Legality of Crypto

Is crypto legal in your area? Before deciding which cryptocurrencies to buy or where to buy them, I recommend learning what your local state or country has to say about crypto. Is it legal, banned, or a mix of the two?

Crypto is either legal or restricted in most countries around the world and in most states within the United States.

Crypto in the United States

To find out the current status of crypto in your state click on this Bloomberg Law website. The website provides links to all 50 states within the United States and explains each states crypto laws.

In a 2021 Google Trends report, the top ten states within the United States interested in crypto were identified. Here they are in order:

California
New Jersey
Nevada
Washington
Florida
Hawaii
Colorado
Arizona
Massachusetts
Connecticut

Another report done by the Motley Fool identified Texas and Wyoming as ideal states to invest in cryptocurrency.

Crypto around the World

Unfortunately, there are still a few countries where crypto is illegal, so it’s important to know if one of these banned countries is where you live.

Here is a partial list of international countries around the world where crypto is accepted, restricted, or banned. Where does your country stand on bitcoin or crypto?

Legal status of bitcoin and crypto:
(brown) Legal tender
(green) Permissive (legal to use bitcoin)
(yellow) Contentious (some legal restrictions on usage of bitcoin)
(pink) Contentious (interpretation of old laws, but bitcoin is not prohibited directly)
(red) Hostile (full or partial prohibition)
(grey) No data

Is Crypto Legal in Your Area?

Countries Where Crypto is Accepted

Antigua and Barbuda, Australia, Barbados, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cayman Islands, Canada, Chile, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Iceland, Indonesia, Italy, Ireland, Japan, Lithuania, Malta, Mauritius, Marshall Islands, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Nicaragua, Norway, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Portugal, Singapore, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Ukraine, United Kingdom, United States, United Arab Emirates, Uzbekistan, Venezuela

Countries Where Crypto is Restricted

Bahrain, China, Hong Kong, Iran, Kazakhstan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Thailand, Turkey, Vietnam

Countries Where Crypto is Banned

Algeria, Bangladesh, Bolivia, Dominican Republic, Ghana, Nepal, Nigeria, The Republic of Macedonia, Quatar, Vanuatu

Countries Where Crypto is neither legal or illegal

Albania, Afghanistan, Angola, Anguilla, Argentina, Belize, British Virgin Islands, Brunei, Cambodia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, India, Jamaica, Kenya, Latvia, Lesotho, Macau, Malaysia, Mexico, Moldova, Montenegro, Pakistan, Samoa, Tajikistan, Tanzania, Zimbabwe

Countries Where Bitcoin is Legal Tender

El Salvador

Cryptocurrency Status Today

Here are some headlines from recent reports done by Yahoo! Finance.

In Germany, the government fortified its crypto securities registry.
In the U.S., Mexican restaurant Chipotle now accepts bitcoin payments.
In Asia, fears have “renewed” among crypto investors as bitcoin price dipped “below $30,000.”
In South Korea, the government takes a hard stance against crypto.
The most popular cryptos in the US are Bitcoin, Ether, Dogecoin, Shiba Inu, Stellar, Litecoin, Cardano.
The most popular crypto exchanges in the US are Coinbase, Binance.US, and Kraken.