The problem is, people didn’t know what to do with their gains on bitcoin back in the day. We are talking about the 2013-2014 era if I am not mistaken. During those years, what was the US’ position on bitcoin? Most legal authorities didn’t know what to do with it. Coinbase (the exchange) was only 1 year old. Bitcoin itself was 5 years old. Let alone the taxman, nobody really knew shit.
This is absolutely right, my lecturer was a woman who was in charge on these things and she told me that they simply didn't know what to do with Bitcoin and in my country, for that reason, she told me that she (and her team) lets people to not pay taxes because first of all, they don't know what to do with it and second of all, if people make money, let them make money without taxing only in this case, for a while.
not a lawyer or tax person but in the usa its pretty clear.. if you make profit you pay taxes. makes no difference how the profit was made.. tag sale, ebay, work, whatever. pay the tax on it in USD.
now long term vs short term gains etc might be an issue back then.
iirc my cpa had me report my gpu mined coin sales as straight income back around the 2013 timeframe. id have to check records to be sure.