Crypto Legal Status: Where It's Allowed, Taxed, and Banned in 2025

When you hold cryptocurrency, digital assets powered by blockchain that function as money, store of value, or utility tokens. Also known as crypto, it operates outside traditional banking—but its legal status varies wildly by country. Just because you can buy Bitcoin on an app doesn’t mean your government recognizes it as money, lets you pay taxes with it, or even allows exchanges to operate. In some places, it’s treated like property. In others, it’s banned outright. And in a few, like Portugal, you once got major tax breaks—until the rules changed.

The RBI crypto ban, India’s 2018 banking restriction on crypto exchanges that was overturned by the Supreme Court in 2020 didn’t make crypto legal tender, but it did let exchanges reopen. Now, in 2025, India taxes crypto trades at 30% and adds a 1% TDS, but doesn’t ban ownership. Meanwhile, Portugal ended its NHR program in 2025, which once gave crypto investors zero capital gains tax—but long-term holders still benefit from other loopholes like IFICI. These aren’t just policy changes; they directly impact how much you keep after selling, staking, or trading.

Crypto tax laws, rules that determine how governments treat gains, income, and transfers involving digital assets are the most common legal hurdle. Countries like the U.S. treat crypto as property, meaning every trade triggers a taxable event. Others, like Germany, let you hold for over a year and pay nothing. Then there are places like El Salvador, where Bitcoin is legal tender, and Nigeria, where banks still pressure users despite no official ban. The crypto ban, a government prohibition on trading, owning, or using cryptocurrency isn’t rare—China, Egypt, and Morocco have them. But even where it’s banned, people still use it. That’s why understanding the local rules isn’t about avoiding crypto—it’s about avoiding fines, freezes, or worse.

What you’ll find below isn’t a list of opinions. It’s a collection of real, up-to-date breakdowns on how different countries treat crypto legally and financially. From India’s post-ban recovery to Portugal’s shifting tax landscape, from obscure tokens like ArgentinaCoin that exist in legal gray zones to infrastructure providers like ALT5 Sigma that operate under different regulations than exchanges—you’ll see how the rules shape what’s possible. These aren’t theoretical debates. They’re the difference between holding a valuable asset and risking your funds in a place where the law doesn’t protect you. Let’s get into the details that actually matter.