Holding crypto in Ltd Company?

[Lance]

You seem to be operating under the misapprehension the OP is asking for opinions on crypto as an investment, generally

no but OP is asking about holding the money launderers/terrorists/people smugglers/drug dealers/delete as appropriate, currency of choice in his LTD for which he has fiduciary obligations. So it's a terrible idea for multiple reasons.

Another couple of reasons...
How do you prove the loss to HMRC is not just from trousering a few k that has been sent via the blockchain?
Finding a crypto exchange that will deal with a business bank that isn't just another Ponzi scheme.

[willendure]

no but OP is asking about holding the money launderers/terrorists/people smugglers/drug dealers/delete as appropriate, currency of choice in his LTD for which he has fiduciary obligations. So it's a terrible idea for multiple reasons.

Another couple of reasons...
How do you prove the loss to HMRC is not just from trousering a few k that has been sent via the blockchain?
Finding a crypto exchange that will deal with a business bank that isn't just another Ponzi scheme.

You can open a business account on Bitstamp. I just did.

They want your tax id now. So all purchases initially tie your on exchange wallet together with your company id. Bitcoin is a public ledger. If the money ends up in my private exchange wallet and then back into £ in my pocket, it will be pretty easy to trace. I guess it can probably be done by washing through some other cryptos, stable coins, etc.

Of course, I have no intention of defrauding HMRC. It will all be above board and remain within ownership of the ltd, and if there is a profit, will be paying corp tax on it.

Terrorists sometimes buy weapons with dollars. Does that mean I should not use the dollar?

[Lance]

You can open a business account on Bitstamp. I just did.

They want your tax id now. So all purchases initially tie your on exchange wallet together with your company id. Bitcoin is a public ledger. If the money ends up in my private exchange wallet and then back into £ in my pocket, it will be pretty easy to trace. I guess it can probably be done by washing through some other cryptos, stable coins, etc.

Of course, I have no intention of defrauding HMRC. It will all be above board and remain within ownership of the ltd, and if there is a profit, will be paying corp tax on it.

Terrorists sometimes buy weapons with dollars. Does that mean I should not use the dollar?

good luck with it. I hope it works out.

<Placemarker> BTC price today, on Bitstamp is £55,328

[CheeseSlice]

FCA Registered Cryptoasset firms

From 10 January 2020, firms carrying out specific cryptoasset activities in the UK will need to comply with the amended Money Laundering, Terrorist Financing and Transfer of Funds (Information on the Payer) Regulations 2017 (MLRs) and register with the FCA. This list below shows the registered cryptoasset firms and their details which the FCA is responsible for registering, supervising and enforcing, for anti-money laundering and counter terrorist financing purposes.

I think the fear of a ponzi scheme is understandable when the FTX/SBF scandal was so recent.
If you want to keep your Crypto on the exchange, you should be very sure about that exchange is managed.
In the USA due to new SEC approvals, you can now hold Bitcoin in a Spot Bitcoin ETF and even hold it a pension. Not availble in the UK yet though as I believe our requriements are more stringent here.
Did you also know that blockchains like for Bitoin are transparent (though anonymous), so you can view and watch transactions in realtime. Law enforcement and even anybody can literally "follow the money" as it moves between wallets.

I don't hold crypto in my business/treasury but I do hold it personally. BTC and ETH to be specific. Its working out quite nicely at the moment.

[willendure]

FCA Registered Cryptoasset firms

If you want to keep your Crypto on the exchange, you should be very sure about that exchange is managed.

Thanks for that FCA link. I looked into it and "specific cryptoasset activities" means either running an exchange, or holding custodial wallets. So an ltd owning some bitcoin as an investment/inflation hedge would not come under that.

So far, I have always taken my crypto off exchange and into my own wallet. By far the scariest thing about crypto is the fear of somehow losing that wallet, or having it hacked.

[Lance]

Thanks for that FCA link. I looked into it and "specific cryptoasset activities" means either running an exchange, or holding custodial wallets. So an ltd owning some bitcoin as an investment/inflation hedge would not come under that.

So far, I have always taken my crypto off exchange and into my own wallet. By far the scariest thing about crypto is the fear of somehow losing that wallet, or having it hacked.

I am of the opinion that a personal wallet is safer than an Exchange. They do get hacked.
Keep your private key very secure is the trick. You can use a paper wallet, but they are at risk of fire damage.

In the past I have kept the wallet itself backed up to cloud services (OneDrive) protected by MFA. And keep the private key in a different location and encrypt with AES-256. The biggest risk to those is loss of files, hence cloud storage. Backups also are handy.