Month: March 2023

Biden’s policy on crypto taxation undermines his environmental goals

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Gains accrued by staking cryptocurrency should not be treated as a taxable event. It only makes sense to tax such gains upon their conversion to legal tender currency. To do otherwise undermines a marquee environmental policy from the administration of United States President Joe Biden. The Internal Revenue Service appears strongly inclined to treat staking gains as immediate income. The penalties for getting sideways with the IRS can be draconian. And taxing, or threatening to tax, staking gains is bad policy — and, ahem, bad politics. There are many excellent…

Symphony COO Joins IOG CEO Cardano Blockchain Project

Input Output Global (IOG) is a software research and development company that played an imperative role in developing the blockchain platform Cardano. In its recent announcement, the company appointed Eran Barak as the CEO of its latest data-protection protocol, Midnight. This new protocol is set to offer new features that mainly comprise advanced security features to improve the privacy and protection of users’ data on the Cardano network. This recent move from IOG is targeted to strengthen its position in the blockchain industry by meeting the growing demand for data…

Binance CEO CZ rejects allegations of market manipulation

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Binance CEO Changpeng ‘CZ’ Zhao has rejected allegations from the Commodities Futures and Trading Commission complaint, arguing the company “does not trade for profit or ‘manipulate’ the market under any circumstances.” The chief executive shared his first official response to the lawsuit in a March 28 blog post. The CEO argued that while Binance “trades” in a number of situations, this is mainly to convert them “from time-to-time” to cover expenses in fiat or other cryptocurrencies, as its revenues are in crypto. “Personally, I have two accounts at Binance: one…

Bitcoin Hashrate Reaches 400 Exahash per Second, Researcher Says Network Could Reach Zettahash Era by 2025 – Mining Bitcoin News

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Despite Bitcoin’s difficulty reaching an all-time high at 46.84 trillion, participants in bitcoin mining have kept the hashrate running stronger than ever before. According to statistics, on March 23, 2023, the hashrate reached a high of 400 exahash per second (EH/s). The 400 exahash equates to 0.4 zettahash or four hundred quintillion hashes per second. As the hashrate continues to climb, research analyst Sam Wouters at River Financial estimates that at the current growth rate, Bitcoin could reach the zettahash era “by the end of 2025.” Reasons for the Increase…

UK Treasury Cancels Plans for Government-Backed NFT

“We have not yet seen a lot of evidence that our constituents should be putting their money in these speculative tokens unless they are prepared to lose all their money,” said Chair of the Treasury Select Committee Harriet Baldwin. “So perhaps that is why the Royal Mint has made this decision in conjunction with the Treasury.” Source

MakerDAO passes new ‘constitution’ to formalize governance process

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MakerDAO, the decentralized autonomous organization that governs the Dai (DAI) stablecoin, has passed a new proposed “constitution” intended to formalize governance processes and help prevent hostile actors from taking over the protocol, according to the official forum page for the proposal. The Maker Constitution has been approved by Maker Governance. The Endgame Era is upon us.https://t.co/OKf9Kgo4dp pic.twitter.com/XqzsP44faQ — Maker (@MakerDAO) March 27, 2023 According to the proposal’s text, a constitution is needed because the Maker Protocol “relies on governance decisions by humans and institutions holding MKR tokens,” which can “expose…

Macro Factors Like Interest Rates Are Moving Crypto Markets – CoinDesk

For the past nine months, overall macro conditions have taken a back seat to the idiosyncratic failures (FTX, Terra’s LUNA/UST, BlockFi, CoinDesk sister company Genesis) and success stories (the Ethereum Merge, various layer 2 launches) that drove most of the price action. But macro regained its position behind the wheel over the past few weeks. The banking crisis and subsequent policy response have taken center stage – only this time it is affecting digital assets positively at the expense of other asset classes. A quick look at the bitcoin (BTC)…

Macro Factors Like Interest Rates Are Moving Crypto Markets — CoinDesk

For the past nine months, overall macro conditions have taken a back seat to the idiosyncratic failures (FTX, Terra’s LUNA/UST, BlockFi, CoinDesk sister company Genesis) and success stories (the Ethereum Merge, various layer 2 launches) that drove most of the price action. But macro regained its position behind the wheel over the past few weeks. The banking crisis and subsequent policy response have taken center stage – only this time it is affecting digital assets positively at the expense of other asset classes. A quick look at the bitcoin (BTC)…

Bankrupt Crypto Lender BlockFi to Refund More Than $100K to California Clients

The decision, which is subject to a bankruptcy court’s approval, comes after a DFPI investigation found the now-bankrupt crypto lender “failed to provide timely notification” to borrowers that they could stop repaying their loans after the company had paused withdrawals on its platform. As a result, BlockFi’s California borrowers remitted at least $103,471 worth of loan repayments to the lender’s servicer. Source

First Citizens Bank Acquires Silicon Valley Bank, Costing FDIC Deposit Insurance Fund an Estimated $20B – Bitcoin News

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According to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), the troubled bank Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) was acquired by First Citizens Bank & Trust Company, which is based in Raleigh, North Carolina. First Citizens acquired all deposits and loans from SVB, as well as the 17 branches that SVB owned across the United States. Silicon Valley Bank Purchased by First Citizens in FDIC-Mediated Deal The FDIC has announced that First Citizens Bank has taken over Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) following the acquisition of Signature Bank by Flagstar seven days prior. According…