Bitcoin Forum

Is it legal for USA residents to use exchanges that are outside USA?  Like cryptopia? I know we can use coinbase and Bittrex.. any legal advice here ?

It depends, you cannot use bitfinex, you can use but if they realize it, they have the right to close your account. You should read Terms of Service of exchanges.

Yes. It's legal to shop abroad.

Lots of exchanges do exclude Americans but if that is the case they will state you're not welcome on sign up.

Bitfinex, Bitmex and no doubt a few others won't welcome US residents. I'd imagine the smaller exchanges like Cryptopia don't care yet. If they do you'll know.

Yes, there's no law against that. There's a separate issue of whether any given exchange prohibits US residents -- Bitfinex and Wex do, for example. Cryptopia allows them, though. In general, just check the terms before you sign up and fund an account.

Technically, I don't think it's unlawful to conceal your location to trade on Bitfinex or Wex (with a VPN) either. But it would be violating their terms of service and they could probably get away with confiscating your funds if they caught you.


At the rate this market is evolving, it probably won't be long now. :o

If the site does not exclusively bar you from using their site, then you are free to use and their Terms and Conditions should be looked into at every point in time to be sure that you have not been disenfranchised overnight because that is one thing that exchange sites are fond of doing they will by virtue of some conditions decides to just lock you out without any notification.

If you ask me, I would suggest you even settle for the ones that expressly allows US citizens because it shows that you are doing the right thing from the beginning and the legal parameters would have been taken care of by such site. When issues arose, you are not faced with evasion rather it would be avoidance compared to when you use sites that does not have the express legal backing to accommodate the citizens of the United States.

Test

Thank you All.. I will try....I am more concerned from US side...I Mean, what i do is legal being US resident....Like We should not be using sites from Blocked countries like Russia etc.

Yes, Cryptopia does not mind at all where you are coming from as long as you can do business in the site then you can be a member of it...they need more our loyal patronage more than anything else. of course, this might be temporary as countries right now are really demanding more transparency from exchanges. USA is leading the way for implementing KYC requirements and banning other people from joining. Anyway, there are many choices right now sprouting so we might as well go shopping and find which exchanges are we comfortable with and sure that will not run away at a slight problem.