PANews reported on May 19 that according to Cointelegraph, a verdict in a criminal case in Australia may trigger a $640 million Bitcoin tax refund. Victorian judge Michael O'Connell ruled in a theft case involving 81.6 Bitcoins (now worth about $13 million) that Bitcoin should be considered a currency rather than a taxable asset.

The ruling directly challenges the position of the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) since 2014, which has always classified cryptocurrencies as capital gains tax (CGT) assets. Tax lawyer Adrian Cartland pointed out that if the ruling is upheld on appeal, it may bring a total of A$1 billion (about US$640 million) in tax refunds to Bitcoin traders. The ATO has not yet confirmed the specific amount of the tax refund. It is worth noting that the judge compared Bitcoin to the Australian dollar rather than assets such as stocks and gold in the ruling. This legal interpretation may exempt Bitcoin transactions from the current CGT system. The ATO previously stipulated that any disposal of Bitcoin (including exchange for legal currency, trading other cryptocurrencies or purchasing goods) constitutes a CGT taxable event.