Coinbase wants to educate people how to earn money on taxes

Shifting cryptos from being purely investment or speculative use case to delivering a real world utility

Focused in adding more assets and launching in more countries

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong held his live AMA on Youtube and answered many interesting questions that had arisen after his big Consensus discussion.

After he confirmed that Coinbase just crossed $1 billion assets under management (AUM) or institutions, 70 institutions have signed up, adding about $150 million AUM a month, he had to answer one question that was obviously bothering American people.

Coinbase Card is Just a Piece Of the Puzzle

When the Coinbase card will be available for use in US? Armstrong explained that this will happen soon but didn’t want to reveal the date.

He noted that few years ago they made a partnership with Shift Payments in U.K. They released a card that would automatically deduct from the client’s Coinbase account and that worked in US as well.

Just to remind you, with retail spending having such a massive impact on the industry, the company launched a crypto debit card with Shift Card, only to find themselves in a difficult predicament when the provider shut down this year. Rather than just discontinuing the offer, Coinbase found a solution in PaySafe.

The Coinbase Card was first brought to the UK market, allowing the users to convert their crypto assets to GBP during a POS purchase or through an ATM. Users need to download the corresponding card app to access information about their card, which also links with their crypto account.

Armstrong said:

“The numbers were always pretty small but we saw it grow every year. I would certainly be interested in doing another attempt like that in US. We need to shift cryptocurrencies from being purely investment or speculative use case to delivering a real world utility and that’s why we’re doing the experiments with Venezuela, investing in the way people are interacting with dApps, staking etc. It’s because we want to make grow out the cryptoeconomy – then the price volatility will decline. Coinbase card is just one more piece of that puzzle.”

Working on Optimizing Tax Tools

It also may be that the card could be expensive for Americans. Bare in mind that the use of the Coinbase card in the United States could be a little pricier, than in the U.K. considering the capital tax gains that the government stands to make.

Every single transaction is examined to see if taxes should apply, which is why the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) will be overseeing the card domestically. Taxes will ultimately be implemented for the conversions from cryptocurrency, and will still be imposed on retail purchases, just as they are with credit cards. Even transactions involving airdrops and purchasing tokens are on the chopping block for taxation.

Armstrong said:

“Our tax tools could be a little bit better I admit that. We are working on it every year, but every time comes another crunch so we have deal with that then. The question is – do we help customers make money? You can imagine that there is a version of Coinbase out there that is purely focused on trading and the more you trade – the more we make. But, there’s a dark side of that, where very active traders are losing money while long term investors are making money. We want to create crypto-economy with more economic freedom. That will help world to grow. Everybody can participate. It’s super easy to start business, to get funding, raise money that way. Taxes are one more way to help people make money. Hypothetically if we say someone: if you’d wait for three more days you could get long term capital gains”. That’s what we want people to know and to make money that way.”

We Are Working on Canada Becoming Able to Sell Cryptocurrencies Again

It’s not just U.S.A that’s being problematic to Coinbase. Their northern neighbors Canadians, also wanted to know when they are gonna be able to sell cryptos in Canada.

The cryptocurrency industry is not regulated in Canada, and there is no governing body providing industry oversight. Just to remind you, when the 30-year-old founder of a Canadian cryptocurrency exchange Quadriga died suddenly, he took the whereabouts of some C$180m ($135m; £105m) in cryptocurrency to his grave. Now, tens of thousands of Quadriga CX users are wondering if they will ever see their funds again.

Armstrong said: