I remember that BTC was priced at $200 when I first heard of it. An IT guy explained it to me and I understood that its technology could not be stopped.
However, I remember saying that I would not invest in it because I expected banks and governments to fight back with regulations. I expected them to put known BTC holders in prison and label them terrorists, eventually. They always need a legal framework to justify their totalitarian behaviour. With BTC above 40k, I obviously regret not investing earlier. I entered that market much later, not to say too late.
This man from the UK is with Santander bank.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GCQWlFHGWz8 Invested in various cryptos for substantial amounts of money. Buying crypto in the UK is legal, as it is anywhere in Europe. But banks hate it and pretend that it is not legal. On the phone he was asked many questions that breached his privacy. Santander bank wanted to know exactly in which cryptos he had invested, at what time, and for what amount of money. What he was asked on the phone, he had to prove with a transaction history. Failure to do so would lead to his bank account with his lifetime savings being closed within 28 days.
Does anybody else have this kind of experience? Can it somehow be bypassed?
I always expected this kind of scenario and I have already seen posts of people in crypto groups on social media, being asked for transaction histories by tax agents. If banks/governments manage to find out exactly which cryptos we own and on which address, that opens the door to taxation and that is exactly what goes against the idea behind financial freedom in the first place. The essence of BTC is financial freedom in anonymity, which they are attacking. We must be a step ahead of them.
I expect governments to force all of us to declare our holdings and wallet addresses, by law. Owning BTC in my country should not be declared on tax declarations (yet) when no profits are made upon conversion to currency or to other coins. But converting profits to cash and to other coins is taxable. And knowing the conversion to other coins requires them to enter our cold storage wallets.
Blackrock + governments want to control all of it and I expect that creating extreme sell pressure with these threats, will some day be part of their strategy. We should anticipate on that before it gets to that point.
I have personally invested 16k in cryptos via a regulated exchange with KYC. This is probably a mistake, but for this amount of money I felt uncomfortable with dex etc.
A few ideas I have to avoid the scenario of this man:
- Use decentralized exchanges without KYC. This is for the future. For previous transactions, I am too late.
- Keep my crypto holdings in the account of a family member who is not a EU citizen. But that would make her the legal owner of my assets, which is not a good idea. I also believe I should transfer the assets before gains are made, because gains are taxable.
- Own multiple cold storage wallets, and only show a tax agent the content of 1 of 3. Declare that all other assets have been spent. But I don't know if I can make that statement without proof of payment.
- Report my cold storage wallet as lost, before any questions are asked. But if I do that and they know by BTC address via the exchange, I don't know if my funds are safe/can be used.
- Change the country in which I am a resident for tax purposes. At this point that is in Europe, but after marriage with my fiancé this would be Brazil.
I don't know if the fact that a government knows my BTC address, can lead to any future transactions being registered and therefore taxed by my government.
I own 2 cold storage wallets. Ledger and Ngrave. Can I keep 5% on Ledger, show this to a tax agent, and keep the Ngrave hidden? Or does the Ngrave have to be registered with an exchange in order for crypto to be transfered to it
