The biggest crypto news and ideas of the day |
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The IRS has previewed a draft of the 1099-DA form meant to decide how crypto transactions should be reported to the federal government. The form specifically focuses on the taxable gains or losses brokers will have to report on behalf of traders. What exactly counts as a digital asset broker is an open question, though this version of the draft identifies kiosk operators, digital asset payment processors, hosted wallet providers and unhosted wallet providers. |
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Avail, a closely watched blockchain data-availability project (for off-chain data processing), confirmed details of an upcoming airdrop, after screenshots of the eligibility criteria leaked last week on the social-media platform X. According to a blog post, 354,605 wallet addresses are eligible to claim the 600 million tokens in their “unification drop” that will coincide with the Avail DA launch. |
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Consensus is the biggest and most established hub for everything crypto, blockchain and Web3. Join us at the 10th annual Consensus May 29-31 in Austin, Texas for dialogue, discovery and dealmaking alongside developers, investors, startups, executives and more. Save 15% with code NODE15. Grab your pass. |
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The Takeaway: Search Interest |
(Unsplash, modified by CoinDesk) |
Google searches for the term “Bitcoin halving” have hit an all-time high, surpassing the previous record set during the last halving in May 2020. According to Google Trends data, which uses a 100 point scale to determine the relative popularity of keyphrases, there is more interest than ever in the Bitcoin network halving. Interest in the term has steadily ramped up since the start of 2024, alongside search interest in the phrase “Bitcoin” (which is still below its 2017 peak in terms of search interest). The surge in interest is notable considering bitcoin’s weak trading week, which saw it drop from a high around $70,000 last Friday to $63,000 today. Less than 60 blocks away, the fourth Bitcoin halving will see the number of bitcoin paid out as a block reward to miners cut in half from the current 6.25 BTC to 3.125 BTC. This particular halving is notable for a number of reasons, including the resurging interest in Bitcoin as a developer ecosystem, the onshoring of the U.S. mining industry following China’s ban and the relatively recent launch of spot bitcoin ETFs that helped ignite a (now ebbing) market rally. “This is the first halving in which major U.S. asset managers are educating on Bitcoin, and there’s no better Bitcoin education than learning about the halving. It’s a narrative event first – a quadrennial market moment – and a supply event second, though I think both aspects will be impactful,” Head of Research Alex Thorn told CoinDesk via email. As Decrypt initially reported, search frequency for “Bitcoin halving” surpassed the cannabis culture meme number “420” for the first time in its history. This is especially notable because the halving was initially scheduled to coincide with the April 20 holiday known for its cannabis-oriented celebrations, though is now likely to occur Friday evening. Read the full article online... – D.K. @danielgkuhn daniel@coindesk.com |
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A message from XDC Network |
XDC Network: The Rising Real-World Asset Chain Shaping the Future of Asset Tokenization Since its launch in 2019, XDC Network, formerly known as XinFin Network, has been dedicated to solving real-world problems through innovative blockchain solutions. This focus on practical applications of blockchain technology has positioned XDC Network as a critical player in the industry, enhancing the potential of RWA tokenization. XDC Network's strategic vision and role aim to pioneer a new era of financial interoperability, liquidity and efficiency with the dapps built on XDC Network that perform RWA transactions on the chain. Continue reading here. |
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Consensys Senior Counsel and Director of Global Regulatory Matters Bill Hughes, will speak at Consensus 2024 this May. Grab your pass here. What’s your pitch to the crypto/web3 space? Why should they want you to win? Two related questions: Do you think the SEC is possibly building a case against the Ethereum Foundation? And also, what is the best argument that ETH is not a security? So with respect to the first question I wouldn't make that argument specifically. I wouldn't say that the SEC is looking to bring a case against any particular party related to Ethereum. The way they've typically gone about declaring a token a security is generally going after some third party, and in the course of that case, calling some other token a security [like naming SOL or ADA in the Coinbase suit]. There are instances in which they've gone after the putative security token issuer [like Ripple], but they don't need to do that. I do think the reporting is robust enough that it can be said with confidence that the SEC is investigating Ethereum. It’s likely they will flip flop as to [ETH’s] categorization under the investor protection laws. I will note that as recently as October 2023, the SEC permitted Ethereum-based futures ETFs to be traded on securities exchanges. That implied the asset the futures contract was based on was not a security. So something has happened between then and now, which appears to have caused the SEC to flip positions. It’s certainly reasonable for the market to be very alarmed at this in part because a lot of people are invested in this ecosystem. The SEC completely changing tracks like this would undo years of established fact about what Ethereum was, at least as the market conceived of it, and is dangerously disruptive to all of it. So it's going to be something that should be closely watched. |
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