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by Lazare 2541 days ago
Yeah, Bitfinex and Tether won't have anything to worry about...

...as long as they don't want to have USD denominated bank accounts, or transact with USD, or do business with people with USD denominated bank accounts. Which, of course, they do. If you touch the US financial system in any way, or if any of your counterparties do, or if your counterparties want to have other counterparties that do, then you need to care deeply about what the US federal government and the NY state government think.
1 comments
oyebenny 2541 days ago
What are your thoughts on Gemini?
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solotronics 2541 days ago
Gemini and Coinbase are on the forefront of legitimizing cryptos. They go out of their way to cooperate with American authorities, which is a good move for their business model. Contrast this with a crypto exchange based outside of the US that would loose their clientele if they worked with the American government in any way. Why you ask? Do research about Americans trying to open bank accounts in Europe. Basically under the new laws banks in Europe prefer to reject Americans rather than try and go through all the extra reporting involved.
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logicchains 2541 days ago
Most crypto is traded outside of the US though; most of the volume is on Binance and Bitmex. In this sense they cut themselves off from many customers. The advantage of their business model seems to be that with less competition from other US-law-abiding exchanges (because there are so few of them), they can charge much higher fees: Coinbase fees are higher than most large non-US exchanges, and Gemini fees are insane, something like 1% per trade.
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oarsinsync 2541 days ago
> Most crypto is traded outside of the US though; most of the volume is on Binance and Bitmex.

This doesn't stop US persons from trading on the exchanges, and self reporting accurately to the IRS/SEC, which may do.

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jki275 2541 days ago
Actually most don't. The IRS released statistics a couple of years ago, it seems like the number was low 3 figures who actually reported though I don't remember exactly.
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gruez 2541 days ago
>Gemini fees are insane, something like 1% per trade

Seems to be 0.25%/0.35%

https://gemini.com/activetrader-fee-schedule/

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