Source: Australian Department of Revenue
We continue to see SMSF trustees reporting losses with crypto investments due to scams and other reasons.
Crypto investment losses have been caused by:
- scams, where trustees were conned into investing their superannuation benefits in a fake crypto exchange
- theft, where fraudsters would hack into trustees crypto accounts to steal all their crypto
- collapsed crypto trading platforms, many of which were based overseas
- lost passwords resulting in trustees being locked out of their crypto account and unable to access their crypto, and
- scammers pretending to be from the ATO, telling people they are suspected of being involved in cryptocurrency tax evasion. They are then asked to connect their wallet and provide detailed information via a link.
Trustees thinking of investing in crypto need to be aware of the ways crypto can be lost, including via scams and how they can avoid them. ACCC’s ScamwatchExternal Link and the MoneySmart section on ASIC’s website have useful information on how to spot scams and what to do if you’ve been targetedExternal Link.
Many crypto assets are not considered to be financial products. This means the platform where you buy and sell crypto is usually not regulated so you may not be protected if the platform fails or is hacked and you could lose all of your crypto.
Investing in crypto can be complex and risky so we recommend trustees seek financial advice before investing and read both MoneySmartExternal Link and the our SMSF investing in crypto assets page.
You can also check out our short Crypto myth busting videos:
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