IRS Official: Crypto Is Here to Stay and ‘Becoming More Legitimate’

A top Internal Revenue Service (IRS) official says, “Cryptocurrency is here to stay,” and “it’s becoming more legitimate.” The official added that the U.S. tax authority is looking to partner with crypto companies, noting: “I don’t see how we can operate in this space without it.”

Thomas Fattorusso, acting special agent-in-charge of the Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI)’s New York office, talked about cryptocurrency in an interview with The Wall Street Journal earlier this week.

“We can’t be hostile to the technology. We have to embrace it,” the IRS official emphasized, elaborating:

Cryptocurrency is here to stay. As far as I’m concerned, it isn’t going anywhere anytime soon and it’s becoming more legitimate. As the years roll on, it becomes more sophisticated.

Fattorusso explained that the IRS is looking to partner with crypto companies. “My thought is that those relationships will develop as the years go on and [as] the companies become more comfortable with dealing with the federal government. I don’t see how we can operate in this space without it,” he opined.

Commenting on the IRS cooperating and partnering with crypto firms, Fattorusso shared:

That’s something that we’re always working toward … that’s always the end goal — to have those partnerships and to have a relationship that isn’t contentious, more of a symbiotic relationship.

He believes that partnering with federal agencies “helps them [crypto companies] in their legitimacy.” The IRS official added: “This is a new industry for everybody. I think we’re still trying to feel our way around it. The companies are feeling their way around it.”

In November last year, IRS Criminal Investigation chief Jim Lee said that the tax authority is building “hundreds” of crypto cases.

What do you think about the IRS official saying that crypto is here to stay and is becoming more legitimate? Let us know in the comments section below.