Bitcoin Forum

While  enforcement agencies and tax regulators are still exploring the phenomenon, one important question is—is bitcoin legal or illegal? The answer is, it depends on the location and activity of the user.
Countries that Say Yes to the Bitcoin
1) The United States
The United States has taken a generally positive approach towards bitcoin. Prominent businesses like Dish Network , Dell, and Overstock.com welcome payment in bitcoin.
2) Canada
Like its southern neighbor the United States, Canada maintains a generally bitcoin-friendly stance while also ensuring the cryptocurrency is not used for money laundering.
3) Australia
Australia allows entities to trade, mine, or buy bitcoin. The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) considers bitcoin transactions barter arrangement subject to appropriate taxes depending upon the use and user.
4) The European Union
Though the EU has followed developments in cryptocurrency, it has not issued any official decision on legality, acceptance, or regulation. In the absence of central guidance, individual EU countries have developed their own bitcoin stances. A few nations are allowing bitcoin while others are either undecided or issuing warnings.
5) Finland
In Finland, the Central Board of Taxes (CBT) has given bitcoin a value-added tax exempt status by classifying it as a financial service. Bitcoin is treated as a commodity in Finland and not as a currency.
Countries That Say No to Bitcoin
While bitcoin is fairly welcomed in many parts of the world, there are few countries which are resistant for this technology among them these are the important ones:
1.   Iceland
2.   Vietnam
3.   Bolivia
4.   Kyrgyzstan
5.   Ecuador
6.   Russia
7.   China
Countries/Places who are neutral or Alegal with respect to Bitcoin
1. Barbados
2. Venezuela
3.Colombia
4. Peru
5. Paraguay
6. Uruguay
7.Argentina
8.Nigeria
9. Kenya
10.Kazakhstan
11.Pakistan
12. India
13. Malaysia
14. Indonesia
15.Moritius


Help taken from:https://www.investopedia.com/articles/forex/041515/countries-where-bitcoin-legal-illegal.asp




The need of time is to build a regulatory system so that bitcoin could be accepted everywhere!

Well, that is very informative though. But I think it's better for you to include those countries that were a neutral treat in bitcoin adoption.
Most of that countries are probably in Asia, didn't declare by their government legal but also it not illegal just like here in our country Bitcoin is not formally legal but no totally illegal, we are freely to use bitcoin even taxation we don't have.

@OP, probably there's an addition in your post, there are also countries that they are quite in bitcoin (cryptos) and not putting any laws and regulation.

I've updated the information keeping in view your suggestion.  Neutral places have been added. Thank you for your suggestion n help :)

Your topic is misleading. "Some countries" is different from "countries". What you listed there is some countries and not all countries because there are surely several countries that have made a statement on bitcoin whether negative or positive while others are still consulting and discussing about what line of action to take concerning bitcoin.

Its good that some of the countries that you have identified especially the ones open to bitcoin are worthy to be commended but majority of them are thriving environment for bitcoin because most of the countries are still understudying what to make out of the technology which eventually might change their stands while at the same time those that have chosen a negative position can still review their stand later in the future.

I agree, and I have changed that keeping in view your suggestion. Thanks for helping a newbie out.

The wikipedia Legality of Bitcoin By Country (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legality_of_bitcoin_by_country_or_territory) list is actually pretty accurate and is updated quite regularly, so I don't see extra value in this list, which actually is less comprehensive, provides less detail and fewer references.

It's helpful to understand also that from a legal perspective, unless Bitcoin is specifically made illegal, then it is legal. If it is not against the law, by definition, it is legal. Therefore, it doesn't need the law to OK it or even recognise it (like in Japan). Even unrecognised, as long as it hasn't been made illegal, it is legal.

There is no "neutral" in a legal perspective. It either is legal or illegal.

We cannot really confirm that your post is 100% accurate as some countries are still questionable when it comes to the legality of cryptocurrencyu especially Russia and China. If you will look at the Alexa rankings of popular Bitcoin faucets you will always see that Russia is in the top 3 visitors of that website, which means that this websites are not blocked by the Russian government, their citizens can even use cryptocurrencies freely without being apprehended by the government. In China you will see another point where two of the top 10 cryptocurrency exchanges are operating inside China namely OKcoin and Huobi, now if cryptocurrencies are illegal in this country why are we seeing companies like this operating freely in that country?

Well, Russians, Chinese, Iranians... all those ever forced to find ways around state censorship and restrictive freedoms of access, they're probably a lot better informed than some of us in circumventing firewalls and ISP blocks. Plus, the Russian government hasn't exactly will to deploy the resources for a crackdown, which people would anyway find ways around. Look at Iran's recent experience, and Venezuela before that. Tried to ban it, tried to block access, but people found a way, and P2P trading thrives.

Impossible to block faucets and other sites who'll just put up mirrors.

The Chinese ban in on yuan trading... you're still perfectly fine to to crypto-to-crypto, and if you're in Hong Kong, autonomous jurisdiction presides.

They shifted business models long ago:

https://www.coindesk.com/chinas-bitcoin-exchanges-shift-p2p-model-domestic-crackdown/

As buwaytress has said, for as long as they're not selling crypto for fiat and vice versa, they're pretty much free to do whatever they want (except start ICOs I guess lmao). That's how China has been retaining an okay-ish trading volume. Cryptocurrency isn't blanket banned.

Also, I don't know if people noticed, but OP listed Vietnam in two sections lmao. Either way, the best approach would be to research specific countries that concern you because things are often not as simple as legal/illegal.

Many countries are afarid to legalize bitcoin in early stage, but after the huge growth of bitcoin few countries such as united states, Singapore, Switzerland, Germany and canada. These countries are accepted bitcoin as legal the same time some countries sucha as china, japan russia are announced bitcoin as illegal. At the same time countries like india is in neutral stage, that means either legal nor illegal. But in future  many countries will accept bitcoin as legal.

The trend is starting from some very powerful countries. Like it or not,everyone will accept it soon.

What regulatory framework do you think we needed in order for bitcoin to be universally accepted? Should each country have its own regulations or do we really need sort of a global governing body to monitor everything related to crypto? Anyways, G20 is already working on some standards but I do expect that amongst the country in the list that consider bitcoin illegal will react violently as regulations will give crypto form of legitimacy.

Thanks for sharing, opens the mind to where to travel if Btc is your currency.

I`m from Spain, here we are seen a lot of adoption recently, mostly in this last year.
   A lot of club, associations, small mining business, some teaching entrepreneurs.

What I did not saw till now are Spanish ICO`s but I believe they will come has soon the markets are better.

You can pay not much with Btc right now.
But is growing, like the rest of the world, I think.

and what about Singapore and the Philippines, isn't that place legal and I hope for 2019 bitcoin and crypto be welcomed by some countries that are neutral to accept it

I think not so soon get bitcoin legalized by the Sri lanka government as their are so many regulations they have to make it before announcing it as legal currency.I'm sure that sri lanka will not prohibit bitcoins.

Excuse me, but Russia? I am from Russia and I can say that our country is in neutral list, just because of we are still looking at the crypto experience of other countries before to take our own decision about it. There are ATMs and places which accepted crypto currencies for payment, nobody forbid it yet. But the point of taxation still not solved to the end. I expect in sooner time it will happen, but for now - we are neutral.

I've used bitcoin in some of the countries listed as places you can't use bitcoin.   :D

Good for you. I hope it happens everywhere and It better be soon.

Time to move to Spain then :D

Everybody has their own mindset and perceptions, So we can’t expect the same result and thought from everybody. Same like this, If we discuss bitcoin we can’t expect same reviews from different countries because each country has their own policy and rules. Countries Like European countries, USA, Canada are speaking in favor of bitcoin and they allow the legally use of bitcoin in their countries. Whereas other countries like Barbados, Pakistan, India, Malaysia, Indonesia, Iceland, Vietnam, Bolivia are neutral with respect to Bitcoin and some of them have banned the use of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies because they consider the use of cryptocurrency as criminal activity. But soon or later the bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies will be adopted as a legal activity everywhere with regulations because it makes the transaction fast in different sectors like finance, banking as compared to traditional approaches.

Day by day bitcoin become more famous and many people came to know bitcoin. Due to this many countries now accepted bitcoin as legal. Countries such as united states, canada are very supportive to bitcoin. Countries such as malaysia, indonesia, pakistan are announced as illegal. India is in neutral in india bitcoin is either legal nor illegal.

Literally nothing prevents others from doing the same. I'm glad that people value their rights over that what the government thinks is "better" for people to follow. It's about time for sheeples to un-sheeple.

China's measures to combat crypto versus fiat trades has done nothing other than driving people to go local, and let that be where governments can't do shit about people. They shot themselves in the foot by doing that.

It's funny how governments fail to learn from other countries who "banned" crypto. Maybe there is some form or arrogance that makes them believe that their word is enough for people to stop dealing with crypto.....

okay thanks for the info. So cumulatively, it can be said that the positivity outweighs the negativity which is a good sign. I'm glad about the fact that at least we have the superpowers at both ends. It makes the "game" better and the competition it creates will even make the adoption superb.

They do still strongly believe that one word came from them will definitely be followed anytime by its citizens but now when we do talk about engagement with crypto would really be an another story.
We have seen some countries which do banned and then later on they do already adopt it since they do realize that it wont really change anything yet stopping it completely will really be non-sense.

This got me thinking. Its missing Malta on the list. A country which is becoming a safe have for Binance and OKEx. You really need to put that one on the list. The Philippines as well is slowly adopting crypto/blockchain technology in Asia. Also should be included in the list is Singapore which headquarters  ICO recently (i.e. Infinitus Project).

You're so sharp, thank you. Firstly, I totally agree that 'some countries' is different with 'countries' which means all, whole countries in the world. Indeed, the countries mentioned have different policy that cause bitcoin to be 'differ' from one to another, it depends on the country itself. Let's hope they put aside the differences and become one in deciding about bitcoin's status and acceptance.

At present in INDIA the bitcoin price is getting is low this shows or creats some ilegal position

I think this post need to be updated and their source as Bitcoin in China and Russia are not ban but only the ICOs. In fact in China crypto market, Bitcoin is not belong to the top 10 ranks in which EOS is the leading crypto. Here in the Philippines, Bitcoin is not legal but not ban too and we can earned Bitcoin without tax.

Yes you are right and hopefully team realizes this so that the cryptocurrency will go through even if it means of removing anonymity in the forum and in the crypto holdings. It do not seem to have a problem when one has to reveal its true identity for one has done nothing wrong with just joining a system where one could earn.

I know, but many Europian countries are accepted the bitcoin is legal. If those countries are the success in the cryptocurrency then other countries will accept the cryptocurrency. Bitcoin is based on world best technology like blockchain. This is popular technology in the world. Many countries do not accept the bitcoin because they think bitcoin will be used for illegal transaction and do not trace the records. But I hope in the future they have a solution to this issue.

It's easier said than done at this point, although there's some European country like Germany who's is friendly to crypto, there would be others on the other side as well. If you have followed the G20 summit meeting this year, they're still divided on the legality and they wanted proper regulations in place. As and far as tracing it, yes it can tracked down through Blockchain itself because every transaction is recorded. It's pretty obvious that criminals can really take advantage of crypto's (psuedo)-anonymity, but sooner or later they can still be caught specially if they try to cash it out to fiat.

There is still a lot of inconsistencies when it comes to a list showing whether cryptos is illegal or not in a country. For one the biggest mistake is always putting China in the list of countries where Bitcoin is illegal. The fact that they have big exchanges like HUOBI, BTCC, and OKEX shows that the industry for crypto is really big in the country where a lot of the outsiders thought is illegal. Let us not always trust the sources online since they are also getting their data online where they have researched it poorly.

Agree. If you have been long enough in the cryptoverse, you will have a idea that most of the crypto related websites didn't verify their information before posting, they just wanted to put it out there for clickbait revenues because eventhough Bitcoin price is down this year, it is still one of the hottest trend and crypto related websites are taking advantage of every situation to at least squeeze some revenue on their end.