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Tax on income you never earned? It’s possible after Ethereum’s Merge
After much buildup and preparation, the Ethereum Merge went smoothly this month. The next test will come during tax season. Cryptocurrency forks, such as Bitcoin Cash, have created headaches for investors and accountants alike in the past. While there has been progress, the United States Internal Revenue Service rules still weren’t ready for something like the Ethereum network upgrade. Nonetheless, there seems to be an interpretation of IRS rules that tax professionals and taxpayers can adopt to achieve simplicity and avoid unexpected tax bills. How Bitcoin Cash broke 2017 tax returns Because of a disagreement over block size, Bitcoin forked in 2017. Everyone who held Bitcoin received an equal amount of the new forked currency, Bitcoin Cash (BCH). But when they received it caused some issu...
UFC fighter El Ninja to become first argentinian athlete paid in crypto
Guido Cannetti, an Argentinian Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) fighter, is now the first martial arts athlete in the country to receive 100% of his salary in stablecoins, amid rising inflation and Argentina’s economic deteriorating, announced the crypto payroll company Bitwage on Monday. Dubbed El Ninja, he returns to the Octagon on October 1st in the United States to face the local fighter Randy Costa. According to Bitwage, Guido will receive his payment in USDC stablecoin via the Stellar Network on Vibrant, a wallet application developed by the Stellar team specifically for Argentines experiencing inflation. As per official government figures’, inflation in the 12 months through August was 78.5% in the country, whereas prices in the first eight months of the year were up...
Anonymous makes numerous allegations against Yuga Labs and its Bored Ape Yacht Club
On Sept 26, internet hacktivist group Anonymous released a video addressing blockchain technology company Yuga Labs and its NFT-driven social club, Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC). The group’s statement included a laundry list of allegations regarding Yuga Lab’s alleged use of esoteric symbolism in BAYC’s art — which Anonymous believes shows the company’s support for numerous controversial subjects, such as Nazism, racism, simianization, and pedophilia. The hacktivist group alleged that, after thorough research and interviews with key figures, it can confirm “without a shadow of doubt” that the Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) and Yuga Labs are guilty of hiding these esoteric symbols in plain sight — a conclusion the company and project both openly protest. [embedded content...
3 ‘blockbuster’ titles that could save GameFi — ABGA President
Kevin Shao, Executive President of the Asia Blockchain Gaming Alliance (ABGA) says he’s holding out hope for three “triple-A” blockchain gaming titles that could help propel GameFi into the mainstream and rescue it from the bear market. Speaking to Cointelegraph during Asia Crypto Week, the Executive President said one obstacle preventing mainstream adoption is current GameFi titles often have a focus on non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and play-to-earn (P2E) features without caring about “game performance,” and users’ enjoyment. In a P2E model, gamers typically buy an NFT in order to play the game and can win gaming tokens which can then beconverted into Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), fiat currency, or stablecoins. While he acknowledges these current GameFi titles are enjoyable for a...
People built in harm’s way. Here comes Ian.
The National Hurricane Center warned Tuesday that Ian could bring as much as 12 feet of storm surge to a wide stretch of shoreline south of Tampa Bay, including Sarasota and Charlotte counties — as well as 4 to 6 feet along the bay itself, where cities such as Tampa and St. Petersburg would be especially vulnerable to catastrophic flooding if a storm struck them directly. The hurricane center’s 5 p.m. forecast moved Ian’s potential landfall further south than earlier expected. Still, the meteorologists cautioned that the track remains uncertain and the storm will wreak damage far from its eye. “[A]voiding a large and destructive hurricane for Florida seems very unlikely,” they wrote. Tampa Bay in particular embodies a trend that has alarmed climate scientists, disaster experts and emergenc...
Bitcoin price loses $20K as trader warns US dollar ‘not quite topped out’
Bitcoin (BTC) crossed under $20,000 after the Sept. 27 Wall Street open as United States equities inched higher. BTC/USD 1-hour candle chart (Bitstamp). Source: TradingView U.S. dollar has room to run — trader Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView confirmed the $20,000 mark barely remaining as tentative support on the day. BTC/USD had managed local highs of $20,344 on Bitstamp overnight, while retracing U.S. dollar strength gave modest relief to risk assets across the board. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite Index had been up 0.4% and 0.65%, respectively, after two hours’ trading, but subsequently reversed. At the same time, the U.S. dollar index (DXY) was down 0.15% on the day, back below the 114 mark but still near its highest since mid-2002. “U.S. open coming up. Green ...
Brett Harrison will step down as FTX US president, move into advisory role
The president of cryptocurrency exchange FTX US, Brett Harrison, has announced he will be transitioning into an advisory role in the next few months. In a Sept. 27 announcement on Twitter, Harrison said he will be resigning his position as FTX US president but will remain with the exchange “with the goal of removing technological barriers to full participation in and maturation of global crypto markets, both centralized and decentralized.” Harrison has worked as FTX US president since May 2021, following a job at Citadel Securities. “I can’t wait to share more about what I’m doing next,” said Harrison. “Until then, I’ll be assisting Sam [Bankman-Fried] and the team with this transition to ensure FTX ends the year with all its characteristic momentum.” 1/ An announcement: I’m stepping down ...
FCA green lights Revolut, making no UK crypto firms operating under temporary status
The United Kingdom’s Financial Conduct Authority, or FCA, has added cryptocurrency-friendly payments app Revolut to its list of companies authorized to offer crypto products and services in the country. In a Monday update to its list of registered crypto asset firms in the U.K., the FCA showed Revolut was in compliance with amended regulations from 2017 on “Money Laundering, Terrorist Financing and Transfer of Funds.” The fintech firm joined 37 other companies with the green light to offer crypto services in the country after being granted an extension to operate as a crypto asset firm with temporary registration in March. Firms offering crypto-related products and services in the U.K. are permitted to operate following registration with the FCA, a rule in force since 2020. How...
Japan preparing amendment to enforce FATF travel rules on crypto by May 2023: Report
Japan is expected to enact new rules on money transfers to prevent the use of crypto for money laundering, according to local news agency Nikkei. The changes will bring Japan up-to-date with Financial Action Task Force (FATF) recommendations. An amendment to the Act on Prevention of Transfer of Criminal Proceeds will be introduced in the National Diet on Oct. 3 that will add crypto to the so-called travel rules on money transfers, Nikkei reported. The rules will be amended to require exchange operators to collect customer information in transactions involving cryptocurrency and stablecoins — as they already do for cash transactions. The Foreign Exchange and Foreign Trade Act and the International Terrorist Asset-Freezing Act will be updated to reflect the same changes, which will go into e...
NFT Artist Diana Sinclair Signs With UTA Ahead of Christie’s Auction
Diana Sinclair, a leading visual artist in the Web3 space, has signed with UTA and is set to auction off nine of her NFTs at Christie’s beginning this week. Sinclair, 18, was recognized by Fortune as one of the top 50 most influential people in the NFT space alongside artists like Beeple. Her work focuses on themes like self-identity and social justice, and she is the curator behind Digital Diaspora, a Juneteenth exhibition that highlights the work of Black artists and creatives in the NFT community. Last year, Sinclair also collaborated with estate of Whitney Houston to create a digital video that comprised rare archival photos of the late singer that sold for roughly $1 million. And beginning on Wednesday, the artist will debut an NFT col...
Almost everything could be tokenized in 5-10 years — Matrixport co-founder
In five to ten years, almost every “real world” asset class could be tokenized in the form of a nonfungible token (NFT) according to Cynthia Wu, co-founder of digital asset service platform Matrixport. Speaking to Cointelegraph, Wu said the best case for NFTs would see the widespread representation of real-world assets to be stored and traded on-chain: “Eventually, all the major financial asset classes are going to be represented on this new financial infrastructure [and] NFTs could be our instrument to represent off-chain assets like real estate deeds, equities or bonds.” The move on-chain would make these real-world assets “more liquid and more tradable,” which would improve price discovery and transaction activity, Wu added. But Wu said that while it’s great that we’ve created over two ...
Nuclear and gas fastest growing energy sources for Bitcoin mining: Data
The electricity mix of Bitcoin (BTC) has drastically changed over the past few years, with nuclear energy and natural gas becoming the fastest growing energy sources powering Bitcoin mining, according to new data. The Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance (CCAF) on Tuesday released a major update to its Bitcoin mining-dedicated data source, the Cambridge Bitcoin Electricity Consumption Index (CBECI). According to the data from Cambridge, fossil fuels like coal and natural gas made up almost two-thirds of Bitcoin’s total electricity mix as of January 2022, accounting for more than 62%. As such, the share of sustainable energy sources in the BTC energy mix amounted to 38%. The new study suggests that coal alone accounted for nearly 37% of Bitcoin’s total electricity consumption as of earl...
