Kraken

The operational danger in the United States’ 2026 crypto reporting rollout is a missing link between a sale and its acquisition history. A brokerage can know exactly how much cryptocurrency it sold for a customer while lacking the records needed to establish that customer’s taxable profit. For investors moving years-old holdings out of self-custody, preparing that history before liquidation is now a central tax-control task. The phrase zero-basis trap describes a reporting and substantiation failure, not a rule that confiscates the basis of deposited assets. Transferring holdings between wallets or accounts owned by the same taxpayer generally does not create income; digital assets spent on transfer services require separate consideration. The transfer itself does not establish a new purchase price. IRS digital-asset transaction FAQs, question 81. ...

The exchange that taught crypto how to trade leverage with no expiry is no longer an exchange. BitMEX stopped trading, deposits and new positions at 04:00 UTC on September 23, 2026, ending an 11-year run — and the wind-down is not finished for anyone who left a balance behind. CoinDesk confirmed the shutdown, and BitMEX’s own closure notice set the terms months in advance. For US readers the story is less about a price event than about a structural one: the venue that invented the perpetual swap was the venue Americans were never allowed to use in the first place, and the product it popularized is only now arriving onshore. ...

On Sept 15 the Senate voted 49–50 to deny cloture on the CLARITY Act (H.R. 3633). Sixty votes were required. The market-structure bill that the entire US crypto industry spent three years lobbying for is dead on this floor. Forty-eight hours later, on Sept 17, the SEC issued the Innovation Exemption. On Sept 18, Bitcoin reclaimed $80,000 — trading around $80,822, up 5.5% in 24 hours inside a $76,205–$80,944 range (CoinGecko). ...

Bitcoin is doing something unusual this week: it is holding still while three separate clocks race toward zero. It traded between roughly $77,600 and $79,700 across Sept 9 and 10 and sits near $78,300, after sliding from early-September highs near $82,000. A $264 million liquidation flush under $78,000 was bought back within hours. That is not apathy — that is a market that has already made up its mind and is waiting for the calendar to catch up. ...

The stablecoin shakeout is no longer a prediction — it is a timeline. Banking regulators are racing to finalize the GENIUS Act’s implementing rules before the November 2026 midterms, and the public comment period now open on stablecoin issuance rules has turned into a de facto audition: issuers that fit the new regime are consolidating power, while everyone else is scrambling to survive. For US investors, the next 90 days will decide which stablecoins are safe to hold, which yield products stay legal, and which tokens quietly become compliance liabilities on your tax return. ...

More than a decade after Bitcoin’s first block, the biggest question for many American investors is no longer whether to own it — it’s where to own it. And increasingly, the answer is inside a retirement account, where Bitcoin’s long-term upside can compound without an annual tax bill. Adding Bitcoin to an IRA in 2026 is easier than most people assume, but the rules are uniquely American: the IRS sets contribution limits, the SEC decides which products you can buy inside a brokerage IRA, and a specialized industry of self-directed IRA custodians exists to hold the rest. Get the details right and you can defer — or eliminate — taxes on Bitcoin’s gains. Get them wrong and you can trigger penalties, disqualify your account, or end up with an unexpected reporting obligation. ...

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) granted World Liberty Financial a conditional national trust bank charter on August 14, 2026, a move that pushes the Trump-family-linked firm and its USD1 stablecoin straight into the middle of the US banking system. The charter, approved for a “World Liberty National Trust” entity, is built around USD1, a dollar-pegged stablecoin that has already grown past roughly $4 billion in circulation. Reuters, CNBC, the Wall Street Journal, The Block, Politico, and Fox Business all covered the decision within a day, and for good reason: a national trust charter is not a crypto exchange license. It is a banking charter, and it changes what a stablecoin issuer is allowed to be in the United States. ...

Three separate moves landed in the same news cycle this week, and together they tell one story: the US crypto regulatory map is being redrawn in real time, and no single agency is driving the pen. The SEC canceled a key crypto regulatory meeting, the CFTC signaled it will join the SEC in exploring crypto rules without waiting for the CLARITY Act, and a crypto coalition threw its weight behind Custodia Bank in a Supreme Court fight over Federal Reserve master-account access. For US investors, the combined message is that jurisdiction, banking access, and tax reporting are all on the table at once. ...

Ten years ago, buying Bitcoin meant navigating clunky exchanges, wiring money to sketchy overseas platforms, and crossing your fingers. In 2026, buying your first cryptocurrency is about as hard as opening a checking account — if you know which platform to use and what steps to follow. Whether you’re looking to invest $50 or $5,000, this guide walks you through the entire process, from picking the right exchange for your state to making your first purchase. We’ll cover the US-specific details that matter: which platforms work in New York, how ACH deposits work, what the IRS expects from day one, and how to avoid the mistakes that trip up most beginners. ...

Pick the wrong crypto exchange and you’ll overpay on fees, get stuck with limited coin selection, or — in the worst case — lose access to your funds entirely. Pick the right one and buying, selling, and storing crypto becomes almost boringly routine, the way it should be. In 2026, US investors have more exchange options than ever — but they’re not all equal. Some are optimized for beginners, others for active traders. Some work in all 50 states, others are blocked in the largest markets like New York and Texas. This guide compares the top US exchanges across the metrics that actually matter: fees, security, regulatory standing, coin selection, and state availability. ...