Bitcoin Law Around the World

Status: Introduced 21 May 2026 (Rep. Begich). The House Financial Services Committee ordered it reported, as amended, on 16 September 2026 by 28–21. No House floor vote in the official record (last updated 24 Sep 2026).

As introduced, it would make Treasury set up a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve for 'qualifying' Bitcoin (finally forfeited coins) and a separate Digital Asset Stockpile for non-Bitcoin digital assets held by the government, with monitoring and auditing, and would offset costs using certain Federal Reserve resources.

Effect on Bitcoin: Direct if enacted: would put the existing reserve policy into statute. Not law; the text we read is the introduced version.

• State reserve

Status: Passed the House 294–134 on 17 July 2025. Senate Banking Committee ordered it reported on 14 May 2026 and reported it on 1 June 2026. On 15 September 2026 the Senate failed cloture on the motion to proceed, 49–50 (60 needed), and a motion to reconsider was entered. No later action in the official record (last updated 17 Sep 2026).

Market-structure bill that would give the CFTC oversight of spot trading in 'digital commodities' and split duties with the SEC.

Effect on Bitcoin: Direct for exchanges and brokers: would confirm that Bitcoin trades as a commodity under a single federal regime. Not law.

• Market rules

Status: Enacted: Public Law 119-27, signed 18 July 2025 (Senate 68–30 on 17 June 2025, House 308–122 on 17 July 2025). Not yet in force: it takes effect on the earlier of 18 months after enactment or 120 days after final rules. Implementing rules are still proposals (as of 16 Oct 2026): OCC and Treasury, FDIC (10 Apr 2026) and Federal Reserve (29 Sep 2026).

Creates a federal framework for payment stablecoins: only permitted issuers may issue them in the US, with full reserves, redemption rights and AML duties.

Effect on Bitcoin: Indirect. Does not regulate Bitcoin itself, but sets the rules for the dollar tokens that most exchanges use to buy and sell Bitcoin.

• Stablecoins

Status: Committee ordered it reported 27–22 on 2 April 2025; passed the House 219–210 on 17 July 2025. No Senate action in the official record (last updated 19 Sep 2026).

Would bar the Federal Reserve from issuing a retail central bank digital currency.

Effect on Bitcoin: Indirect. Would leave private money, including Bitcoin and stablecoins, as the only digital cash-like options in the US.

• Legal status

Status: Enacted. House 292–132 (11 Mar 2025), Senate 70–28 (26 Mar 2025), signed 10 April 2025 as Public Law 119-5.

Under the Congressional Review Act, disapproves the IRS final rule 'Gross Proceeds Reporting by Brokers That Regularly Provide Services Effectuating Digital Asset Sales' (89 FR 106928, 30 Dec 2024), so the rule has no force. The separate custodial-broker rules stay.

Effect on Bitcoin: Indirect (tax reporting). Non-custodial front ends and similar DeFi services were not made 'brokers' that report users' sales; custodial exchanges still report.

• Tax

Status: Introduced 11 March 2025 (Sen. Lummis, Rep. Begich) and referred to the Senate Banking and House Financial Services committees. No committee vote or floor action recorded as of 16 Oct 2026.

Would create a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve and a Bitcoin Purchase Program: 200,000 Bitcoin a year for five years (1,000,000 in total), held for at least 20 years, with costs offset using certain Federal Reserve resources.

Effect on Bitcoin: Direct if enacted: would let the US buy Bitcoin and lock it away. Today only a bill; the 2025 executive order does not allow purchases.

• State reserve

Status: Passed the House 279–136 on 22 May 2024; received in the Senate on 9 September 2024 and referred to the Banking Committee. No Senate action recorded; the bill expired with the 118th Congress (3 January 2025). Its ideas continue in the CLARITY Act.

First market-structure bill to pass a chamber: it would have split oversight of digital assets between the SEC and CFTC and defined 'digital commodities'.

Effect on Bitcoin: Direct (historical). Never became law, but it set the template for the CLARITY Act.

• Market rules

Status: Enacted: Public Law 117-58, signed 15 November 2021. The reporting rules built on it are in force (see the Form 1099-DA record).

Section 80603 amended section 6045 of the Internal Revenue Code: it clarified who is a 'broker' and defined a 'digital asset' as any digital representation of value recorded on a cryptographically secured distributed ledger.

Effect on Bitcoin: Indirect (tax reporting). It is the statutory base for broker reporting of Bitcoin sales to the IRS.

• Tax

Status: In effect as an executive order (91 FR 30475, 22 May 2026). Agency reviews were due within 90 days and actions within 180 days (about mid-November 2026); we did not verify the outcome.

Within 90 days the CFPB, SEC, NCUA, CFTC, FDIC and OCC must review rules, guidance, supervisory practices and application processes that could be updated to facilitate fintech and digital-asset innovation, including bank and credit-union charters; within 180 days they must act on the review. The Federal Reserve is asked to evaluate, and report within 120 days on, access to Reserve Bank payment accounts and services for non-bank firms, including those engaged in digital assets.

Effect on Bitcoin: Indirect. Aims to make it easier for crypto firms to get bank charters and Federal Reserve payment access, which affects the on-ramps to Bitcoin.

• Banks & capital

Status: In effect as an executive order (90 FR 38921, 12 Aug 2025). It sets 180-day tasks for the Department of Labor and other regulators.

Makes it US policy that retirement-plan participants can have access to alternative assets, a category that includes holdings in actively managed vehicles investing in digital assets. The Labor Department must reexamine its ERISA guidance.

Effect on Bitcoin: Indirect. Could open 401(k) money to crypto funds, but the order names no coin and creates no right by itself.

• Market rules

Status: Published July 2025 under Executive Order 14178. A policy report with recommendations; it has no force of law.

A government-wide review of digital-asset markets and recommendations to Congress and agencies. It states that the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve and the Digital Asset Stockpile will be administered by Treasury and capitalised with forfeited assets.

Effect on Bitcoin: Direct (reserve) and indirect (market rules). It shows how the administration reads its own reserve order and what laws it wants Congress to pass.

• State reserve
• Market rules

Status: In effect as an executive order. Reserve is funded only with forfeited Bitcoin; no purchases have been made and no budget-neutral acquisition plan has been published as of 16 Oct 2026.

Directs Treasury to hold forfeited Bitcoin as a reserve asset that is not to be sold, and asks Treasury and Commerce for budget-neutral ways to acquire more.

Effect on Bitcoin: Direct. The first national policy to treat Bitcoin as a reserve asset, though it is an order to agencies, not a statute.

• State reserve

Status: In effect as an executive order (90 FR 8647, 31 Jan 2025).

Sets a policy to protect the ability to use open blockchains, to mine and validate, to transact without censorship and to keep self-custody; bans a US central bank digital currency; revokes the 2022 Biden order (EO 14067); creates the President's Working Group on Digital Asset Markets.

Effect on Bitcoin: Direct. Names mining and self-custody as protected activities. It is policy for agencies, not a statute.

• Mining
• Legal status

Status: Advance notice of proposed rulemaking published 13 October 2026 (91 FR 64811). Comments are open until 14 December 2026; no proposed text yet.

The CFTC says it intends to write rules under section 2(c)(2)(D) of the Commodity Exchange Act for transactions and markets in crypto assets and asks for public comment.

Effect on Bitcoin: Direct for trading venues, once final: would set CFTC rules for transactions and markets in crypto assets, which would reach Bitcoin trading. Not yet a rule.

• Market rules

Status: Proposed rule published 6 October 2026 (91 FR 63870). Comments are open until 7 December 2026; not final.

Would set custody rules under the Investment Company Act for how regulated funds hold crypto securities and similar investments, and amend the Advisers Act custody rule for how registered advisers custody client crypto funds and securities.

Effect on Bitcoin: Indirect. Shapes who may hold Bitcoin for funds and advised accounts, such as ETF and adviser custody.

• Banks & capital

Status: Proposed rule published 21 August 2026 (91 FR 54510). Comments are open until 20 October 2026; not final.

Would create a tailored offering regime for investment contracts involving crypto assets, with two exemptions from Securities Act registration: up to $5 million over four years, or up to $75 million per 12 months, with disclosure duties.

Effect on Bitcoin: Indirect. Targets token offerings. Bitcoin itself is treated as a digital commodity under the March 2026 SEC–CFTC interpretation, not as a security.

• Market rules

Status: Issued 17 March 2026, effective 23 March 2026.

Sets a five-category token taxonomy (digital commodities, collectibles, tools, stablecoins, digital securities) and lists Bitcoin (BTC) as an example of a digital commodity.

Effect on Bitcoin: Direct. Confirms the agencies treat Bitcoin as a non-security commodity, which supports ETFs, futures and exchange listings.

• Market rules

Status: Announced 4 December 2025. The CFTC's filing record shows a 'Bitcoin US Dollar Spot' product from the exchange coded BTNL certified on 1 December 2025.

The CFTC announced that listed spot crypto products can trade on CFTC-registered futures exchanges for the first time, bringing leveraged retail spot trading under a federal regulator.

Effect on Bitcoin: Direct. Adds a federally supervised venue for buying Bitcoin spot, alongside state-licensed exchanges.

• Market rules

Status: Order issued 17 September 2025 (90 FR 45414, 22 Sep 2025).

Approved Nasdaq, Cboe BZX and NYSE Arca rules that let commodity-based trusts list without a separate SEC order if the commodity meets set criteria, for example if its futures have traded on a regulated futures exchange for at least six months.

Effect on Bitcoin: Direct. Bitcoin funds can list under standard rules, so new Bitcoin ETPs launch faster.

• ETFs

Status: Order issued 29 July 2025 (90 FR 36248, 1 Aug 2025).

Approved rule changes that let authorised participants create and redeem shares of Bitcoin and Ether trusts with the coins themselves instead of only cash.

Effect on Bitcoin: Direct. Makes spot Bitcoin ETPs cheaper and closer to holding the coin.

• ETFs

Status: Staff statement of 20 March 2025. It is the staff's view, not a rule, and has no legal force.

The staff's view is that solo mining and mining-pool participation on a proof-of-work network, under the facts described, do not involve the offer and sale of securities, so miners need not register those activities.

Effect on Bitcoin: Direct for miners. The statement covers protocol mining on proof-of-work networks (it does not name Bitcoin, but Bitcoin fits the description): solo mining and pools need no securities registration on the staff's reading.

• Mining

Status: Effective 30 January 2025. Companies apply it to annual periods beginning after 15 December 2024 (earlier use allowed).

Rescinds SAB 121 (Topic 5.FF), which had made companies that safeguard crypto-assets for others record them as liabilities on their balance sheet. They now use the ordinary loss-contingency rules.

Effect on Bitcoin: Indirect. Removes a major accounting barrier for banks and brokers that want to custody Bitcoin for clients.

• Banks & capital

Status: Launched 21 January 2025 under Commissioner Hester Peirce; its work feeds the SEC's 2026 rule proposals.

The SEC announced a task force to build a clear regulatory framework for crypto assets instead of relying mainly on enforcement actions.

Effect on Bitcoin: Indirect. A change of approach: from case-by-case enforcement to rule-making. It names no specific coin.

• Market rules

Status: Order issued 10 January 2024 (89 FR 3008, 17 Jan 2024). The order covered rule changes by NYSE Arca, Nasdaq and Cboe BZX.

The SEC approved, by accelerated approval, the exchanges' proposed rule changes to list and trade Bitcoin-based commodity-based trust shares and trust units.

Effect on Bitcoin: Direct. Lets investors hold Bitcoin exposure through ordinary brokerage accounts.

• ETFs

Status: CME and CFE self-certified Bitcoin futures on 1 December 2017; such contracts trade on CFTC-registered exchanges.

The CFTC explained how designated contract markets may list Bitcoin futures by self-certification under heightened review, and called Bitcoin 'a commodity unlike any the Commission has dealt with in the past'.

Effect on Bitcoin: Direct. Regulated Bitcoin futures exist because of this process; Bitcoin ETF listing standards later rely on futures history.

• Market rules

Status: Order issued 17 September 2015 (CFTC Docket No. 15-29). It remains the foundation of the CFTC's view that Bitcoin is a commodity.

In its first action against an unregistered Bitcoin options platform, settled the same day, the CFTC held that Bitcoin and other virtual currencies are properly defined as commodities under the Commodity Exchange Act.

Effect on Bitcoin: Direct. Gives the CFTC jurisdiction over fraud and manipulation in Bitcoin and over Bitcoin derivatives.

• Market rules

Status: Proposed regulations published 6 March 2026 (91 FR 10983); comment period ended 5 May 2026. Not final as far as we found.

Would give digital-asset brokers an alternative way to get customer consent to receive their tax statements electronically, without offering a paper option.

Effect on Bitcoin: Indirect (tax administration). Technical change for exchanges that issue Form 1099-DA.

• Tax

Status: In effect. It gives a safe harbor for allocating unused basis to each wallet or account as of 1 January 2025.

Taxpayers may rely on a safe harbor to allocate unused basis of digital assets to the digital assets held in each wallet or account as of 1 January 2025.

Effect on Bitcoin: Direct (tax). Affects how Bitcoin holders calculate gain when they sell coins held in several wallets.

• Tax

Status: Final rule 89 FR 56480 (9 July 2024), effective 9 September 2024. Brokers report gross proceeds for 2025 sales and cost basis for covered assets from 2026.

Custodial brokers must file information returns and give customers statements on gross proceeds and basis from digital-asset sales, on Form 1099-DA.

Effect on Bitcoin: Indirect (tax and reporting). The IRS will see Bitcoin sales on US exchanges; self-custody holders keep their own records.

• Tax

Status: Published 2019 and still in effect (exact publication day not stated in the text we read).

A hard fork alone, with no new coins received, creates no taxable income. If the taxpayer receives new coins in an airdrop after a fork, they are ordinary income once the taxpayer can exercise dominion and control over them.

Effect on Bitcoin: Direct (tax). Applies to Bitcoin forks such as coins received after a chain split.

• Tax

Status: Issued 25 March 2014; the basic rule is still applied and repeated in IRS guidance on digital assets.

Virtual currency is treated as property, not currency: general tax rules for property apply. A miner has gross income, at fair market value on receipt, when Bitcoin is successfully mined.

Effect on Bitcoin: Direct (tax). Selling, swapping or spending Bitcoin can create taxable gain or loss; mined coins are taxable income.

• Mining
• Tax

Status: Both proposals were withdrawn as of 6 October 2026 (91 FR 63514 and 63513). FinCEN says it will take no further action on the unhosted-wallet proposal.

The withdrawn proposal of 23 December 2020 would have required banks and money services businesses to file reports, keep records and verify customers' identity for transactions involving unhosted wallets (or wallets hosted in a jurisdiction FinCEN names). The withdrawn proposal of 23 October 2023 would have found international crypto mixing to be a class of transactions of primary money-laundering concern and required enhanced recordkeeping and reporting for it.

Effect on Bitcoin: Direct for self-custody. The US will not impose those extra wallet-reporting duties; the basic Travel Rule and AML rules still apply to exchanges.

• AML / sanctions

Status: Sentences imposed: CEO Keonne Rodriguez on 6 November 2025 (five years) and CTO William Hill on 19 November 2025 (four years). The FinCEN unhosted-wallet and mixing proposals are covered in their own record.

The Justice Department says the two founders conspired to operate a money-transmitting business that knowingly transmitted more than $237 million of criminal proceeds through Samourai's Bitcoin mixing service Whirlpool and its Ricochet feature.

Effect on Bitcoin: Indirect. Bitcoin and self-custody stay legal, but people who run a service that mixes or moves other people's coins can face criminal charges, even if the software is non-custodial.

• AML / sanctions

Status: PM2BTC order effective 11 October 2024 (89 FR 82499). Huione Group final rule 90 FR 48295, effective 17 November 2025.

FinCEN barred US financial institutions from certain transmittals involving PM2BTC, a Russia-linked exchanger of rubles for Bitcoin and other coins, and from correspondent accounts for Huione Group, a Cambodia-based group found to launder funds for DPRK actors and scammers.

Effect on Bitcoin: Indirect. US exchanges and banks cut off flows to these services, so Bitcoin routed through them cannot be cashed out through US institutions.

• AML / sanctions

Status: Designations and delistings in effect as of 16 Oct 2026.

OFAC removed Tornado Cash's smart contracts from the SDN list in March 2025 and, in August 2025, sanctioned Garantex's successor Grinex and the ruble token A7A5 network.

Effect on Bitcoin: Indirect. Sending Bitcoin to or from sanctioned addresses is prohibited for US persons; sanctions screening is built into US exchanges.

• AML / sanctions

Status: Issued 4 August 2025. A supervisory notice asking for suspicious-activity reports; not a new rule.

Urges banks and other institutions to watch for scam payments and other illicit activity through convertible-virtual-currency kiosks and to file suspicious-activity reports that reference the notice.

Effect on Bitcoin: Indirect. Bitcoin ATM operators and their banks face more scrutiny.

• AML / sanctions

Status: Internal DOJ policy since 7 April 2025; it disbanded the National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team.

Directs federal prosecutors to focus on fraud, scams, terrorism, cartels and other harm to investors, and says the Department will no longer target virtual-currency exchanges, mixing and tumbling services and offline wallets for the acts of their end users or for unwitting violations of regulations.

Effect on Bitcoin: Indirect. Lowers the risk for US developers and exchanges that handle Bitcoin. It is a policy, not a law, and a later administration can reverse it.

• AML / sanctions

Status: Designations announced in 2022 and 2023. We did not re-check the current SDN-list status of each entry; Treasury removed the sanctions on Tornado Cash on 21 March 2025.

The Treasury sanctioned the mixing services Blender.io and Sinbad.io, which obscured the source of Bitcoin, and the Ethereum mixer Tornado Cash. US persons may not deal with sanctioned entities or their listed addresses.

Effect on Bitcoin: Indirect. Bitcoin received from a listed mixer can be blocked by US exchanges; the sanctions target the services, not Bitcoin itself.

• AML / sanctions

Not independently confirmed: Current SDN-list status of each mixer entry not re-checked.

Status: In force. The 2019 guidance consolidates the earlier rulings and says it creates no new requirements.

A user who only uses or holds Bitcoin is not a money services business; an administrator or exchanger is a money transmitter. The 2014 ruling says a person who mines Bitcoin and uses it only for their own purposes is a user, not an MSB. The 2019 guidance applies the rules to business models such as hosted wallets and kiosks.

Effect on Bitcoin: Direct for miners and exchanges: solo miners and holders have no FinCEN registration duty; exchanges and custodians do.

• Mining
• AML / sanctions

Status: In force. FinCEN has applied the Bank Secrecy Act to virtual-currency exchangers and administrators since March 2013 guidance.

Money transmitters, including Bitcoin exchanges that qualify, must register with FinCEN, run AML programs and file reports. For transmittals of $3,000 or more they must keep records and pass sender and recipient information to the next institution.

Effect on Bitcoin: Indirect. This is why US exchanges ask for KYC and collect transfer data. Peer-to-peer transfers between your own wallets are not covered by it.

• AML / sanctions

Status: Issued March and May 2025; the OCC's position is in effect.

IL 1183 rescinded IL 1179 (November 2021), which had set up a supervisory non-objection process, and reaffirmed that crypto-asset custody, distributed-ledger and stablecoin activities from earlier letters are permissible for national banks. IL 1184 addresses custody and execution services for crypto-assets.

Effect on Bitcoin: Indirect. US banks can hold Bitcoin for clients without asking for prior approval.

• Banks & capital

Status: Issued 28 March and 24 April 2025.

The FDIC rescinded FIL-16-2022 (the 2022 prior-notification requirement) and confirmed that banks may engage in permissible crypto-related activities without prior FDIC approval, if risks are managed. The Federal Reserve Board rescinded its 2022 advance-notification letter and its 2023 non-objection letter for dollar-token activities.

Effect on Bitcoin: Indirect. Fewer federal barriers for banks to offer Bitcoin services.

• Banks & capital

Status: In force. A broader 2026 reserve bill (SB 1649) failed on House third reading on 9 June 2026.

Sets up a reserve fund fed by staking rewards, airdrops and interest on unclaimed digital assets held by the state; the state has no power to buy Bitcoin under this law.

Effect on Bitcoin: Direct but narrow: a cost-neutral reserve, not a buying programme.

• State reserve

Status: In force; details differ by state. Arkansas and Montana provisions were summarised from secondary sources and the Montana code index only.

Texas requires large crypto-mining facilities (75 MW and above, with at least 10% interruptible load) to register with the PUC and sets grid rules for large loads; Arkansas and Montana protect home or digital-asset mining from targeted local rules.

Effect on Bitcoin: Direct for miners: mining is legal, but access to power and grid duties are regulated.

• Mining

Not independently confirmed: Only selected states checked.

Status: In force immediately on signing (20 June 2025). Reported first state purchase (about $5M via a Bitcoin ETF, Nov 2025) comes from secondary sources.

Creates a state Bitcoin reserve fund managed by the Comptroller; $10 million was appropriated for investment in assets above a $500 billion market-cap threshold (only Bitcoin qualifies today).

Effect on Bitcoin: Direct. A US state authorises public money to be invested in Bitcoin.

• State reserve

Status: Signed by the governor on 6 May 2025. As of Aug 2026 the state treasury reportedly held no Bitcoin directly.

Lets the state treasurer invest up to 5% of certain public funds in digital assets with a market cap above $500 billion (only Bitcoin qualifies today).

Effect on Bitcoin: Direct, but permissive: the treasurer may invest and may decline.

• State reserve

Status: Signed 13 October 2023. A licence from the DFPI has been required since 1 July 2026 for digital-financial-asset business with California residents. Kiosk limits ($1,000 a day per customer) apply from 2024.

Requires a licence for exchange, transfer and custody of digital financial assets for California residents, with capital, surety bond, disclosure and supervision duties. Exempts, among others, persons who only provide connectivity software or computing power to decentralized networks and persons expecting less than $50,000 a year from the activity. Sets fee caps and daily limits for crypto kiosks.

Effect on Bitcoin: Direct for exchanges, custodians and Bitcoin ATM operators that serve Californians. Ordinary holders and self-custody users are not licensed.

• Exchange licensing

Status: In force. The New York Department of Financial Services lists Bitcoin on its 'Greenlist' of coins that licensed firms may list after notifying DFS ten days before.

Anyone running a virtual-currency business involving New York or its residents (transmission, custody for others, buying and selling or exchange as a business, issuing) needs a BitLicense or a New York trust charter. A consumer who only invests, a merchant who only accepts payment, a solo miner and a software developer do not need one in themselves.

Effect on Bitcoin: Direct for exchanges and custodians that serve New York; no licence is needed to hold, mine or spend Bitcoin yourself.

• Exchange licensing