Crypto in Texas
11 exchanges we have verified serve residents of Texas, and 81 of the 150 assets we track are available on at least two of them. We have not recorded a jurisdiction-wide restriction on buying cryptocurrency in Texas. Last verified September 2, 2026.
Verified How we verify
Legal Status and Regulation
The Texas Department of Banking sets out how the rules apply to crypto in Supervisory Memorandum 1037, revised April 1, 2019, which treats exchanging virtual currency for sovereign currency as licensable money transmission and scrutinizes stablecoins more closely than assets such as Bitcoin. Separately, S.B. 21 of the 89th Legislature created the Texas Strategic Bitcoin Reserve and took effect on June 20, 2025. Federal law comes first: a business that exchanges dollars for crypto on your behalf is a money transmitter under 31 CFR 1010.100(ff)(5) and has to register with FinCEN as a money services business, renewing that registration every two years. Texas has enacted the Conference of State Bank Supervisors' Money Transmission Modernization Act (S.B. 895, the Money Services Modernization Act, effective September 1, 2023), the model law that standardizes net worth, surety bond and permissible investment requirements; thirty-one states had adopted it in whole or in part as of the CSBS legislative update dated June 2026. As of September 2026, Binance US lists Texas as unsupported, and Kraken serves Texas but does not allow deposits or trading in EUR pairs there.
Exchanges Available in Texas
| Exchange | Type | Typical fee on $500 | KYC | Action |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Strike | broker | $5.55 | Required | Visit Strike |
| Bitstamp by Robinhood | centralized exchange | $11.00 | Required | Visit Bitstamp by Robinhood |
| Crypto.com Exchange | centralized exchange | — | Required | Visit Crypto.com Exchange |
| Coinbase Exchange | centralized exchange | — | Required | Visit Coinbase Exchange |
| Uphold | broker | — | Required | Visit Uphold |
| Toobit | centralized exchange | — | Not required | Visit Toobit |
| eToro | broker | — | Required | Visit eToro |
| Gemini | centralized exchange | — | Required | Visit Gemini |
| bitFlyer | centralized exchange | — | Required | Visit bitFlyer |
| PayPal | broker | — | Required | Visit PayPal |
Fees are estimated from each exchange’s published schedule for a $500 market buy. Rankings follow our methodology and are not influenced by affiliate relationships.
Popular Assets in Texas
Buyability in Texas
The 10 coins we have verified an exchange for in Texas, graded on how many verified exchanges sell them here and what the cheapest $500 purchase costs. Price never moves a grade.
| Coin | Ticker | Grade | Verified exchanges | Cheapest on $500 | Where to buy |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Bitcoin | BTC | A | 11 | $2.00 | Bitcoin here |
 Ethereum | ETH | A | 9 | $2.00 | Ethereum here |
 Solana | SOL | A | 8 | $2.00 | Solana here |
 Chainlink | LINK | A | 8 | $2.28 | Chainlink here |
 Bitcoin Cash | BCH | A | 8 | $2.25 | Bitcoin Cash here |
 Litecoin | LTC | A | 8 | $2.15 | Litecoin here |
 XRP | XRP | A | 7 | $2.01 | XRP here |
 Dogecoin | DOGE | A | 7 | $2.04 | Dogecoin here |
 Stellar | XLM | A | 7 | $2.16 | Stellar here |
 Uniswap | UNI | A | 7 | $2.14 | Uniswap here |
Tax Overview
The IRS treats cryptocurrency as property under Notice 2014-21, so selling or swapping it produces a capital gain or loss, short-term if you held the asset a year or less. Texas imposes no personal income tax. The Comptroller of Public Accounts administers sales and use tax, the franchise tax and roughly a hundred other levies, none of them on individual income, so as of September 2026 a crypto gain is taxed federally only.
Guides
- Is Crypto Legal in the United States? State-by-State Overview
Owning, buying, and selling cryptocurrency is legal in every US state, but the exchanges that serve you are licensed state by state, which is why the same exchange can be open to residents of one state and closed to residents of the next.
- Crypto Estate Planning: Making Sure Your Coins Aren't Lost With You
Passing on cryptocurrency requires two things that an ordinary will does not provide on its own, a record of what exists and where, and a route by which the person inheriting it can reach the keys, because no court order can recover a seed phrase nobody wrote down.
- Self-Custody vs Exchange Custody: How to Decide
Deciding between self-custody and exchange custody means choosing which failure you would rather be exposed to, a company that loses or freezes your assets or a mistake of your own that nobody can undo, and most people resolve it by splitting holdings rather than picking one for everything.
Frequently Asked Questions
- Is cryptocurrency legal in Texas?
- 11 exchanges we have verified serve residents of Texas. We have not recorded a jurisdiction-wide restriction on buying cryptocurrency in Texas. See the regulation section for detail.
- Which exchanges work in Texas?
- Strike, Bitstamp by Robinhood, and Crypto.com Exchange serve residents of Texas.
- Do I pay tax on crypto in Texas?
- The IRS treats cryptocurrency as property under Notice 2014-21, so selling or swapping it produces a capital gain or loss, short-term if you held the asset a year or less. Texas imposes no personal income tax. The Comptroller of Public Accounts administers sales and use tax, the franchise tax and roughly a hundred other levies, none of them on individual income, so as of September 2026 a crypto gain is taxed federally only.