the original — is Bitcoin, which was created in 2009. Other common cryptocurrencies include Ethereum, XRP, and Bitcoin Cash. Each of these currencies serves a different purpose, with some optimized for use in place of cash, and others designed for private, direct transactions.
Some experts predict bigger, global corporations could jumpstart this adoption even more in the latter half of this year. “What we’re looking at is institutions getting involved in crypto, whether it’s Amazon or the big banks,” says Weiss. A huge retailer like Amazon could “create a chain reaction of others accepting it,” and would “add a lot of credibility.”
Similar to forex — foreign exchange — trading, there can be significant risks involved with a largely unregulated market, and your best bet is to get informed beforehand, and don’t invest any money you can’t afford to lose. Regulators are still trying to figure out how to classify cryptocurrencies, for purposes of trading, payments, antifraud, taxation, and more. Clear regulation may help us understand how to use cryptocurrency and what its future may look like, but we aren’t there yet.
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But to understand the dynamic that led to this year’s depressing year for crypto, we actually should start a few years before 2018. In bitcoin’s early days, Mt. Gox was the go-to service for handling transactions. Then, in 2014, it halted transactions and slowly copped to a crypto-hack to the tune of $473 million, the biggest hack of its kind at the time, and it gave many people pause. But it was still early enough for people to believe that the blockchain system was still getting all the technical kinks out.
This is just one example, but it definitely highlights the difference between trading on Binance and Binance.US. Although small traders won't make much of an impact on either exchange, all else being equal, most traders would prefer to trade against the larger book, rather than the smaller one.
Crypto Chase referred to the implications of sudden erratic price movements on exchanges, these serving to liquidate traders who should have retained their positions.
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As far as payment for assets goes, platforms offer crypto purchases via bank transfers, crypto transfers, or credit cards, depending on the platform. Buying crypto with cash in a person-to-person fashion is also possible. Availability for buying and selling crypto on any given platform, however, can vary from region to region.
In the meantime, cryptocurrency users (and nonusers intrigued by cryptocurrency’s promise) need to remain ever-mindful of the concept’s practical limitations.
There are hundreds of cryptocurrency exchanges already, and dozens based in the U.S. Trade volume on Binance is currently $1.2 billion compared to $660 million on Coinbase Pro, $355 million on Kraken, $75 million on Gemini and $47 million on Poloniex, according to CoinMarketCap as of publication. About 20 percent of traffic to Binance.com comes from the U.S., according to research from The Block.
Some major differences between Bitcoin and altcoins can be found in the blockchain itself. Some altcoins have an uncapped supply, which changes how the coins are used. Some altcoins have made the blockchain faster, which speeds up both mining and transactions.
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Binance.US launched in September 2019 in order to serve customers from the U.S.A. Although the exchange got off to a fairly slow start, Binance.US has grown into one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges in the United States. In fact, April was a milestone month as Binance.US announced that its total trading volume surpassed $28 billion.