Why 2023 Could See Cryptocurrency Taxed

Audy Castañeda
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<strong>Why 2023 Could See Cryptocurrency Taxed</strong>

There seems to be a way to tax cryptocurrencies.

The cryptocurrency space has been on the grayer side of the financial space since its inception. But with bitcoin and the broader traditional financial and crypto sector becoming more intertwined, the government now seems to have found a way to tax cryptocurrencies.

The past year has been difficult for cryptocurrencies. Collapses of big industry players like Three Arrows Capital, Celsius, and recently FTX, had a strong effect on the amount of government attention now given to the cryptocurrency industry.

Bitcoin: Clear and Specific Regulation Required

Although cryptocurrency is already taxed through capital gains tax, there is no specific regulation that taxes cryptocurrencies directly, only profits made on transactions. At the beginning of the middle of 2022, the Department of the Treasury published the “Green Book” or its tax policy proposal.

A section of the proposal is entirely dedicated to bitcoin and cryptocurrency brokers, as well as how digital assets should be taxed. In a nutshell, the Treasury proposal was as follows:

“Require certain financial institutions to report the account balance (including, in the case of a cash value insurance contract or an annuity contract, the cash value or surrender value) for all financial accounts maintained at a U.S. office and held by foreign persons.”

This is due to FATCA (the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act) which basically monitors potential illegal financial movements by US legal entities. The proposal, if signed into law, not only will give the US access to information about assets held by Americans but also will allow the country to share financial information on non-US accounts with partner jurisdictions.

However, there is still no evidence that the proposal has been modified or not, as the Treasury has been quiet ever since.

How Will the Superpower Nation Do It?

Cryptocurrencies regulation is not new. Just this week, Italy passed a law that requires merchants to pay capital gains taxes, just like in the United States. Regulation on emerging markets has been getting stronger, which leaves the question of what Uncle Sam would do.

With wounds still healing from last year’s devastating bear market, the US Federal Reserve may be holding off on a major announcement. This could be due to the current Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt (FUD) surrounding the cryptocurrency market at the moment.

An announcement that Bitcoin would be directly taxed now could put downward pressure on the crypto market. That being said, such a regulation strikes against the basic principle of cryptography, which is decentralization.

Nevertheless, if the US government can clarify policy, it could spark new interest in bitcoin and the cryptocurrency industry as a whole, and help it grow.

However, it remains to be seen what politicians will do to make the country competitive in the crypto market.

By Audy Castaneda

Crypto’s Year in Sports: A 2022 Review

Audy Castañeda
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<strong>Crypto’s Year in Sports: A 2022 Review</strong>

A full year’s takeaways from 2022’s sports and crypto crossovers.

It’s been climbs to mountain tops, dives and descents to unthinkable lows, and everything in between. There were new endorsement deals stand out and fall apart in less than a year. There was also controversy surrounding athlete endorsements of crypto products. The list goes on and on, but after a fast start in 2022, market conditions affected sports in a big way by the end of the year.

2022 brought a very different year to the sports roundup of 2021. Last year’s roundup was dominated by few more than FTX, and it certainly left a bad taste in our mouths around the idea that FTX’s Sam Bankman-Fried, and his associates, could have used client funds to spend exorbitant dollars on sponsorships around the world.

Nonetheless, 2022 finally brought a big ‘reset’ in sports sponsorship engagement, allowing executives to realize that even at this level, sometimes it’s too good to be true.

Sports Leagues and Teams Associations

The biggest stories in sports and crypto-focused on team associations and leagues. It all started with Terra, who signed with the MLB Washington Nationals club earlier in the year. Within weeks, Terra Luna had club branding and even logo markings just behind home plate at Nationals games.

Nonetheless, one of the biggest sporting events in the world, the FIFA World Cup, took place with the sponsorship efforts of Crypto.com without much fanfare, which in the last quarter of the year was a huge victory considering the chaos that had preceded much of the previous three quarters.

Brand Commitment

NFTs were the centerpiece of the brand’s engagement this year, with lukewarm input from a variety of sports-focused brands like StockX, Adidas, Prada, and more. However, the winner in sports-related brand deals within crypto is likely to be Nike, whose acquisition of RFTKT has proven to be one of the best longevity plays in the space.

Athlete Commitment

The beginning of 2022 started with a lot of sponsorships and athlete partners, but on the other side of the coin, throughout the year, there were consistently athletes from all different types of sports listed in lawsuits related to promoting various protocols and platforms. Early in 2022, former NBA forward Paul Pierce and boxing legend Floyd Mayweather Jr. were named in the infamous EthereumMax lawsuit.

Beyond the madness of the lawsuits and scams, it was the first full year for Tom Brady’s NFT platform Autograph, which had many highlights throughout 2022.

All the Extras

Sports collectibles continue to be an interesting topic, and there were quite a few 6-figure and up NFT sales of NFT sports cards throughout the year.

Completely in the “unexpected” bucket is the story behind WAGMI United, once Crawley Town FC, a football club in England. The club has brought a ‘crypto twist’ and describes itself as ‘the internet team’.

It was a big year for sports and crypto crossovers, and there’s no doubt that 2023 has a lot more in store.

By Audy Castaneda

Hacker Sent to Prison for Stealing Vietnamese Crypto Exchange

Audy Castañeda
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<strong>Hacker Sent to Prison for Stealing Vietnamese Crypto Exchange</strong>

Nham Hoang Khang, the hacker, was charged with extortion and sentenced by the city’s People’s Court on Friday.

Vietnam authorities have captured and sentenced a hacker who stole money and data from a local cryptocurrency exchange. The man, who was arrested and charged with extorting money from the owner of the trading platform, was ordered to return the money he misappropriated.

Vietnamese Court Jails Hacker for Attacking Cryptocurrency Exchange Website

A resident of Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam has been given 10 years in prison for stealing 300 million Vietnamese dong (about $13,000) from a crypto entrepreneur whose coin trading site he subjected to cyberattacks.

Nham Hoang Khang, the hacker, was charged with extortion and sentenced on Friday by the city’s People’s Court, the English-language edition of the VN Express newspaper reported. He was also ordered to return the stolen money.

Major Highlights and Background

In 2018, the crypto exchange was established by Vu Ngoc Chau to connect potential crypto buyers and sellers, charging a fee for the transactions it facilitated. Users were required to open accounts, as well as to provide personal information, such as a phone number, an email address, and a copy of an identification document.

In October 2020, Khang used his phone to create multiple accounts on the platform. He had found out that the website, T-rex.exchange, had several vulnerabilities that could be exploited to obtain data and digital currency.

The following month, the hacker managed to gain control of a T-rex employee’s account and around 30,000 USDT. The team detected the unusual transactions and blocked the account to prevent further cryptocurrency trading.

Once he discovered that he no longer had access to the compromised account, Khang obtained the personal data of 29,000 customers, and created a large number of fake orders, while threatening more attacks.

He also demanded that they pay him $20,000, or else he would reveal that the exchange had been hacked. Chau, the owner, received multiple threats and eventually told his employees to send Khang 300 million dong. He filed a complaint with the police authorities in mid-2021.

In Vietnam, cryptocurrencies are not yet legalized or regulated. Despite its popularity among traders and investors, Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies remain unrecognized as assets or means of payment by the State Bank of Vietnam and Vietnamese law.

It is worth remembering that, according to Chainalysis, Vietnam ranks first in cryptocurrency adoption worldwide, one of 19 emerging markets in its top 20. The United States is the only country among advanced economies to appear in the ranking, specifically, as number eight in 2021.

By Audy Castaneda

Top Five Crypto News of the Week

Audy Castañeda
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<strong>Top Five Crypto News of the Week</strong>

Key news refers to FTX, Cardano, and Digital Currency, among other topics.

The collapse of FTX, the positioning of Cardano, the optimism of crypto investors, the situation of Digital Currency, as well as the lost funds of FTX clients, are the events of the week that must be taken into account.

FTX Collapse: Is the SEC Pulling the Line?

Gary Gensler, head of the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), hints at strong backlash over the FTX debacle. “The runway is getting shorter and shorter,” the 65-year-old told Bloomberg. Most of the players in the crypto space are “Wild West casinos”. He criticized the reserve test practice, which was popular after the FTX crash, as insufficient.

The SEC chairman has also been criticized since the FTX collapse. According to US Senator Elizabeth Warren, Gensler failed to draft the appropriate regulations in time.

Cardano Prevails Over Ethereum and Polkadot

Blockchain development took great leaps in the last year. Numerous networks received updates and were optimized. The biggest event was probably The Merger, Ethereum’s switch to Proof of Stake. Yet another crypto project saw the most developer activity.

According to Santiment, Cardano has the most entries on the Github developer portal by 2022. Polkadot is in second place, Cosmos in third.

Most Cryptocurrency Investors Remain Bullish

Burying your head in the sand after 2022? Not at all. A survey by BTC-ECHO and KPMG shows that most crypto investors are not allowing the difficult market situation to get them down.

In the cryptocurrency study with the largest number of participants in the DACH region, with 2000 people surveyed, there is information about the number of average investments in cryptocurrencies. In general, the outlook for the future of the cryptocurrency sector is positive.

Ultimatum: One Week for a Billion Dollars

Cameron Winklevoss, the co-founder of crypto exchange Gemini, has given Barry Silbert, head of Digital Currency Group (DCG), an ultimatum. Silbert has a week to find a solution for the $900 million in Gemini customer funds frozen at Genesis. Winklevoss also accused Silbert of “malicious delaying tactics.”

In the meantime, according to Genesis interim CEO Derar Islam, they “continue to try to proceed as soon as possible,” but need more time. Silbert denies that there is no credit to Genesis, or that he has delayed his response.

Lost Customer Funds: FTX Task Force Established

The scandal surrounding the insolvent cryptocurrency exchange FTX is attracting an increasing number of law enforcement agencies. The US Attorney’s Office for the New York district of Manhattan has now established a special task force to track down lost customer funds.

The US Securities and Exchange Commission estimates the damage caused to former clients by FTX at US$8 billion, while other estimates reach $50,000 million.

By Audy Castaneda

SAND Could See Extended Rally Unless these Holders Change Course

Audy Castañeda
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0
<strong>SAND Could See Extended Rally Unless these Holders Change Course</strong>

SAND is likely to continue its rise thanks to sustained demand. There are price levels that investors must consider to obtain short-term profits.

NFT and metaverse projects may experience renewed interest in 2023, and thus a need to explore their potential. One such project is The Sandbox, which recently made a major development-related update. More importantly, its native SAND token started this month on an optimistic note.

A recent alert from WhaleStats revealed that SAND concluded the week by joining the list of the top 10 most purchased tokens by ETH whales. This was seen in the last 24 hours, and it highlighted the existing demand that has fueled SAND in recent days.

WhaleStats tweeted the announcement like this:

“SAND @TheSandboxGame now on top 10 purchased tokens among 100 biggest #ETH whales in the last 24hrs. Check the top 100 whales here: https://whalestats.com (and hodl $BBW to see data for the top 5000!).”

The increasing demand for ETH whales is quite an interesting observation, considering the latest performance of SAND. The token achieved a 24% rally in the first week of January.

Demand for ETH whales increased the chances that SAND would extend its bullish momentum into another week. This outlook, though, could be affected by potential profit-taking, as the price approaches profit-taking zones.

Playing in the Sand

SAND was trading at $0.45 and an extended lead may push SAND toward the $0.50 range. The latter could be taken as an important price zone for the token because it will come into contact with the 50-day moving average.

The price will also be within the 50% Relative Strength Index (RSI) level, if not above. This retest is more likely to increase the possibility of short-term profit-taking, and therefore, the possibility of a bearish pullback.

Buying pressure from ETH whales may boost investor confidence, and support a prolonged rally. In addition, The Sandbox recently announced the upcoming release of a new metaverse game called Game Maker 0.8. This announcement may also have contributed to favorable investor sentiment.

Can SAND Maintain Its Bullish Momentum?

SAND’s ability to continue to rally ultimately depends on whether it can get enough demand. Its supply distribution metric reveals that most of the major address categories continue to contribute to the bullish pressure. This observation supported the expectation of continued bullish momentum.

There are other signs that support the same result. For example, the main addresses supply recently registered a considerable increase, confirming that the whales have been buying. Additionally, The Sandbox kicked off January with a spike in development activity.

These observations may further strengthen investor sentiment in favor of the bulls. However, investors should be aware of the profit-taking zones mentioned above.

By Audy Castaneda

Cardano Forecast for Q1 2023

Audy Castañeda
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0
<strong>Cardano Forecast for Q1 2023</strong>

It is also being sought whether the ADA token can rise again with more force in the coming weeks.

Cardano (ADA) experienced the very disappointing year in 2022 in terms of price development. The ADA price lost 80% of its value. This ensures that positive technical developments in the network have receded somewhat into the background.

In recent days, however, the ADA course has risen slightly again. So what is Cardano’s forecast for Q1 2023?

At the end of the year, the price of ADA fell again and again. First up was the FTX crash, which pushed the ADA price below $0.35. As a result, there were more losses in the last weeks of 2022. With the turn of the year, the price fell to a value of $0.24.

In the new year, on the other hand, the ADA price rose slightly again, from $0.24 to almost $0.28 in the last 1.5 weeks. The price is still below value immediately after the FTX crash. However, after a few weeks, there has been an increase in the ADA price for several days.

The massive losses of the ADA token in the last few weeks and months have significantly worsened Cardano’s forecast for the end of 2022. The losses can be mainly explained by the bear market that started at the end of 2021, which caused heavy losses for most cryptocurrencies.

What is the Cardano Forecast for Q1 2023?

In the last few days, the ADA token has risen slightly in price again. This increase could continue in the coming weeks. With the heavy losses at the end of 2022, a value very close to the bottom of Cardano could have been reached in the current crypto cycle.

Therefore, the price increase in the last few days is a sign that the ADA price may have already bottomed out. So, there could be a further increase in the price of ADA in the coming weeks.

How High Can ADA Price Go in this Cardano Forecast?

A positive Cardano forecast could already manifest in the first quarter of 2023. If Bitcoin price breaks the $17,000 resistance in the coming weeks and climbs back above the $20,000 mark, it could soon trigger a strong altcoin rally.

After the first gains in the last few days, it becomes clear that the potential medium-term price of Cardano (ADA) could be high. In February, the prices may jump up to $0.40 again. If the bull market continues like this in February and March, ADA levels could be pushed back as low as $0.50 by the end of the quarter.

Therefore, the Cardano (ADA) forecast for the first quarter of 2023 is $0.38 to $0.52.

Is it Worth Investing in ADA Token Now?

The ADA token has reached a price that is likely vastly undervalued for the maturity of the Cardano network. This is also due to the fact that many interest rate hikes by the Fed in the US weakened cryptocurrencies in 2022. Therefore, an increase in the coming weeks and months seems plausible. Now, it seems like a great time to invest.

By Audy Castaneda

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