Crypto law in the United States is not one law but a stack of them. Owning and trading crypto is legal, while the SEC, CFTC, FinCEN, IRS and state regulators each claim a slice of how you can sell, custody, or tax it. The distinction that matters is activity, not asset. Holding bitcoin is fine, but running an exchange, issuing a token, or paying people in stablecoins triggers different rules.
TL;DR:
- Crypto is legal to own and trade in the US, but each activity (issuing, exchanging, custodying, paying) lands under a different regulator.
- The IRS treats crypto as property, so spending it is a taxable event every time, even when you pay in a stablecoin.
- The GENIUS Act, signed in July 2025, created a federal stablecoin framework. The CLARITY Act, which would set market-structure rules, still needs 60 Senate votes.
- Outside the US, FATF standards and the EU's MiCA regime set the baseline, and cross-border businesses have to satisfy both.
- Plan around the law that exists today. Waiting for Congress is not a compliance strategy.
Table of Contents
- Is Crypto Legal in the US? Yes, but the Activity Decides the Rules
- Crypto Law by Regulator: Who Controls What
- Stablecoin Law After the GENIUS Act, and What It Doesn't Cover
- The CLARITY Act in 2026: Odds, Obstacles, and What to Do Instead of Waiting
- Crypto Law Outside the US: FATF, MiCA, and the Reporting Net
- How Tom Brady Lost Money in Crypto, and the Legal Lesson Underneath
- Who Is the Richest Bitcoin Owner?
- Get a Crypto Compliance Plan Tied to Results, Not Billable Hours
- Frequently Asked Questions
- Sources
Is Crypto Legal in the US? Yes, but the Activity Decides the Rules
Yes. No federal law bans you from buying, holding, or selling bitcoin, ether, or stablecoins. The trouble starts when you do something with crypto that looks like a regulated business. Selling tokens to raise money can be a securities offering. Exchanging crypto for customers can make you a money transmitter. Running a derivatives venue puts you in front of the CFTC.
Most people searching "crypto law" want a single rulebook, and none exists. The US has no comprehensive crypto statute for the whole market. It has old laws stretched over new technology, plus one new federal law for stablecoins. That gap is why enforcement history matters more than any summary table, including the one below.
States add another layer. Money transmitter licensing is mostly a state matter, and New York's BitLicense is the best-known example. A company can be compliant federally and still be unlicensed in a state where it has customers. That is the failure we see most often in small crypto businesses.
Crypto Law by Regulator: Who Controls What
Here is the practical map. Find your activity, then find your regulator.
| Regulator | What it covers | Where you meet it |
|---|---|---|
| SEC | Tokens that qualify as investment contracts under the Howey test (a 1946 Supreme Court case) | Token sales, staking programs, tokenized securities |
| CFTC | Commodity derivatives and fraud in commodity spot markets | Futures, perpetuals, bitcoin and ether market manipulation |
| FinCEN (Treasury) | Anti-money-laundering and Bank Secrecy Act duties | Exchanges, payment processors, custodians |
| IRS | Tax treatment and reporting | Every sale, swap, spend, and payment received in crypto |
| State regulators | Money transmitter licenses, consumer protection | Any business with customers in that state |
| OFAC (Treasury) | Sanctions compliance | Wallet screening, payment counterparties |
Two points make the table less tidy than it looks. First, the SEC's posture has shifted. It dismissed its case against Coinbase in early 2025, so past enforcement is not a reliable guide to future enforcement. Second, the obvious answer on smart contracts turned out to be wrong. In late 2024 a federal appeals court ruled that OFAC overstepped by sanctioning immutable Tornado Cash smart contracts as "property." Treasury later lifted the designation. Code that nobody controls does not fit the old legal boxes, and the courts are still working that out.
Tax is the part everyone gets
The IRS treats digital assets as property, not currency. That one classification drives most of your reporting.
Under IRS rules, crypto is property. Every time you spend it, swap it, or sell it, you have disposed of an asset and may owe tax on the gain.
Stablecoin Law After the GENIUS Act, and What It Doesn't Cover
The biggest change in recent crypto law is stablecoins. The GENIUS Act was signed into law in July 2025. It sets up a federal framework for payment stablecoins, including reserve backing with high-quality liquid assets, redemption rights for holders, and licensing for issuers. Its provisions phase in over time, so check the effective dates against your own timeline.
Here is what it does not do. It does not regulate the rest of the crypto market. It does not tell you whether a given altcoin is a security. It also does not make stablecoins risk-free. A regulated reserve reduces the odds of a depeg, but you still carry issuer and banking risk.
My position: if your business moves money, stablecoin rules matter more to you than any market-structure bill. A company paying overseas contractors, or accepting payment from customers who hold dollars on-chain, is the one that feels the new law first. Before you choose a payment rail, read our piece on business payments and why finality beats speed. A stablecoin that settles in seconds but can be frozen by its issuer is not the same as one that cannot.
The CLARITY Act in 2026: Odds, Obstacles, and What to Do Instead of Waiting
The CLARITY Act is the House bill that would divide crypto oversight between the SEC and CFTC and define when a token counts as a commodity rather than a security. The House passed it in July 2025 by a wide margin.
294–134. That was the House vote on CLARITY in July 2025. The Senate needs 60 votes to move a comparable bill, and that is the number that decides everything.
So what are its chances in 2026? I won't invent a percentage, because anyone who gives you one is guessing. The obstacles are structural, not mysterious:
- The 60-vote threshold. A Senate bill needs bipartisan support, and crypto market structure is still contested between parties and within industry.
- Two committees, one subject. The Senate Banking and Agriculture committees both claim jurisdiction, so any bill has to satisfy both.
- A shrinking calendar. Midterm elections compress the legislative window, and market-structure fights tend to stall when floor time gets scarce.
- Industry disagreement. Exchanges, banks, and DeFi developers want different things on stablecoin yield and developer protections.
My call is to plan as though it does not pass this year. If it does, you adjust. If you build your compliance program around a bill that never gets a vote, you have nothing. Check the status on Congress.gov before you make any decision that hinges on it.
Crypto Law Outside the US: FATF, MiCA, and the Reporting Net
If you operate across borders, US law is only half the picture. The Financial Action Task Force sets the global anti-money-laundering standard for virtual assets, including the "travel rule," which requires service providers to pass sender and recipient information along with certain transfers. Most national regimes trace back to it.
The EU went furthest with its own rulebook. Our guide to MiCA, what it covers, who it skips, and what to do next walks through it. The short version: a single license can serve the whole bloc, but you must meet capital, governance, and disclosure requirements first.
Tax reporting is converging too. The OECD's Crypto-Asset Reporting Framework is designed to have platforms report user transactions to tax authorities across participating countries. The contrarian read is that anonymity-by-geography is ending. If your plan depends on one jurisdiction not talking to another, it will age badly.
How Tom Brady Lost Money in Crypto, and the Legal Lesson Underneath
Tom Brady became a paid promoter of the FTX exchange in 2021 and, according to reports at the time, took an equity stake as part of the arrangement. When FTX filed for bankruptcy in November 2022, that stake lost its value. He was also named, along with other celebrity endorsers, in a proposed class action brought by FTX customers in Florida federal court.
The lesson is not that crypto is a scam. It is that he held equity in an unregulated, opaque company and had no independent view of its books. The second lesson is about promotion. The SEC has made clear that touting a crypto asset without disclosing that you were paid can violate securities law. It fined Kim Kardashian $1.26 million in 2022 over a post promoting EthereumMax.
If your marketing involves influencers, partners, or affiliates, the compliance question is who gets paid, in what, and whether that is disclosed. That is crypto law too, and it is the easiest one to get wrong.
Who Is the Richest Bitcoin Owner?
The richest holder is almost certainly Satoshi Nakamoto, the pseudonymous creator of bitcoin. Blockchain researchers estimate that Satoshi mined roughly 1.1 million BTC, and those coins have never moved. That is an estimate drawn from mining patterns, not a confirmed balance, and nobody has verified the identity behind it.
Among identifiable holders, the picture is different:
- Corporations. Strategy, the company formerly known as MicroStrategy, holds more bitcoin than any other public company, well over 500,000 BTC by its own disclosures.
- Governments. The US holds bitcoin from asset seizures, and a March 2025 executive order established a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve.
- Individuals. The Winklevoss twins are widely reported as early large holders, though exact balances are not public.
The legal angle: on-chain balances are visible, but identity is not. Law attaches to custody and reporting, which is why a holder's wealth on paper and their legal exposure are different questions.
Pro Tip: Paying a vendor in a stablecoin still counts as disposing of property. The gain is often near zero, but you must record the fair market value at the time of payment and the cost basis. Most small businesses skip this, then cannot reconstruct a year of transactions at tax time. Set up a ledger that captures a USD value for every on-chain payment on the day it happens.
Get a Crypto Compliance Plan Tied to Results, Not Billable Hours
Most businesses touching crypto have the same problem. They know the law is a patchwork, and they are paying for reports that describe the patchwork without building anything. ActUpon works the other way. We scope crypto and blockchain advisory around a measurable outcome, such as a payment flow that settles on-chain with proper records, a stablecoin acceptance process, or a self-hosted setup through our sister service Myntli's hosted BTCPay Server. Our fees tie to those agreed results. If you need to know whether the business is ready for the technology first, our AI readiness check uses the same approach.
One honest limit: we are business consultants, not a law firm. We will build the operating plan and point out where the risk sits, but a licensing opinion or a securities analysis must come from licensed counsel in your jurisdiction. We will work alongside yours. Pricing depends on scope and the results we agree, so ask for the terms before you commit. For how we define a result, see business results and how to measure them.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is crypto legal in the US?
Yes. It is legal to buy, hold, and sell cryptocurrency, and no federal law bans it. Businesses that issue tokens, exchange crypto for customers, or hold funds for others face licensing, securities, and anti-money-laundering rules.
How did Tom Brady lose money in crypto?
Brady promoted the FTX exchange in 2021 and reportedly received an equity stake in it. When FTX collapsed into bankruptcy in November 2022, that stake lost its value. He was also named in a proposed class action over celebrity promotion of the exchange.
What are the chances of the CLARITY Act being passed in 2026?
Nobody can give a reliable percentage. The House passed it 294–134 in July 2025, but the Senate needs 60 votes and has competing committee jurisdictions, a crowded calendar, and industry disagreements to resolve. Plan under current law and check Congress.gov for status.
Who is the richest BTC owner?
Satoshi Nakamoto, bitcoin's pseudonymous creator, is estimated to hold about 1.1 million BTC that has never moved. That figure comes from researcher analysis of mining patterns, not a verified balance. Among identifiable holders, the largest known are corporations such as Strategy and governments holding seized coins.
Do I owe taxes if I only hold crypto and never sell?
Generally no, because holding alone is not a taxable disposal under IRS rules. Selling, swapping, or spending crypto is, and so is receiving it as income or payment. The IRS treats digital assets as property, so keep records of your cost basis.
Sources
- Digital assets | Internal Revenue Service
- S.1582 – GENIUS Act | Congress.gov
- H.R.3633 – Digital Asset Market Clarity Act of 2025 | Congress.gov
- Virtual Assets | Financial Action Task Force
- SEC Charges Kim Kardashian for Unlawfully Touting Crypto Security | U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission