/r/BitcoinCA
Let's talk about Bitcoin in Canada
This subreddit is about Bitcoin for Canadians.
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Centralized Crypto Exchanges, Services & Apps
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Please note: That most of the exchanges require identity validation. It's normal if they ask you for IDs, it's not a scam, it's normal KYC/AML policy. Some of the above links are affiliate links.
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/r/BitcoinCA
I'm using Kraken and I'm looking for ways to SWIFT wire transfer USD onto Kraken to buy bitcoin. It seems these days wire transfers (esp. USD) can't be done without visiting a stupid bank branch in person. Not only is it inconvenient, I hate to be harassed with questions in person, and I hate dealing with lineups and banking in general. I used to be able to SWIFT transfer USD freely from my HSBC online (but now they got bought by RBC so this is no longer an option).
In Canada, currently is there a way to SWIFT transfer USD onto Kraken from a bank account with the requirements:
Thanks!
Hi,
Quite new to this. I have been buying btc on ws but the common sentiment I have seen online is bull bitcoin. Of course I am mostly interested in the lowest fees so I can hold for a long time.
I just did a transaction on ws and the total cost was 2.0134% vs. 2.324% that bull would have charged me. So it seems, at least atm, that the prices are very similar but ws actually has the edge.
Why do people not like ws as much? Is it because their fees to move to a wallet are considerably more? Or is there something else I am missing? (Beyond the whole they are custodians until you get your btc off)
Is this generally correct?
Background: Bitcoin transactions are verified pretty fast, typically around 10 minutes, but at worst take a few hours. The Lightning Network speeds up Bitcoin transactions.
On-chain vs Off-chain, what’s the difference?
On-chain: Transactions that happen on the original Bitcoin Blockchain. Slower, more expensive, more secure, and has transparency.
Off-chain: Transactions that happen on the side of the blockchain. Typically faster, cheaper, not as secure, and has less transparency.
*Off-chain transactions typically use technologies called L2’s or layer 2’s. This just means you have your original Network, like the Bitcoin blockchain that nearly everyone uses. This is a Laye 1 or L1. Then these technologies are built on top of these L1 networks and work with the original blockchain but do most of their transactions on the side on this L2.
The “lightning network” is a technology built on top of Bitcoin. Some smart group created this “thing” or software that basically was built on top of how Bitcoin works. Instead of taking 10 minutes and costing a couple of dollars, it sends in seconds and costs pennies.
How? In short, instead of using the Bitcoin Network for every transaction, you’re kinda transacting on the side, or “off-chain” then eventually going back to the original Bitcoin network.
Now, what’s the catch? It’s technically not as secure as the original Bitcoin network, and it could be difficult to set up.
So, The Lightning Network is software built on Bitcoin that is faster and cheaper but less secure, that eventually goes back to the original Bitcoin network.
I've observed that a majority of lending platforms require you to provide collateral that matches or exceeds the loan amount on a 1:1 basis, if not more. It's quite common for these platforms to cap the borrowing limit at 75% of the collateral value. Considering this, why would someone opt to borrow cryptocurrency by locking in another as collateral, instead of just trading them directly on an exchange? Especially when exchanges often offer much lower rates compared to the hefty ones seen on DeFi lending platforms?
Well I thought I had until May 7th to buy KYS free Bitcoin with Bull Bitcoin but that appears to be wrong. I can't get my QR Code until I verify my account.
Does anybody know how I can buy $200 worth of KYS free Bitcoin??
Looking for fresh information, started a side job that pays through PayPal, my card doesn't allow the instant transfer on PayPal. Anyone have a way I can buy crypto with paypal so I can easily cash that out?TIA trying to avoid the 3-5 day holds if possible.
So I just turned 19 today, I’ve accumulated about 5K in profit unrealized in BTC, how do I calculate what taxes I owe when I sell? Do I take the final number after all fees and commissions and subtract from my initial deposit? How does it work? What is the percentage?
If I sell this year, I won’t owe taxes until next year? What do people generally do? Theoretically if I profit 5K, and 50% of half of the profit is taxed, so I’d owe $1250 in taxes, do people put the $1250 aside from the money they received from selling the asset? Or just pay it out of pocket when the time comes next year?
Is there some sort of spreadsheet I can have that tracks all of this? This seems so messy and I’m not sure what to do.
I see lots of posts about Cdn. banks limiting/refusing their customers trying to buy BTC. I'm interested in the reverse process... i.e. do banks allow deposits from Cdn. exchanges that are proceeds of selling BTC? It seems we're in the "now we fight you" stage; but I can imagine some banks actually taking custody of BTC in coming years. HSBC, one of the most anti-crypto banks, is now doing custody in their Hong Kong branches.
After what’s happened in the US
I know they were supposed to stop April 1st but I heard it was delayed
I want to start selling my ETF shares in my TFSA and use the proceeds to buy actual BTC.
Based on the guidelines I read (https://tokentax.co/blog/guide-to-crypto-taxes-in-canada), it seems like buying and holding Bitcoin does not generate a tax event, but exchanging BTC for another coin (for instance, Monero) does.
I'm just curious though... if you buy Bitcoin, and immediately exchange it for Monero, what would you owe in tax - assuming no price fluctuation?
Also, if you buy BTC, and take certain steps to anonymize it right away (via token swaps, etc.), how does the government even know:
A. That you still have it?
B. When/if you sell it?
Also, is swapping tokens even a crime? I just don't see how they expect to enforce this - even if your on ramp is practicing KYC.
Thanks!
I am a partner at a law firm and I am looking to set up a system whereby clients could pay their retainers and bills using crypto. In order to do so in a way that is law society compliant, I need to use an exchange/account that allows for the instant and automatic conversion of the BTC into CAD. I can't have the BTC sit in the account for any real length of time. Are there any platforms which could accommodate this for a business account?
Thanks in advance for any assistance on this!
I’m relatively new to Canada and I reside in ON. I used to trade crypto futures before moving here. Now I hear that it isn’t looked upon kindly in the country.
Do you undertake futures trading, and if you do, how do you cash out your gains? Are there ways to ensure that cashing out doesn’t raise CRA’s eyebrows? I want to continue trading here and will happily pay taxes. But I need some guidance to be aware of the legality of it all. Thought that this will be the right forum. Thanks!
I have a friend who bought the BTC fund (QBTC, QBTC.U) before there was an ETF and still hasn't gotten around to making the switch to an ETF, so I did some research for them I thought I could share with you all. QBTC is not an ETF and has a high management fee which is no longer justifiable because there are ETFs available, however, if you simply sell the shares and make the change today you will lose about 2% because it trades at a discount.
You have two options if you don't want to lose the discount:
If you are going with the second option, you need to look up the BTC per share ratio and do the math yourself to determine the discount. They do have data on their main page you can also look at that shows the NAV and market price at 4:00pm (market close) on trading days, but I don't know how that varies intra-day.
Please note, this a taxable event if you hold it in a taxable account, even if doing the redemption route.
Thoughts on this? Feel like Bitcoin will outperform tech in the long run but there is also the narrative about AI. The BTC is also lower than the tech etf as they have just hit their ATH.
I deposit my BTCs to a Canada based crypto exchange which is named 'Newton exchange' few days ago, it took over 24 hours to be processed, it's way longer and quite abnormal behavior compared to those bigger exchanges, like Binance, OKX, Coinbase, Kraken etc., I asked Newton's rep, the rep told me it's just one time, it won't take that long in the future deposit.
However I'm kind of doubtful what the rep told me, so I was thinking about if the deposit took that long, how about the withdrawal? So I requested to withdraw exactly the same amount of BTCs that I deposited, then it's been over 48 hours so far, it's still the 'Pending' review status, in meantime no one from Newton contacted me to tell me what's going on there.
You can check the timeline below to get more details.
Timeline:
2024-April-26 9:44 am => I request the withdrawal of BTCs.
2024-April-26 5:26 pm => After about 8 hours, a rep named Kruger emailed me to ask me to verify the destination address.
2024-April-26 06:04 pm => After about 30 minutes I replied to the rep Kruger to confirm my withdrawal address.
2024-April-27 06:13 pm => Since it's been over 24 hours I did not get any response from Newton, so I contact them from their official website 'Contact us' section.
2024-April-27 06:29 pm => Then I received a rep who named Obaid and replied to me shortly, however this rep looks like don't know what's going on, he just asked me to verify my withdrawal destination address again, so I have to reply to him to verify my address again immediately at 6:33 pm, then this rep disappear as well.
2024-April-28 10:49 am => Now it's been over 48 hours, my withdrawal request is still 'Pending' review status. No one from Newton contacted me to tell me the process or what happened. It's overdue what Newton promised "Crypto transfers are usually instant but can take up to 48 hours."
2024-April-28 11:28 am => Then after over another 12 hours, the previous rep Obaid finally replied to me, and all bullshit, no any information but keep waiting! And the original processing of my withdrawal rep Kruger is still disappearing.
My last time using their service was about 3 years ago, the deposit, withdrawal took about 8 hours for each to be processed, no big issue at all, and that's why I went back this time.
I'm trying to tell those replies who post things like "I'm all good to deposit/withdraw by using Newton for xxx years", My bad experience concluded that the company's previous behavior cannot represent what they do now or later.
(Assume you are not a Newton’s 'undercover') Put yourself in my shoes and think about what you would be like if this happened to you one day in the future?
I just have few assets in Newton, and not that rush to use it, but what I'm concerned about is compared to bigger Crypto exchanges such as Binance, OKX, Coinbase, Kraken, did any of them hold your money for over 48 hours and without any further information as what Newton did?
2024-April-29 10:09 am => It's been over 72 hours, Newton is still holding my withdrawal BTCs without any further information.
2024-April-29 10:41 am => Finally I got the response from Newton, guess what, after hold my withdrawal BTCs for over 72 hours then tell me my destination withdrawal address is "with connections to illegal drugs, fraud and other scam related occurrences"? Why don't they also add "child trafficking, organ trafficking, arms trading, funding of Palestinian, etc."?If really like what Newton claimed, why shouldn't they frozen the money and report to police RCMP or even FBI? Why they will push me to use the money of "connections to illegal drugs, fraud and other scam related occurrences" to sell to Canadian dollar and then send to my local bank? If we follow their logic, so is Newton helping criminals right now lol.
Also they told that they will suspense my Newton account in 3 days. But this is the only thing we all agree on so far, if not doing so, Newton really think they hold a customer's withdrawal money for over 72 hours then the customer would still like to continue using Newton? lol
If the real reason for your rejection is that you just think that the destination withdrawal address is the address of your competitor, you can directly take downgrade measures and tell the customer that you cannot withdraw money to this address and please change to a new withdrawal address.
It's just like a customer trying to transfer money from a small bank such as National Bank to a large bank such as TD bank, shouldn't the normal approach be for National Bank to provide better offers to retain customers? Instead of slandering competitor TD’s account as "with connections to illegal drugs, fraud and other scam related occurrences". It’s even more inappropriate to label customers as “bad actors” like Newton’s CEO commented below. My individual case cannot fully reflect the entire company, the attitude of the company's CEO can completely reflect how this company treats to their customers.
What's more, my situation is like what I mentioned above, because their deposits are too slow, so I just want to try if Newton's withdrawal process is also slow, that's all.
And my previous deposit into Newton was Bitcoin, why did Newton force me to sell it for Canadian dollars on their exchange? Instead of directly returning the Bitcoin to my original wallet? Because by returning the Bitcoin directly to the wallet I previously deposited from, you won't be able to earn commission, right?
Finally, under Newton's pressure, I had to sell the assets in Newton's account. At the same time, Newton tearfully earned $1,996.90 CAD commission from the suspect account which is "with connections to illegal drugs, fraud and other scam related occurrences".
Great job Newton!
Conclusion, I have been involved in cryptocurrency for almost 10 years and have used almost all mainstream cryptocurrency exchanges and some Canada based small exchanges, Newton has the worst user experience, bar none so far.
The overall feeling is that Newton does not seem to have much financial strength to handle large amounts transactions, but given that they are regulated by OSC&FINTRAC, I believe the money is safe (if they don’t suddenly file for bankruptcy). If you only deal with small-amount transactions, such as transactions under $10,000 CAD, you can basically use it with confidence, but for large amounts trading, it is recommended that you switch to a larger exchange, such as Binance, OKX, Coinbase, Kraken, etc.
BTW I just realized the Newton exchange earned 1/5 stars in BBB(Better Business Bureau®), and if you check the reviews, it's full of complaints.https://www.bbb.org/ca/on/toronto/profile/cryptocurrency-exchange/newton-crypto-0107-1391172
For longer term investment (5-10 years) is it not better to max out tax free savings accounts with Bitcoin ETFs as opposed to self custody through exchanges which can be taxed heavily considering the growing capital gains taxes.
I heard Michael Saylor talking about that today. Was wondering if possible in Canada.