Buying bitcoin in Louisiana can be performed through licensed cryptocurrency exchanges, bitcoin ATMs and via the exchange for goods and services. However, Binance.US is not available in Louisiana.
A snapshot of Louisiana Cryptocurrency Market:
- Buying and selling bitcoin is legal on a licensed exchange
- The minimum legal age is 18 years old to trade on an exchange
- Binance.US has not received approval to operate in Louisiana
- Other global and local cryptocurrency exchanges are available
There are several ways to buy bitcoin in Louisiana. We outline where you can buy bitcoin, how you can buy them, the legality and tax implications.
Top 5 Louisiana Bitcoin Exchanges
Overview of Louisiana Bitcoin Exchanges
Buying bitcoin in Lousiana can be conducted through many ways, one of them being with exchanges. The exchanges are many to choose from. Most are licensed within the state, some are through third party and Federal licensing, and one (Binance.US) has not been allowed to accept any residents.
When choosing an exchange, it’s not as easy as it may seem. Often buyers of bitcoin will automatically choose the exchange with the lowest fees, however this can be misleading, and for some, overlooks the importance of customer support. Particularly if you intend to open a business trading account, you will need customer support to help you with KYC requirements, and more often than not, the low trading exchanges do not provide quality service to get you through it.
Other exchanges are excellent for beginners, because they are simple, fast and get the job done. While some exchanges are great for daily traders who need a powerful platform for analytics, with functions to help manage their exposure.
Choosing the right exchange for you, will therefore depend on you strategy. The important features that you should consider are outlined below:
💰 Fees
Fees are one of the most compared features of an exchange. However, fees are one of the most difficult feature to compare. Each exchange has their own fee structure which often is tiered. Each fee structure can be highly complex or streamlined. Typically the fees will gradually reduce, the higher the volume traded. Fees are also dependent on the payment method, which adds to the complexity.
Lastly, some exchanges will tout that they have zero fees. This is misleading, and to be honest, statements such as these should not be allowed. Even though trading fees maybe zero, the exchange takes their fee within the spreads. This means, your buy and sell price of bitcoin is widened for a margin that the exchange takes.
The lowest fee exchanges usually start at 0.5%. They will then trend up to 1 to 2% of fees which is extremely high.
📞 Customer Support
Customer Support is extremely important. Not only for a beginner but for those who are intending to open up a business account. When you are new to bitcoin buying you will need Customer Support to see you through – signing up, opening an account and providing KYC documentation to meet the needs of regulators. The KYC is easy for a normal personal trading account, but it is difficult and lengthy for a business account.
The low fee exchanges have been known to provide the proper customer support for business accounts. Why? Because it costs too much to support. They won’t outwardly mention this to you, but instead, you will try and continue to contact Customer Support which could drag out for a long time.
Hence, don’t skimp out on trading fees and forgo quality Customer Support. Everyone will need it at one stage. Hence consider what support you will need. If it is a lot, then consider an exchange with higher trading fees, but good prompt and professional customer support.
🔒 Safety and Security
Though bitcoin and cryptocurrencies have developed quickly in recent years, it is still a nascent market. And in any nascent market, particularly when trading with high monetary value, there will be people who want to scam the system.
During the early days of blockchain, you may have heard of several big exchanges being hacked. Many customers lost large sums of bitcoin, either from unscrupulous exchange operators or hackers that stole from the exchange.
Fast forward to today and there is stronger regulation, compliance by exchanges and better customer protection. Licensed exchanges now have to be audited for IT safety and security. This is enforced by the Louisiana Official of Financial Institutions.
In addition, exchanges now provide the ability to whitelist IP addresses, limit withdrawals and have 2FA (two factor authentication) for extra layers of protection.
💳 Payment Methods
Cryptocurrency exchanges in Lousiana currently provide several methods of deposting and withdrawing. The most common payment method is wire transfer and ACH. Others will also offer debit and credit cards with a cap on limits, and Paypal, GooglePay and ApplePay.
Payment are the most crucial of aspects to consider, but it does make it a lot easier if it offers a method that you can easily use.
🪙 Cryptocurrency Selection
Buying bitcoin is the most traded cryptocurrency, however, as an investor you should not place all your eggs in one basket. Diversification is important to spread your risk, so finding an exchange that supports a wide range of cryptocurrencies is helpful. The wider the range, the more advantegeous for a portfolio that fits your strategy.
⚙️ Platform Reliability
Every platform will some time need to shut down the platform for uprading or maintenance. Down time is often only a few hours, but that have been instances where some exchanges have placed their platform offline for over a week. If you intend to buy and hold bitcoin, this may not be an issue, however for those what want to buy and sell bitcoin daily, this may pose a problem. The big global exchanges generally manage their platform maintence better than the small exchanges. When considering choosing an exchange factor in the platform reliability.
📈 Liquidity
The higher the liquidity the more buyer and sellers of bitcoin there are to come to an agreement of exchanging. High liquidity is important if you intend to buy and sell quickly and without massive spreads. Low liquidity often leads to wide spreads with difference between buyer and sellers on the bitcoin price taking longer to settle on.
The large global exchanges with a good customer base will have good liquidity, while the smaller exchanges will have low liquidity.
Louisiana Bitcoin Exchange Reviews
Considering the above criteria, the following is a review of several bitcoin exchanges for Louisiana.
Binance.US
Some US State have restricted Binance.US, and unfortunatley Lousiana is one of them. Binance.US is best known for its low fees and reliable trading platform. Its “parent”, Binance, is considered to be a foreign risk to some US States, and therefore it is assumed Binance.US follows also has the same risk.
Louisiana is therefore a restricted state for Binance.US. It is unknown when Binance.US will become available in Louisiana.
- Not accepted in Louisiana
- Cryptocurrencies: 64
- Mobile App: iOS and Android
- Fees: 0.1% – 0.5%
- Payment Methods: Debit Card, ACH, Wire Transfer
BlockFi
BlockFi’s core business is acting as a blockchain borrowing and lending institution. It pays out a good healthy interest if you deposit bitcoin with them. On the flip side, they also allow you to borrow from them to margin lend. Recently, it has expanded its services to now include an exchange. This is a new venture for BlockFi in what is an extremely competitve market. It remains to be seen whether BlockFi will be able to garner enough customers to be successful as an exchange.
- Money Transmitter License: None
- Payment Methods: ACH
- Mobile App: iOS and Android
- Fees: embedded in the spread
CEX.IO
If you are looking for an exchange with global reach then consider CEX.IO. It has over 4 million customers world wide, with licenses in multiple jurisdictions including Louisana. The CEX.IO is a sophisticated platform, but that does not mean it’s not good for beginners either. The platform is reliable and is accessible via desktop, mobile – Android and iOs.
Trading fees are reasonable, though not as low as some other exchanges. But the customer support more than makes up for it.
- Sale of Checks and Money Transmitter: Approved
- Cryptocurrencies: 100+
- Mobile App: iOS and Android
- Fees: 0.15% – 0.25% + deposit and withdrawal fees
- Payment Methods: Debit Card, Credit Card, ACH, Wire Transfer
Coinbase
Coinbase is a large exchange that is comparable to Binance.US. So if you are wanting to trade on a Binance.US equivalent try Coinbase. Coinbase is authorized to act as a money transmitter in Louisiana. It has low trading fees, highly liquid with narrow spreads. The platform is solid, reliable and is accessible on both Android and iOS.
Listed on the NASDAQ, Coinbase has a market cap of over $50 billion. As a result of being listed and regulated, you can trade with confidence that Coinbase is safe and secure.
- Sale of Checks and Transmitter License: 1163082-907647
- Cryptocurrencies: 96
- Mobile App: iOS and Android
- Fees: 0.5% – 4.5%
- Payment Methods: Debit Card, Credit Card, ACH, Wire Transfer
Coinmama
We like Coinmama. Although the fees are relatively high, it’s good for beginners who do not intend to trade often. The platform supports a huge variety of cryptocurrencies, which is wonderful for diversification. The design of the exchange is intuitive to use. It’s not overcrowded or overwhelming, giving confidence to new buyers.
If you like analytics, detailed graphs, technical analysis then Coinmama is probably not for you. It’s not rich in features or functionality with offering marging lending and leveraging.
Coinmama does not hold a license in Louisiana, but is able to operate through a third party.
- Money Transmitter License: Not Required
- Cryptocurrencies: 96
- Mobile App: iOS and Android
- Fees: 0.5% – 4.5%
- Payment Methods: Debit Card, Credit Card, ACH, Wire Transfer
Crypto.com (CDC)
Crypto.com (also known as CDC – Crypto Dot Com) is making a big splash in the US. It has a huge marketing budget, financed by big pocket investors, and has hired brand ambassadors – Lebron James and Matt Damon. It has also acquired the naming rights of L.A’s sports stadium (previously named – Staples Center).
Crypto.com comes across as being cool to be a customer. They provide not a plastic bitcoin card, but a metal card. A beautiful shiny metal card that draws crowds. Many customers don’t care that it is as heavy as a brick, because they get to flash it around when they buy something with the card. Lacking in substance? Maybe, but there are some features of the exchange which are beneficial.
Crypto.com offers a native coin (CRO) that has value and is given to frequent users at CDC. The more users of CDC, the more potential CRO will grow in value.
- Money Transmitter License: Not Required
- Cryptocurrencies: 250+
- Mobile App: iOS and Android
- Fees: 0.5% – 4.5%
- Payment Methods: Debit Card, Credit Card, ACH, Wire Transfer
eToro
eToro has zero trading fees! But wait, before you sign up and create an account, eToro actually charges fees through its wide spread. If you think eToro is being misleading, we would agree with you. To use “zero fees” as a headline grabber to attract new customers, but clip them in the spreads is very poor form.
Looking beyond the sneaky fees, the platform is quite strong. eToro has its origins in foreign currency which is exactly the same as cryptocurrency in terms of functionality. It is good for both novice and experienced bitcoin buyers.
- Money Transmitter License: Approved
- Cryptocurrencies: 27
- Mobile App: iOS and Android
- Fees: zero (but huge spreads making eToro more expensive than Binance.US and Coinbase).
- Payment Methods: Wire, ACH, PayPal, e-wallets
FTX.US
FTX.US has a big promotional card in its hand, with the great Tom Brady acting as both a sharehold and brand ambassador. It is the lowest fee of all exchanges in Louisiana, BUT it probably has the worst customer support and experience. Therefore if you choose FTX.US because of its low trading fees, beaware that sometime issues will occur and your requests for customer support may be ignored. Yes, Coinbase Pro fees are slightly higher, but some prefer it over FTX.US because of the better support.
FTX.US offers a limited number of other cryptocurrency trading options at 20. It also accepts a good variety of payment methods.
Choosing FTX.US because it has low trading fees is a valid reason, however, customer support will be lacking if any issues arise.
- Money Transmitter License: Not required
- Cryptocurrencies: 20
- Mobile App: iOS and Android
- Fees: 0.4% – 5.0%
- Payment Methods: Wire, ACH, PayPal, e-wallets
Louisiana Cryptocurrency Tax Ruling and Rates
Under IRS tax laws, bitcoin is to be treated as an asset. Therefore tax in Louisiana must be paid to the IRS for any capital gains that has been realised on the buying and selling of bitcoin. Unrealised gains do not need to be paid to the IRS, it is only when it become realized.
In regards to captial losses, if it is a realized capital loss these maybe able offset with other realized gains, or carried forward and offset with future financial years.
Unrealized losses have no impact on current financial year tax returns.
When submitting tax to IRS for each financial year, they will require Form 1099 to be completed. The Form 1099 needs to provide details of any bitcoin buying and selling. Some exchanges have tax reports which will aid with the submission to the IRS. Some will even have reports that can interface to accounting and tax software, saving a huge amount of time.
Disclaimer: The above is not financila or tax advice. Seek a professional tax accountant when submitting IRS tax submission.
Bitcoin Cryptocurrency Laws and Legislation
Louisiana has vague and ambigious cryptocurrency laws, which are outdated, yet can be construed that all money transmitters in the State need a license from the Office of Financial Institutions. The way that Lousiana framed this requirement was by simply attaching their definition money transmitter to that of the Federal government.
The State mentions “a person identified as an “exchanger” under FinCEN’s interpretation is the only party who may be subject to licensure”. An exchanger is defined as exchanging virtual currencies for virtual currencies.
Currently the definition of virtual currency is wide when it relates to the payment for goods and services. HB532 was introduced to approve the licensing of business that wish to use bitcoin as a trading currency.
Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency Wallets
After bitcoin has been bought, it must be stored on a wallet. Many global cryptocurrency exchanges can store the bitcoin for you, while there are some smaller exchanges that must have you store them on your own wallet, becuase their exchange is either to small to support online storage.
There are two types of personal wallets – hot and cold. Hot wallets are connected to the internet and means that it is open to the risk of being hacked. While a cold wallet is disconnect from the internet and will not be prone to an online hacker.
Minimum Legal Age
The minimum legal aged in Louisiana to buy and sell bitcoin is 18 years old.
Summary
Louisiana allows residents to buy and sell bitcoin through various means. The most popular being through a cryptocurrency exchange. To join a cryptocurrency exchange you will need to provide KYC documentation, make a deposit and then exchange it for bitcoin. After buying bitcoin, it must be stored on a wallet, which could be online at the exchange, or you own personal wallet. Take heed of any realized gains, because this will need to be disclosed to the IRS in Form 1099.
How to Lodge a Cryptocurrency Customer Complaint
If you have a customer complaint at a cryptocurrency exchange, please raise the issue with them first.
If unresolved, please contact the State Finance Department.
Louisiana Office of Financial Institutions
Post Office Box 94095
Baton Rouge, LA 70804-9095
http://www.ofi.state.la.us/complaints.htm
Bordering States
Arkansas | Mississippi | Texas