Thanks for the info.

I think you're right. I think it's a nationwide thing not a exchange thing.

I'm not so much interested in leverage but I am interested in ability to short. I do know I could use Kucoin and I believe I could use kraken. But is it legal for US citizens to use leverage or to short Bitcoin? I've recently come across some information that says, apparently starting last year, it became illegal. Does anyone know?

I'm going to check for a support email on both sites and ask them, but I was just curious because I've been trying to find out what exchanges I can short Bitcoin on and I every time I come across one it says that I can't use that exchange. (us location) So I'm wondering is this a nationwide thing or is it an individual exchange thing?

Update:
I woke up this morning and had a premonition I logged on to Coinbase and check the rate to convert from Bitcoin to tether or USDC. It turns out there is no fee, like when you buy Bitcoin from Fiat. This was my confusion. I thought every time you went from Bitcoin to any other money (be it fiat or crypto) you had to pay the fee of what would end up being something like $10 per $1,000. I didn't know, and now I understand better what stable coins are for. You trade from Bitcoin, when you think it's going to go down, to a stable coin and then back to Bitcoin from tether or whatever stable coin when you think it's going to go up. And you don't have to pay the fees because you're not buying in from Fiat.

This was part of my confusion and I was wondering how people could say that's not expensive. I feel kind of dumb but now I realize I was wrong. At this point I had only been buying crypto I hadn't actually sold any yet or tried converting to any other type of crypto from one to another. So it didn't dawn on me that the fee wasn't included every time you did a transaction. This makes much more sense. 

Thanks for the info guys, really helpful.

Let me clarify what I mean by high fees.

On Coinbase, if you buy $100.00 worth of Bitcoin, the fee would be $2.99

On Binance, if you buy $100.00 worth of Bitcoin, the fee would be $0.10

That would add up fast! That's what i'm talking about. 

thanks Tytanowy Janusz, good info.

I guess one question I would have is if you can get Bitcoin at such low rates, why pay 1.49% even 0.99% when you can get it for less than .1% on Binance?

I assume it's like Coinbase versus Coinbase pro I have heard that Coinbase pro has lower rates. So the question is if there's no difference why do they charge more for one than the other? I'm kind of confused as to why I've been buying on these exchanges at higher rates.

I've been buying at Swan Bitcoin at 1.49% and then after $5,000 in one year it drops down to 0.99% but even that is high compared to a 0.1% so wtf?

If I remember right when not using BNB the rate is still extremely low at 0.150%. Can you custody the crypto that you buy in this way on Binance?
Thanks for the info Tytanowy Janusz 👍

I was looking into and wondering about using strike app to trades since there are no fees at all and on the lightning network. But they don't have the download CSV file option. For that matter other than looking at your brief history that they have in the app there's really nothing other than yourself keeping track of all your trades.

Yeah unfortunately, here in America, any exchange (including from one crypto to another) triggers a tax event. Anything under one year is considered short-term gains and taxed like regular income tax. Anything over one year is taxed as long-term gains and capital gains tax in a lower rate. 

Well that's what I'm doing here is starting the process of gathering knowledge.


I know how to program in PHP mySQL and I create in an app where I can track trades. I've been using charts from binance and simulating buying and selling several trades but I don't know what the fees are or what kind of fees to expect on that kind of a system so I'm only guessing, but I currently I'm showing profits of approximately $6,000 (acting as though I started with $1,000) so I'm actually getting ahead with my "fake money" that's why I would like to start small and maybe do a few trades and see how it goes.

So essentially that's what I'm doing here I'm trying to get people's thoughts and opinions so I can go out investigate them and find out what works best for me.

So I've been investing in cryptocurrencies for a few months now and want to do a little bit of swing/day trading. I'm only thinking about doing it with $1,000 for some fun "on the side" cash, not to get rich.

Got a couple of questions for you guys:

1.) Where would you do day/swing trading? A regular exchange likely has too high of fees. IE: Coinbase.

2.) How do you keep track of all of your trades for tax purposes?
Most of my purchasing that I do now is from Swan Bitcoin and a little bit from Coinbase. Both of these offer the ability to download files in CSV form with all of your trades on it. Recently I looked at strike app for buying Bitcoin. I emailed/asked them if that ability at this time, they said no. Which makes me wonder how do you keep track of your Bitcoin purchases and sales with strike app. I have heard that, companies that you have to register KYC with, do send you tax information just like your work does with a W-2 form. Does anybody know if that's the case? Obviously when I pick an exchange I will look into this further with that exchange. I'm just kind of wondering off the top of my head how people who trade regularly, that have hundreds of transactions a year, keep track of all that.

3.) When you're trading on these lower fee type trade platforms, can you custody your own Bitcoin if you decide to hold them or is that the reason that the fees are cheaper because it's not the same style thing you're basically just owning the number you never get to actually custody the coin?

-TIA for any advice/info

You know that the U.S. didn't even have income taxes till the early 1900's right?

Most people, even in America, are so naive about taxes they actually believe that our streets and highways are paid for out of income taxes. They are not. They believe income taxes pay for public schools. They do not. And yet look at all of the money printing going on in the federal government for infrastructure which supposedly includes paying for schools, roads and highways. It's a freaking joke.

Taxing peoples work/wealth away doesn't make a country better. If you believe that, i'd think you'd like to buy the Dollar. The massive inflation coming is a tax on everyone. Will this make the U.S. more wealthy? Better off? Is that Helping solve the counties problems? I don't think so.

You ask where's the value in Bitcoin?

I ask where's the value of this post?

You seem to be asking others to validate whether or not you should purchase Bitcoin. Are you looking for others to push you over the edge to buy it that way, if you lose money, you can blame others as if "they told me to do it, it's their fault I lost money?" Otherwise what is the purpose of the post?

So you're saying Communists saw something that they cannot control and they don't like it...... hmmmm.... you don't say. 

Don't listen to what the rich say. Watch what they do.....

https://www.c[Suspicious link removed]m/2021/06/08/warren-buffetts-berkshire-hathaway-makes-500-million-investment-in-brazilian-digital-bank.html

https://www.cryptoglobe.com/latest/2021/06/bitcoin-hater-warren-buffett-invests-500-million-in-digital-bank-offering-crypto-products/

https://www.forbes.com/sites/angelicamarideoliveira/2021/06/08/warren-buffetts-berkshire-hathway-invests-500-million-in-brazilian-challenger-nubank/

Just to be clear the OP was misleading with thread title.

They have NOT made it legal tender. He is going to submit it to Congress next week to try and make it legal tender. In politics nothing is done until it's done.

hmmm.... walked into a commercial..... 

The power to tax is the power to destroy.

The power to tax bitcoin means there is the ability (through taxes) to make it unusable and/or unprofitable. That gives them a way to destroy bitcoin without actually out-right banning it.   

I'm just having a hard time understanding how anyone could equate the value of their investment to what some jackass tweets. 🤯

I'm having second thoughts because some of the people in the reviews are saying that your coins are being stored on their website and they're charging 1% fees when you transfer. I don't know if that's true but if it is that's kind of messed up. The information about it on the Amazon site says they do not store it on their website so I don't know.

Any suggestions? I'm guessing Ledger? 

I'm using Linux Mint, have Android phone, will "likely" use Electrum Bitcoin Wallet.

First of all thanks for all the responses.

I figured I'd update what I've been doing.

1.) I opened up a coinbase account. Why? Because Swanbitcoin (based in Nevada) is only for purchasing Bitcoin you cannot sell. I wanted to make sure I would be able to buy and sell. Their website says if you want to sell you can always transfer to another exchange free of charge (free of fees from them) and sell it from there.

2.) I did a little bit more researching on the tax situation in my area. If you hold the asset for less than 1 year it's considered income and is taxed as a regular income tax. If you hold the asset longer than one year it becomes a long-term investment and is taxed as to capital gains. So basically less than one year could be taxed as high as 35% more than one year it will generally be somewhere between 15 and 25%. So the longer you hold it the less taxes you pay on it.

Thanks for that, that's all I wanted was generalization. I'm not expecting anybody to open up the IRS code and start researching it for me. I was just curious.  

Now I'm gonna start looking for a hardware wallet. I was thinking paper wallet before for security, but I read Blazrs post Time to bust a myth. Paper wallets are less secure than normal encrypted wallets & started thinking it might just be easier/faster to do digital hardware wallet. Suggestions? I wanted this one -> ( SecuX W20 ) But I'm having second thoughts because some of the people, in the reviews, are saying that your coins are being stored on their website and they're charging 1% fees when you transfer. I don't know if that's true but if it is that's kind of messed up. The information about it (on the Amazon site) says that they do not store it on their website, so I don't know.  

Thanks! I'm actually not worried about making big profits, etc. I'm basically learning the basics of how to use bitcoin & ready to use it if necessary. Meaning I believe that hyperinflation (if only "transitory") is coming and the dollar is going to be in some severe trouble here real soon. I already have other investments and I'm looking for more diversity. Also if things started going crazy really fast this is a pretty easy/fast asset to dump some USD into if needed. Anyway, whether it's Bitcoin or some government shitcoin I believe digital currency is the future. Might as well get use to using it.  

I know it's considered a commodity, and that they are taxing it as capital gains. I was just interested if anybody knew around about what percentage it was. Trust me I'm just getting guidance and so forth from people here but as far as tax information and all that kind of stuff I'm not going to be getting that information from a forum.

Okay after looking at it more closely I believe I can invest immediately the minimum buying is $100 from my linked account. If wiring the money you have to wire at least $2,500. So I believe that was (again) my own mistake I feel kind of dumb.

In order to take full control, and be able to transfer the coins to my wallet, I have to wait 10 days. That way things aren't reversible and it's easier to make sure that they don't get fraud on their exchange. This is why they have lower fees.

I'm officially a Bitcoin owner now I used the $10 that they give you for free when you sign up and bought my first Bitcoin! YAY 😁