or is receiving these assets only considered accepting a gift (which I think in the U.S., gifts can be ≤$10k, tax-free).
Actually the question seems,he need to get paid with of bitcoin.For the work,which he can do in the bitcointalk or other.My answer is yes.He can work in the bounty to get a decent token as a payment.But it takes 2 months to convert to bitcoin.After the convention ,he can hold that bitcoin to get a profit from that bitcoin.No one will gift the bitcoin as a gift to others ,even a dollar.