United States

Bitcoin ownership is legal in the United States. No federal prohibition on holding BTC.

Spot Bitcoin trading permitted on licensed exchanges. Exchanges must register as MSB with FinCEN and obtain state Money Transmitter Licenses. CFTC classifies BTC as a commodity.

Institutional and retail custody permitted. Self-custody is unregulated. Institutional custodians require national bank charters (OCC) or state trust charters. SEC qualified custodian rules apply for investment advisers.

Bitcoin can be used for payments but is not legal tender. Treated as property for tax purposes (IRS Notice 2014-21). Each transaction triggers capital gains/losses.

Bitcoin mining is legal at federal level. State regulations vary regarding energy use and environmental compliance. Miners may have Form 8300 reporting requirements for transactions >$10,000.

SEC approved 10 spot Bitcoin ETFs on January 11, 2024. Major providers include BlackRock (IBIT), Fidelity, Grayscale, and Franklin Templeton. ETFs trade on major exchanges (NYSE, NASDAQ).

Futures-based Bitcoin ETFs available since October 2021 (ProShares BITO). Less popular than spot ETFs due to roll costs and tracking error.

Wrapped Bitcoin products (WBTC, cbBTC, tBTC) permitted under existing frameworks. Regulated as digital assets under state and federal law. Custodians must comply with banking and money transmission regulations.

BRC-20 tokens not specifically addressed by SEC or CFTC. May trigger securities analysis under Howey test depending on issuance and marketing. No specific regulatory guidance issued.

Runes protocol tokens not specifically addressed by US regulators. Similar regulatory uncertainty as BRC-20 tokens.

Bitcoin Ordinals treated as digital collectibles/NFTs. SEC has not classified Ordinals as securities, though case-by-case analysis may apply.

Lightning Network is permitted as Bitcoin Layer 2. LN node operators generally not regulated as money transmitters unless professionally processing payments for others.

Bitcoin DeFi integration permitted but subject to existing securities, commodities, and money transmission laws. No specific DeFi framework exists.

Institutional custody permitted through qualified custodians. OCC permits national banks to custody crypto. State trust charters available (NY, SD, etc.).

Retail custody permitted. Self-custody using hardware/software wallets is unregulated. Exchange custody regulated under state MTLs and FinCEN.

Bitcoin spot trading permitted on licensed exchanges. Exchanges must obtain MSB registration and state MTLs. NY requires BitLicense for crypto activities.

Corporate treasury holding of Bitcoin is permitted. Treated as intangible asset for accounting purposes (FASB ASU 2023-08). Subject to fair value measurement.