if you had purchased the BTC at $20, you now owe taxes on $980 of realized gain....

Tyrek on Sept 12, 2017 | parent | context | favorite | on: Only 802 People Paid Taxes on Bitcoin Profits, IRS...

if you had purchased the BTC at $20, you now owe taxes on $980 of realized gain. Once you've paid that, your new (tax) basis in ETH is $1000, so you can do whatever you want with it (including exchange it to USD) if the value doesn't change.