That was unexpected, quite high considering this is rather a new kind of asset.
On the other hand I find amusing that people at the IRS is willing to tax literally anything that has liquidity. In the early days on Bitcoin, I assume they were laughing at the idea of it becoming an actual currency or being accepted to some extend as a tool to transfer value in a decentralized way.
As soon as liquidity, adoption and volume increased, they had stop the laughter and move onto taxing.
imagine it
paying tax on ingame purchases.. turns Steam into tax reporting agents of its customers rather than games retailers
so soon you wont be able to play online games without KYC
How things are going, it should not be a surprise Steam and Epic Games would ask for full KYC in a decade or earlier.
But it would make more sense it was related to MMORPG's where people can partake in a secondary market of in-game currency, which gains are (of course) taxable.
Yes, that does make sense in this kind of thing. Certainly more than taxing Steam and Epic Games