US Lawyers Can Now Accept Digital Assets As Payment In Lieu Of Legal Services

Lawyers in Washington DC, the capital of the United States, can accept virtual currency as payment for legal services. In an ethics opinion, the District of Columbia Bar mentioned that crypto can be accepted as long as the fee agreement is fair and rational and the lawyer can protect the virtual assets.

The June opinion from the bar’s legal ethics committee mentioned that the attorneys

“cannot hold back the tides of change even if they would like to, and cryptocurrency is increasingly accepted as a payment method by vendors and service providers, including lawyers.”

The opinion emphasized that the Internal Revenue Service considers digital currency as property rather than currency for tax motives. Furthermore, the IRS agreed that

“payment of fees in cryptocurrency is more akin to payment in property than payment in fiat currency.”

The US lawyers who accept payment in crypto for upcoming work must be skilled in the technology to shield the virtual property of the client as the lawyer would safeguard all money paid upfront. In this case, to fulfill the conditions the lawyers are required to comprehend and safeguard against the numerous ways digital currencies can be whipped or misplaced, as per the opinion.