Bitcoin is more than just speculation

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Bitcoin is more than just speculation

Why Modern Tax Policy Shouldn’t Reduce Bitcoin to “Gambling”

Those who discuss the elimination of the one-year holding period often use a simple analogy: Bitcoin is primarily a speculative asset. Anyone who makes a profit from it should pay taxes on it permanently.

However, this perspective falls short.

Yes, Bitcoin is also bought for speculative purposes. Just like stocks, gold, or real estate. But millions of people use or hold Bitcoin for entirely different reasons: as a long-term store of value, as a hedge against inflation, as an independent payment system, or as the technological infrastructure for a new generation of digital financial applications.

Anyone who views Bitcoin solely as a speculative asset overlooks the progress this technology has made in recent years.

Bitcoin has long since become part of the financial system

Just a few years ago, Bitcoin was often described as a niche phenomenon for tech enthusiasts or speculators.

Today, the reality is completely different.

Since spot Bitcoin ETFs were approved in the U.S. in early 2024, Bitcoin has finally made its way into the institutional financial market. Asset managers such as BlackRock, Fidelity, and Franklin Templeton now offer regulated Bitcoin products to their clients.

Companies are now also holding Bitcoin as part of their corporate reserves. Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy) now owns over 800,000 Bitcoin. Worldwide, companies, funds, and governments now hold about one-fifth of all existing Bitcoin.

Even governments are now taking a strategic approach to Bitcoin. In 2025, the U.S. established a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve and is holding confiscated Bitcoin as a long-term government reserve.

Bitcoin is therefore no longer a fringe phenomenon.

Bitcoin is a digital property network

However, there is something else that is even more important:

Bitcoin is not just an investment.

Bitcoin is an open, globally accessible network for digital assets.

For the first time in the history of the Internet, value can be transferred directly between two parties without the need for a bank, payment service provider, or central platform.

It is precisely this innovation that makes Bitcoin unique.

While emails transmit information, Bitcoin transfers ownership.

This technological innovation now serves as the foundation for numerous new applications.

Lightning opens up entirely new possibilities

This is particularly evident with the Lightning Network.

Lightning enables Bitcoin payments in near real time, with fees of just a few cents or even fractions of a cent.

This gives rise to entirely new business models.

Already today, content can be paid for down to the second. Readers pay only for the articles they actually read. Podcasts can be paid for while listeners are listening. Websites can do without advertising and instead receive small payments.

Even more exciting are so-called machine-to-machine payments.

In the future, cars could pay parking fees automatically.

Charging stations could bill for electricity down to the second.

IoT devices could independently buy or sell services.

Entirely new possibilities are currently emerging, particularly in the field of artificial intelligence.

AI agents need a native payment system

Autonomous AI agents are increasingly taking on tasks for their users.

In the future, these agents will independently purchase information, pay for computing power, or use digital services from various providers.

To do this, they need a payment system that operates entirely digitally.

Credit cards are not suitable for this purpose.

SEPA transfers take too long.

Even traditional payment providers charge excessive fees for very small amounts.

Lightning, on the other hand, enables payments of just a few thousandths of a cent in fractions of a second.

Many developers see this as one of the most important use cases for Bitcoin in the coming years.

If Germany imposes stricter tax rules on Bitcoin and treats every single payment as a taxable event, it is precisely these kinds of innovations that are more likely to emerge in other countries in the future.

Why People Actually Buy Bitcoin

Users’ motivations also differ significantly from the common stereotype.

A recent qualitative study on Bitcoin adoption by Peter Rochel and Oberwasser Consulting paints a remarkable picture.

In none of the adoption cases examined did short-term speculation play a decisive role.

The most common reasons were:

  • long-term wealth accumulation
  • private retirement savings
  • Inflation Protection
  • financial independence
  • Control over one’s own assets

So many people use Bitcoin in much the same way as they use gold:

not for short-term trading,

but rather as a long-term store of value.

Of course, there is also valid criticism

Of course, an objective discussion must also address the counterarguments.

Bitcoin remains a volatile investment.

Prices can fluctuate significantly in some cases.

The energy consumption associated with Bitcoin mining is also a subject of controversy.

And like any financial technology, Bitcoin is occasionally used for illegal activities.

These points deserve serious discussion.

However, they do not change the fact that Bitcoin is now much more than just a speculative asset.

This is because the same characteristics also apply, in different forms, to other assets or technologies, without these being reduced, across the board, to their speculative nature.

What does this mean for tax policy?

That is exactly the point.

A modern tax policy should treat new technologies as neutrally as possible.

Anyone who wants to impose a permanent tax on Bitcoin solely because they consider it “speculation” is ignoring the actual developments of recent years.

Bitcoin is today

  • a long-term store of value,
  • an institutional asset,
  • a global payment network,
  • the basis for micropayments,
  • an infrastructure for machine-to-machine payments,
  • and possibly an important payment system for future AI agents.

A tax policy that ignores all these developments and treats Bitcoin solely as a speculative asset stifles innovation rather than fostering it.

Conclusion

Bitcoin has long been more than just a speculative asset.

Millions of people use Bitcoin for long-term wealth building, international companies hold Bitcoin as a reserve, and developers are already building entirely new digital business models on Lightning.

Machine-to-machine payments and autonomous AI agents could give rise to additional key areas of application in the coming years.

A tax policy that views Bitcoin solely from the perspective of speculation does not do justice to this development.

Anyone who wants to promote innovation should take a nuanced view of new technologies—and not hinder them with special tax provisions.

Sources and References

  • Satoshi Nakamoto: Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System (2008): https://bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf
  • SEC: Approval of Spot Bitcoin ETFs (January 10, 2024)
  • Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy): SEC Filings on Bitcoin Holdings
  • BitcoinTreasuries.net (Holdings of Companies, Funds, and Governments)
  • White House: Executive Order on the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve (March 6, 2025)
  • Chainalysis Global Crypto Adoption Index 2025
  • River / Bitbo: Statistics on the Lightning Network
  • Block (Square): Bitcoin and Lightning payment infrastructure
  • Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance (CBECI): Bitcoin Energy Consumption Index
  • Chainalysis Crypto Crime Report 2026
  • BFH, Judgment of February 14, 2023 – IX R 3/22
  • Letter from the Federal Ministry of Finance dated March 6, 2025, regarding the income tax treatment of cryptocurrencies
  • Bitcoin Adoption Study 2026, Peter Rochel & Oberwasser Consulting (qualitative study, DACH)