February 15, 2022       /       Unchained Daily       /       Laura Shin

Daily Bits ✍️✍️✍️

  • BlockFi will officially pay $100 million to settle with the SEC and 32 states; US clients will no longer have access to interest-earning accounts, though BlockFi plans to register the product with the SEC.

  • UK tax enforcement seized $1.9 million in NFTs after a probe into suspected tax fraud.

  • Users who pre-ordered Samsung’s Galaxy S22 smartphone or Tablet S8 will receive a commemorativeNFT.

  • The alleged Bitfinex money launderer Heather Morgan was released on bail yesterday while her husband, Ilya Lichtenstein, is to remain in custody pending trial.

  • A single Monero mining pool holds a 44% share of the network’s hash rate.

  • IRA Financial was hacked last week, with reports estimating that $36 million was lost.

  • Crypto investment products saw an inflow of $75 million for the week ending February 11th.

  • The makers of Magic The Gathering are threatening to sue a DAO over IP rights.

Today in Crypto Adoption…

  • Coinbase shot up to second place on the Apple App Store after its QR-code Super Bowl ad.

  • Singapore’s largest bank, DBS, will launch a retail crypto trading desk by the end of 2022.

The $$$ Corner…

  • Not much to report today 🙂

What Do You Meme?

What’s Poppin’?

Let’s Talk About Tokens

 

Despite the bump from all the crypto ads in the Super Bowl, crypto prices are still looking somewhat weak. So where are crypto investors getting returns? Here are five stats, several weeks into 2022, to give you a glimpse of where things might be headed:

  1. Of the top 100 coins by market capitalization, 81% are down to start 2022. This number would be even higher if stablecoins were filtered out (as nine of the top 100 tokens are stablecoins).

  2. It’s a fantastic time to be invested in the Cosmos ecosystem. Three of the top five gainers inside the top 100 are Cosmos-based. Juno Network, a smart contract platform, is the biggest winner of 2022 inside the top 100, with its token jumping 180% to start the year. Secret Network and Osmos, two other Cosmos-based tokens, have also performed well, at 16.6% and 38.2% YTD, respectively.

  3. Bitfinex users seem to believe that the exchange will receive part of the $3.6 billion in Bitcoin the government just seized because its LEO token has absolutely skyrocketed in price since the news broke last week. (Bitfinex said it would stand by its plan to buy back LEO using 80% of any funds recovered from the original 2016 Bitfinex hack).

  4. In 2022, DeFi blue chips have fallen far below their all-time highs. For example, tokens for Aave and Uniswap are down 75% from ATHs, while tokens for Synthetix and The Graph are trading at an 80%+ drop from their peaks.

  5. 2021 darlings like Solana, Axie Infinity, and Terra are all down 35%+ to start 2022. However, if you zoom out to 12 months, each of their tokens have ballooned more than 850%.

Recommended Reads

  1. Collins Belton on the BlockFi settlement:

  1. Wade Wallerstein on Wikipedia’s decision to not classify NFTs as art:

  1. Arca on war, Super Bowl commercials, and digital assets:

On The Pod…

Your 2021 Crypto Taxes: How to Handle NFTs, DAOs, Airdrops and More

Two crypto tax experts, Shehan Chandrasekera, certified public accountant and head of strategy, Tax, at Cointracker, and John Cardone, senior director of Washington National Tax at RSM US LLP, explain everything crypto traders need to understand when filing taxes for 2021. Show topics:

  • the five types of transactions that constitute a taxable crypto event

  • how NFT taxes should be reported

  • why the sale of collectibles (NFTs) is taxed differently than the sale of crypto property (tokens)

  • what type of forms you might receive from crypto exchanges and why this information is usually incomplete

  • why the crypto provision in the infrastructure bill most likely won’t affect retail traders

  • why John wants a digital asset-specific 1099 form

  • how staking income will be taxed this year (and why this might change soon)

  • how to report taxes for…

    • airdrops like ENS and SOS

    • income earned via a play-to-earn game like Axie Infinity

    • the sale of virtual land

    • wrapping Bitcoin onto Ethereum

    • rewards received via a crypto credit card

  • how to save money on taxes going forward

  • how Shehan and John think crypto taxes will evolve

  • why the IRS listed a job posting for someone who could exploit crypto wallets

Book Update

My book, The Cryptopians: Idealism, Greed, Lies, and the Making of the First Big Cryptocurrency Craze, is now available for pre-order now.

The book, which is all about Ethereum and the 2017 ICO mania, comes out Feb. 22. Pre-order it today!

You can purchase it here: http://bit.ly/cryptopians