Senin, 30 Desember 2024

IRS digital asset reporting rules, 🚨Yat Siu X account hacked, & other news


	View in browser

Your weekly roundup of the 🔥hottest news in crypto:

Dec. 22 - 28

IRS issues rules on digital asset reporting, says front-ends are brokers

The United States Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has issued final regulations requiring brokers to report digital asset transactions, expanding existing reporting requirements to include front-end platforms that facilitate transactions involving digital assets for customers, such as decentralized exchanges.

Set to take effect in 2027, the rules mandate that brokers disclose gross proceeds from sales of cryptocurrencies and other digital assets, including information regarding taxpayers involved in the transactions.

The final regulation says, "The only DeFi participants that are treated as brokers [...] are trading front-end service providers."

The document does not directly apply to all decentralized finance (DeFi) applications and their level of decentralization, focusing on front-ends as a source of information and tax disclosure.

Get the full story

#2

Yat Siu X account breach likely part of a string of recent hacks: ZachXBT

Blockchain gaming conglomerate Animoca Brands confirmed the X account of its co-founder and chair, Yat Siu, was hacked and used to promote a fake token in what appears to be the latest in a string of attacks on crypto X accounts.

"Unfortunately [Siu's] social media account has been compromised," Animoca posted to X on Dec. 26. "The token launch on Solana as claimed in a post was made by the hacker."

In the now-deleted post, Siu's account shared a link to a token launched on Solana memecoin launcher Pump.fun called Animoca Brands (MOCA) — named the same as the firm and its affiliated Mocaverse non-fungible token (NFT) collection.

Pseudonymous blockchain investigator ZachXBT wrote on X that Siu "likely fell" victim to a phishing email from a threat actor behind a string of similar hacks and fake token posts that have netted $500,000 in the past month.

ZachXBT said the fake MOCA token "was deployed by the same address" as similarly faked tokens shared on other recently hacked crypto-focused X accounts.

Are you still loving this newsletter?

(We're gearing up for 2025 and want to make sure you still enjoy our content.)

This newsletter sucks. Not sure why I opened it.

It's a bit boring. Needs work.

It's ok.

I enjoy it.

Love it!

#3

US-listed Bitcoin, Ether ETFs tally $38.3B net inflows in launch year

United States spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds racked up a staggering $35.66 billion in net inflows in 2024 — far exceeding early industry estimates — while the spot Ether ETFs finished strong, seeing net inflows of $349.3 million in the last four trading days to reach $2.68 billion since launch.

BlackRock's iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF (IBIT) led the pack with $37.31 billion in net inflows, while the Fidelity Wise Origin Bitcoin Fund (FBTC) and the ARK 21Shares Bitcoin ETF (ARKB) rounded out the top three with $11.84 billion and $2.49 billion, respectively, followed by Bitwise Bitcoin ETF (BITB) at $2.19 billion, according to Farside Investors.

These net inflows smashed an earlier $14 billion first-year estimate from Galaxy Digital's research head Alex Thorn.

However, the spot Bitcoin ETFs didn't finish too strong toward the year's end, seeing a combined $1.33 billion in outflows since Dec. 19.

Five of the last six trading days were net outflows, with IBIT seeing its largest outflow of $188.7 million on Dec. 24.

#4 Prediction of the week

Analyst 'wouldn't be surprised' if Ethereum outperforms Bitcoin in January

Ether is showing signs of breaking out relative to Bitcoin in January 2025, according to a crypto analyst.

TradingView shows Ether's relative strength to Bitcoin — the ETH/BTC ratio — is currently at 0.0356. MN Capital founder Michael van de Poppe said in a Dec. 24 X post that he "wouldn't be surprised if $ETH / $BTC breaks through 0.04 in January."

The last time the ETH/BTC ratio tapped 0.04 was on Dec. 8, when ETH traded just above the $4,000 psychological price level at $4,018.

Van de Poppe predicts that while there will be more inflow into Ether in January 2025, Bitcoin may see outflows, leading to its price consolidating. He expects this to set off an "altcoin run in the Ethereum ecosystem."

#5 FUD of the week

All I wanted for Christmas was my $773M BTC back

James Howells, an IT engineer from Newport, Wales, is fighting a high-stakes legal battle to recover a hard drive containing private keys to 8,000 Bitcoin — worth an estimated $773 million.

The drive was mistakenly disposed of in a landfill, holds 2009-era Bitcoin, represents a fortune tied to the earliest days of the cryptocurrency market, and is currently barred access by the Newport City Council due to its environmental permit.

In an exclusive interview with Cointelegraph, Howells said the legal proceedings are ongoing and backed by a world-class legal team and advanced artificial intelligence technology trained in United Kingdom law.

Despite the estimated $773 million in holdings being thrown out in 2013, Howells remains optimistic and plans to compensate stakeholders, contribute to the crypto community, and potentially reinvest in blockchain projects — if he recovers the lost BTC.

Howells has assembled a legal team that includes a King's Counsel, senior barristers, and a support team of solicitors and paralegals to argue his case.

He aims to gain access to the landfill site and retrieve the hard drive that was mistakenly discarded while complying with legal and environmental regulations for access.

Quantum Computers Could DESTROY Bitcoin - Are We Ready?

We dive into the growing threat that quantum computing poses to modern cryptography and the potential risks for crypto investors.

Watch Now

#6 FUD of the week

Montenegro justice minister approves Do Kwon's extradition to US

Terraform Labs co-founder Do Kwon's extradition to the United States has been approved by Montenegrin Minister of Justice Bojan Božović after Montenegro's Constitutional Court dismissed the former executive's appeal.

The Ministry of Justice simultaneously rejected the extradition of Kwon to his country of origin, South Korea. According to a translated statement from news outlet Vijesti, Montenegro's Ministry of Justice wrote:

"It was concluded that most of the criteria provided by law support the request for extradition by the competent authorities of the United States of America."

The decision to extradite Kwon to the United States follows a lengthy legal battle that took several turns, in which the decision to extradite the Terraform Labs founder was reversed several times.