How to File Your BitMEX Taxes with Koinly
How to do your BitMEX taxes with Koinly
BitMEX is a popular and secure crypto exchange - particularly for investors looking to trade derivatives with low fees for BMEX stakers. Whatever your BitMEX investments, Koinly can help with your crypto taxes. Here's how.
Follow these steps to sync your BitMEX data automatically to Koinly:
- Log in to your BitMEX account.
- Select your profile icon in the top right corner.
- Select API keys from the drop-down menu.
- Under create an API key, give your API key a name, for example, "Koinly".
- Select create API key.
- Copy your API key ID and secret, and paste into the fields in Koinly.
On Koinly:
- Create a free account on Koinly
- Complete onboarding until you get to the Wallets page and find BitMEX in the list
- Select API > Paste the API keys you copied above in the appropriate box
- Hit Import and wait for Koinly to sync your data. This can take a few minutes
- Review your transactions on the Transactions page to ensure everything is tagged correctly and no missing data
- Go to the Tax Reports page to view your tax liability!
- Head over to our help center
- Hit up our discussion boards - we might have already answered your question
- Ask us on social media - we're on Twitter and Reddit
- Contact us on email or live chat
- Got a feature request? Give us feedback on Canny
How are BitMEX transactions taxed?
Crypto tax varies depending on where you live, and you can learn more in our crypto tax guides. This said, generally speaking, two taxes may apply to your crypto transactions, including BitMEX transactions:
Capital Gains Tax: When you dispose of crypto - by selling, swapping, spending it, or even gifting it (depending on where you live) - you may need to pay Capital Gains Tax on any gain from that transaction.
Income Tax: When you earn crypto - like staking rewards or bonuses - this may be viewed as additional income and you may need to pay Income Tax upon receipt.
Does BitMEX report to the tax offices?
BitMEX isn't available in a range of countries due to confusing or lackluster regulations around crypto derivatives. If BitMEX doesn't operate in your country, it's unlikely the exchange is reporting to your tax office. However, as a large exchange, that doesn't mean BItMEX hasn't faced pressure from government agencies including tax offices to comply with customer identification regulations.
Notably, before withdrawing services in the US, FinCEN fined BitMEX $100 million for violating the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) by providing money transmission services but failing to implement and maintain a compliant anti-money laundering program and customer identification program.
How do I file my BitMEX taxes?
You'll need to calculate and report any capital gains or income you made on BitMEX with your tax office. For most taxpayers, this happens as part of their annual tax return.
There are a couple of ways you can do this:
Do it yourself, by identifying your taxable transactions, calculating your net capital gain or loss, and the fair market value of any crypto income.
Save hours and use a crypto tax calculator like Koinly to easily calculate your taxable income for you, and generate your BitMEX tax report, ready to file with your tax office.
With Koinly, all you need to do is connect automatically using API or by uploading a CSV file of your BitMEX transaction history.
Your frequently asked questions
Does BitMEX have tax documents?
No. BitMEX does provide users with tax document. Instead, you'll need to calculate any capital gains or income from BitMEX yourself using your transaction history, or use crypto tax software to do it for you.
How do I get BitMEX tax documents?
The easiest way to get your BitMEX tax documents is to connect to crypto tax software like Koinly, either by API or by uploading a CSV file of your transaction history. Koinly can then calculate your BitMEX capital gains and income for you, and generate a crypto tax report which you can use to file with your tax office.
Does BitMEX provide financial or end of year statements?
No. BitMEX does not provide financial or end of year statements. You can, however, export a CSV file of your transaction history on BitMEX.
Do I have to pay taxes on BitMEX?
Yes. Tax offices around the world have made it clear crypto is taxable. Although the rules vary depending on where you live, you'll generally need to pay Capital Gains Tax on any gain when you sell, swap or spend crypto, and Income Tax whenever you earn additional tokens. You can learn more about crypto tax where you live in our crypto tax guides.
How are crypto derivatives taxed?
Tax on crypto derivatives varies depending on where you live and how you're viewed as an investor - but generally speaking, profits from crypto derivatives will be subject to tax. Learn more in our crypto derivatives guide.
Is BitMEX safe?
BitMEX is a top 50 exchange and used by hundreds of thousands of investors worldwide every week and follows best security practices for crypto including multi-sig cold storage and industry strength cryptography key management. However, you should always make sure you're aware of the risks of investing in crypto - in particular the unique, high risks involved in crypto derivatives - before you invest.
Which countries can use BitMEX?
BitMEX operates worldwide, but there are a few notable exceptions including the US, UK, Russia, and particular providences in Canada. See the full list of restricted jurisdictions.
Can I use BitMEX in the US?
No. BitMEX withdrew operations for US residents after the exchange faced legal issues with a variety of government authorities over failure to comply with regulatory requirements. Specifically, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) fined BitMEX $100 million in 2021 after claims the exchange operated as an unregistered futures commission merchant and provided money transmission services while failing to implement an anti-money laundering program and customer identification program, as required by the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA).
Can I use BitMEX in the UK?
The United Kingdom is not on BitMEX's list of restricted jurisdictions, however, following a general crackdown on crypto derivatives from the FCA, the exchange has drawn attention from authorities including the FCA. The FCA has issued a warning on BitMEX for UK consumers following a ban on crypto derivatives. BitMEX gives the following notice for UK investors on its site, "HDR Global Trading Limited and its affiliates (the “HDR Group”) are not authorised or regulated by the UK Financial Conduct Authority (“FCA”) or other UK authority. Nothing in this website is intended to constitute the marketing or promotion of HDR's services. By using HDR Group's services (including this website) you acknowledge that: You are doing so on the basis of your own enquiry, without solicitation or inducement by HDR Group Consumer protections under UK regulations do not apply to services provided by HDR Group because it is not regulated in the UK and provides services from outside the UK; and You have read our Risk Disclosure Statement and have the necessary knowledge and experience to understand the risks involved. Please note that the UK FCA does not consider crypto derivative products suitable for retail investors."
Does BitMEX have proof of reserves?
Yes. BitMEX has published proof of reserves since 2021. You can find links to these files to see for yourself on BitMEX. You can learn more about proof of reserves and why they're important in our crypto PoR guide.
