Buying Bitcoin as a Minor: What Does the Law Allow?

You can buy bitcoin as a minor, but almost never on your own through an exchange. The law does allow a 15- or 16-year-old to swap pocket money for bitcoin: in Germany the pocket-money rule, § 110 of the Civil Code (BGB), covers it, in Austria § 170 of the ABGB, in Switzerland Art. 19 of the Civil Code (ZGB). Exchanges and apps still only accept you from 18, because they have to verify your identity and sign a contract with you that they can enforce. The usual route is therefore: your parents buy, and the bitcoin goes into a wallet that belongs to you.

From what age can you sign contracts?

Legally, buying bitcoin is a purchase or an exchange: you hand over euros or francs, you get bitcoin. Whether you may make that contract alone depends on your age. All three countries have the same three stages, just with different age limits and sections.

The principle is the same everywhere: a contract that costs you something needs your parents' consent. Without it, a contract in Germany is "provisionally invalid" (§ 108 BGB). It only takes effect once your parents approve it afterwards. If they refuse, each side has to return what it received. The exceptions to this principle decide what you may do alone.

The pocket-money rule: what you may buy alone

In Germany the key exception is § 110 BGB. A contract is valid from the start if you perform it with money your parents gave you for that purpose or for free use. That is your pocket money, but also money from your grandparents if your parents agree that you decide freely what to do with it.

For bitcoin this means three things:

• You have to pay at once and in full. § 110 only applies once you have "effected" the payment. A savings plan that commits you to monthly payments is not covered. A single purchase paid immediately in cash or by bank transfer is.
• The money must be yours to use freely. If your parents said "this is for the school trip", buying bitcoin with it is not covered.
• What comes afterwards is not automatically covered. If you later sell your bitcoin at a profit and buy something big with the proceeds, the prevailing legal view is that this second contract is no longer covered by the pocket-money rule. Your parents have to consent again. It is the classic lottery-winnings case German law students have studied for over a hundred years.

Austria covers the same ground in § 170 ABGB. From 14 you may decide yourself over money left to you for free use and over your own earnings, as long as this does not endanger your basic needs (para. 2). Younger children only have the exception for minor everyday transactions (para. 3), and bitcoin is hardly part of a ten-year-old's everyday life.

In Switzerland you may handle "minor matters of everyday life" and accept benefits free of charge without consent (Art. 19(2) ZGB). Whether a 50-franc bitcoin purchase still counts as minor has not been decided by any court. What you earn by your own work, such as an apprentice's wage, you manage yourself (Art. 323 ZGB).

Why exchanges and apps only open at 18

The law would allow quite a lot. Providers still don't. Bitpanda, Coinbase, Kraken, Bison, Relai and Pocket all set a minimum age of 18 in their terms, for three reasons.

First, identity checks. Every crypto provider in the EU and Switzerland must know who its customer is under anti-money-laundering law (Know Your Customer). That works with a minor's ID too, but the provider would also have to verify the parents and document their consent.

Second, contract risk. A contract with a 16-year-old made without parental consent is provisionally invalid. If the parents later demand the money back, the exchange has to return it, even if the price has fallen since. No provider wants to carry that risk on every purchase.

Third, the products. Besides bitcoin, exchanges offer leveraged products, altcoins and staking. For minors they would have to block all of that.

An account with a false date of birth or a parent's ID is therefore no shortcut. It breaches the terms, the provider may freeze it, and legally the balance belongs to the person the account is in. Bitcoin ATMs usually ask for ID as well.

Parents buy, the child owns: the three routes

In practice the parents almost always buy. What matters is who owns the bitcoin afterwards. There are three routes, which differ legally and for tax.

Route 1: Saving for the child in your own name

As a parent you buy on your own account and keep the bitcoin in your wallet, perhaps with a note saying "for Lena". Legally everything stays yours. It is the simplest route: you decide when and whether your child gets the bitcoin, say on their 18th birthday or when they start university. The drawback: until then it is your wealth, exposed to your creditors, your taxes and your estate.

Route 2: Gifting into the child's wallet

You buy and send the bitcoin to a wallet whose words were created for your child. That makes it a gift, and the bitcoin belongs to the child. A gift brings the child only a legal advantage, so in Germany a child may accept it alone from age 7 (§ 107 BGB). For younger children, the parents accept it.

Until their 18th birthday the parents manage the child's assets (§ 1626 BGB). At 18 the child is entitled to them, and the parents must hand them over. So write the gift down, with date, amount and wallet. For tax it stays free up to high amounts; allowances and reporting duties are in Giving and inheriting bitcoin.

Route 3: A bitcoin ETP in a child's securities account

Many banks and brokers offer securities accounts in the child's name, run by the parents. These can hold a bitcoin ETP, a security tracking the bitcoin price. Whether your broker allows ETPs in a child's account is its own decision. Some block crypto products for minors, so ask before opening. The upside: no key that anyone can lose. The downside: it isn't real bitcoin but a claim on the issuer. Since March 2025, Germany taxes physically backed ETPs with a delivery claim like real bitcoin.

The child's own wallet: who holds the words?

A bitcoin wallet is not an account anyone has to open. It is an app or a device that generates twelve or 24 words. Whoever knows those words can move the bitcoin, whether they are 12 or 62. How to set one up is explained in Setting up a bitcoin wallet.

For families this suggests two sensible splits:

• Until about 14: the parents hold the words. The wallet belongs to the child, but the parents keep the words, just as they would keep a savings book. The child can get a watch-only app that shows the balance without being able to spend anything.
• From 16 or 18: the child gets the words. Ideally with a conversation about what happens if the words are lost or someone photographs them. How to store them safely is covered in Storing your seed phrase.

Small amounts over Lightning are a good start: a Lightning wallet on the phone, a few thousand satoshi from the parents, and the child sees how money works that nobody can stop.

When the money belongs to the child: stricter rules

One difference is often overlooked. If parents buy with their own money and give it away, that is their free decision. If they invest the child's money, such as an inheritance from grandma or the christening savings book, they carry the duties of a manager.

Germany: Parents must invest a child's money "according to the principles of sound economic asset management" (§ 1642 BGB). The family court only has to approve certain transactions listed in the law (§ 1643 BGB with §§ 1850 to 1854), such as loans in the child's name, guarantees or real estate. Buying bitcoin is not on that list. Whether it is still "sound" to put a large part of a child's wealth into an asset that has fallen 70 % at times is another question. A small share alongside an account and funds is easier to justify than everything.

Austria: The rules here are much tighter. A child's money must be invested safely ("mündelsicher") and as profitably as possible (§§ 215 ff. ABGB), for example in a ward's savings account or certain bonds. Bitcoin is not among them. Other investments need approval from the guardianship court, as do transactions outside ordinary management (§ 167(3) ABGB). Anyone wanting to put a child's inheritance into bitcoin asks the district court first.

Switzerland: The parents manage the child's assets (Art. 318 ZGB). If they endanger them, the child and adult protection authority (KESB) can intervene (Art. 324 and 325 ZGB). There is no list of permitted investments for parents as there is in Austria.

Taxes: children are taxpayers too

If the bitcoin belongs to the child, the child is also its owner for tax.

Germany: If the child sells at a profit within one year of purchase, it is a private sale under § 23 of the Income Tax Act (EStG). Gains up to a total of €1’000 a year stay tax-free; above that, all of it counts. After one year the sale is tax-free. With a gift, the child takes over the parents' purchase date. Because children rarely have other income, even larger short-term gains often trigger no income tax thanks to the basic allowance. A tax return may still be required. Details in Bitcoin taxes in Germany.

Austria: Since March 2022, crypto is taxed at the special rate of 27.5 %, for children too. Bitcoin bought before 1 March 2021 falls under the old law, with a tax-free sale after one year.

Switzerland: Capital gains on private assets are tax-free. Until 18, a child's assets are usually taxed with the parents, so the bitcoin goes on the parents' securities list.