Bitcoin Investors Face IRS, Treasury and Investment Security Issues as Tax Day Looms

Bitcoin Investors Face IRS, Treasury and Investment Security Issues as Tax Day Looms

The "Ghostbusters" theme song asks a basic question for those plagued by pesky spirits: "Who ya gonna call?" The 1984 comedy had the answer: A crack team of a specter specialists led by Bill Murray and Dan Akroyd who captured the ethereal creatures with their proton backpacks.But for cryptocurrency investors, the answer to the Ghostbuster question may well be, "No one."The Securities Investor Protection Corporation (SIPC), a federally mandated organization created by the Securities and Investor Protection Act of 1970 that protects investors' losses up to $500,000 if their brokerage firm fails, does not have authority over cryptocurrency transactions.Without such protection, some cryptocurrency investors may be left without immediate recourse if something goes awry and they believe they're not at fault.In this photo illustration, the Coinbase cryptocurrency exchange application is seen on the screen of an iPhone on Oct. 05, 2018 in Paris, France.

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One such investor has gone to court to try to recover his lost investment in cryptocurrency.Michael Pierre, a Coinbase customer, recently filed a 23-page lawsuit in Manhattan Supreme Court, a branch of the New York State trial court system, alleging "gross negligence" after his account allegedly was hacked and he lost about $400,000.The lawsuit charges Coinbase