It’s been a wild ride for crypto this week!
- Crypto miners attention! Pay 30% tax now or be jailed.
- KuCoin is learning the hard way the importance of following the rules.
- Mt Gox. creditors now have until April 6 to get their money back.
- Starbucks’ 2000 NFTs sold out in just 20 minutes – but do you get a free coffee?
Lawmakers Are Trying To Kill Crypto?
The Biden administration is really ruffling the feathers of those pesky cryptocurrency miners! Powering down their rigs because of a hefty 30% excised tax on their electricity usage? That’s worse than having to eat your mined golden eggs!
Not only that, but they’re also planning to squash tax-deductible losses related to wash-trading of crypto tokens. So no more cleverly avoiding taxes, eh? While we’re talking about the authorities, Silvergate, the crypto-friendly bank, was forced to close its doors due to DOJ pressure — talk about a cold embrace to the crypto space! And if that’s not enough, the offshore crypto exchange FTX had to make its departure as well.
We can all agree that the Biden administration means business when it comes to cracking down on cryptocurrency. But let’s keep in mind that it’s still possible to make money in the crypto space; it just means being smarter about it.
Kucoin Is In Hot Waters!
KuCoin, the Seychelles-based crypto exchange, has been in the news after running afoul of the law. New York State Attorney Letitia James has come out with her guns blazing and is taking on KuCoin for its unregistered activities. Yes, that’s finance-speak for “you’re in trouble now!”
KuCoin was sued for selling and purchasing unregistered securities and commodities to users, including the biggie: Ethereum! That’s right, the regulator is claiming that ETH is a security – not the first time it’s ever said.
The US regulators are like the tough principal in school – you better follow their rules or else! In the case of crypto exchanges, that means registering with the SEC or CFTC or else you may face hefty fines. Just ask CoinEx, who recently had to learn that lesson the hard way!
Better Late Than Never: Mt. Gox Creditors
Getting your money back from Mt. Gox was always going to be a pain, but the wait is coming to an end – the trustees of the bankrupt Japanese cryptocurrency exchange announced on March 9 that creditors have until April 6 to complete registration and receive their repayment.
Who would’ve thought that getting millions of dollars of virtual currency back could be such a lengthy process? Still, it’s like they say – better late than never! And we can all acknowledge how generous the trustees and Bankruptcy Courts have been in extending the deadline, no doubt given the huge number of people all over the world who were affected and the tedious manual processing needed. Here’s hoping all creditors get the repayment they deserve!
Starbucks Sells 2,000 NFTs In 20 Minutes – Coffee Not Included
Starbucks proved that money really does grow on trees — at least when it comes to the world of NFTs! After all, it took just 20 minutes for their 2,000 “digital Stamps” to all be sold out — and each stamp only cost $100! So if you have some spare change and you’re in the market for some digital memorabilia, become part of the hype and join the masses who made their purchase in no time.
NFTs may have had a slight dip since their peak last year, but that’s not stopping big corporations from getting a piece of the action! You could wind up with a virtual coffee class, exclusive merch, or winning a trip to a Starbucks coffee farm – although the latter would be even more amazing if you got there with a free coffee NFT.
Crypto Market Watch Ft.Moya
Well would you look at that, Bitcoin went from a record high of $69,000 in November 2021 all the way down to $19,900 today – not quite the $50,000 it was hoping for! Meanwhile, Ethereum has followed suit, tumbling down 7.42% – hope it’s not feeling too blue about it! So, least we forget, Bitcoin is still up over 50% since this time last year, so not all hope is lost, eh? Perhaps it’ll be ready to climb back up to glory real soon.
The fight for survival didn’t last long for Silvergate Capital – it announced its intention to wind down operations as fast as Bitcoin dropped close to February lows! That’s quite a tough blow to the crypto market, and it looks like it could test the $20,000 level further. Hey, you win some and you lose some – but it sure is hard to ignore a major financial institution exiting the crypto space. Better put away the popcorn – this one isn’t for laughs!
Edward Moya, Market Analyst
Honorable Mentions
It looks like the Huobi exchange token was caught in a classic case of market whiplash—HT, the native token of the Huobi Exchange performed a swan dive from $4.6 to $0.31 in a matter of 10 minutes, turning your carefully planned investment into an absolute horror story. But hey, the price is back up again so don’t let one cringeworthy moment ruin your day. Just think, if HT was your ride, you would have seen some serious action!
Justin Sun, Huobi advisor and TRON founder, was not too worried about the flash crash. In response to commotion from crypto Twitter, Sun tried to ease everyone’s anxiety by saying that the exchange and the funds were safe. He then jested that the leveraged liquidations were most likely caused by a ‘few users’ who were a little too eager with their liquidations – triggering a cascade of forced liquidations in spot and contract HT markets.
If you thought the hype around Ordinals—the media-inscribing protocol similar to NFTs—had fizzled out, you might have been surprised to see the buzz more wilder than ever! Everything started with someone’s genius idea to use the Ordinals protocol to create fungible tokens—yes, BRC-20! Before you could say Bitcoin blockchain, the inscriptions soared to a new single-day peak of about 31,700. Talk about a rocket rise! So, you never know what’s about to take off in the blockchain world. One thing is for sure: it’ll never be boring!
