ACCOUNTING FOR CRYPTOASSETS UNDER IFRS
- About twenty years back there was the huge dot-com bubble. More and more people got connected via the Internet and started to use the World Wide Web. Ten years later the idea for a new type of technology was introduced - namely the blockchain. While blockchain technology can be used in many different areas, it is widely known in the financial sector as the technology behind cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum. Bitcoin might be the most well-known cryptocurrency in the world and has gained popularity over the years.
In 2009, an individual or group of people, who has remained anonymous until today, with the name of Satoshi Nakamoto mined the first Bitcoin block aka the Genesis Block (block number 0) which granted 50 Bitcoins as a reward (Attaran & Gunasekaran 2019: 7). It was also the year of the first Bitcoin transaction between Nakamoto and the programmer Hal Finney which gave rise to the first Bitcoin exchange market (Peterson 2014 cited in Attaran & Gunasekaran 2019: 8). Then in 2010 there was the first purchase using Bitcoins. 10,000 Bitcoins were used to pay for two Papa John's pizzas (Wallace 2011 cited in Attaran & Gunasekaran 2019: 8).
Individuals and companies alike have started paying and trading with Bitcoin. Just with any other currency, Bitcoin has a monetary value that can increase or decrease. So when trading with Bitcoin, one needs to be aware that there are fluctuations in value that need to be reported for accounting and tax purposes which this master’s thesis will take a closer look at.