Hodler’s Digest, December 22-28 – Cointelegraph Magazine

Top news of the week

The IRS issues rules for reporting digital assets and says the front end is brokers.

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has issued final regulations requiring brokers to report digital asset transactions, expanding existing reporting requirements to enable front-end platforms (e.g. decentralized exchanges) that facilitate digital asset-related transactions for their clients. I included it.

The rules, scheduled to take effect in 2027, require brokers to disclose gross proceeds from the sale of cryptocurrencies and other digital assets, including information about taxpayers involved in the transactions.

The final rule states that “the only DeFi participants treated as brokers (…) are transaction front-end service providers.”

This article does not apply directly to all decentralized finance (DeFi) applications and their level of decentralization, but rather focuses on the frontend as a source of information and tax disclosure.

US-listed Bitcoin and Ether ETFs recorded net inflows of $38.3 billion in launch year

The U.S. spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund recorded net inflows of a whopping $35.66 billion in 2024, well exceeding initial industry estimates, while the spot Ether ETF saw net inflows of $349.3 million over the past four trading days. It recorded strong inflows, reaching $2.68 billion. After launch.

BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF (IBIT) led the way with net inflows of $37.31 billion, followed by Fidelity Wise Origin Bitcoin Fund (FBTC) and ARK 21Shares Bitcoin ETF (ARKB) with $11.84 billion and $2.49 billion, respectively. It rounded out the top three with $10 million. The Bitwise Bitcoin ETF (BITB) followed with $2.19 billion, according to Farside Investors.

These net inflows beat the first-year estimate of $14 billion by Alex Thorn, head of research at Galaxy Digital.

However, spot Bitcoin ETFs did not show much strength through the end of the year, with outflows totaling $1.33 billion since December 19.

Five of the last six trading days had net outflows, with IBIT recording its largest outflow on December 24 at $188.7 million.

The Yat Siu X account compromise is likely part of a series of recent hacks: ZachXBT

Blockchain gaming giant Animoca Brands has confirmed that co-founder and chairman Yat Siu’s X account was hacked and used to promote fake tokens in what appears to be the latest in a series of attacks on cryptocurrency X accounts.

“Unfortunately, (Siu’s) social media accounts have been compromised,” Animoca posted to X on December 26. “As claimed in the post, Solana’s token launch was accomplished by hackers.”

In a now-deleted post, Siu’s account shared a link to a token called Animoca Brands (MOCA) that was launched on Solana memecoin launcher Pump.fun. These tokens are identical to the company and its affiliated Mocaverse NFT (Non-Fungible Token) collection.

ZachXBT, a pseudonymous blockchain investigator, wrote in

ZachXBT said the fake MOCA tokens were “distributed to the same address” as similar counterfeit tokens shared from a recently hacked cryptocurrency-focused X account.

MicroStrategy calls shareholder meeting to raise funds to buy more Bitcoin.

Software company MicroStrategy has called a special shareholder meeting to expand its stock issuance plan and buy more Bitcoin.

The company seeks permission to increase the number of shares authorized for both its Class A common stock and preferred stock to provide it with the flexibility to issue additional shares as needed, according to a proxy statement filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Dec. 23. there is.

The first amendment contains provisions to increase the approved Class A common stocks from 330 million shares to 10.33 billion shares, and the second amendment contains provisions to increase the approved preferred stocks from 5 million shares to more than 1 billion shares.

Cryptocurrency hacking will result in losses of $2.3 billion in 2024, a 40% increase compared to the previous year.

In 2024, cryptocurrency hackers stole more than $2.3 billion in cryptocurrency from the Web3 ecosystem, surpassing the previous year’s performance. This is a worrying sign for mainstream acceptance of the industry.

Cryptocurrency hacks have seen a meteoric rise after Bitcoin surpassed $100,000 for the first time on December 6, driven by the allure of rising cryptocurrency values.

According to a report shared by on-chain security company Cyvers, cryptocurrency hackers stole more than $2.3 billion worth of assets in 165 incidents, a 40% increase compared to 2023, when hackers stole $1.69 billion worth of cryptocurrency. It’s a shame.

winners and losers

Bitcoin this weekend (BTC) It’s in $94,337; ether (ETH) to $3,317 and XRP to $2.14. The total market capitalization is $3.28 $1 trillion, according to CoinMarketCap.

Among the top 100 cryptocurrencies, the top three altcoin gainers this week are Bitget Token. (BGB) 89.76%, virtual protocol (pseudomorph) 27.12% and GateToken (GT) 23.93%.

The top three altcoin losers this week are Ethena. (this) 23.52%, temperature (temperature) 21.44%, Aptos (appropriate) 20.19%. For more information on cryptocurrency prices, read Cointelegraph’s market analysis.

most memorable quotes

“PQ signature studies will eventually produce conservative, well-reviewed and more compact signatures, and Bitcoin could add such a scheme as another option.”

adam backCo-founder and CEO of Blockstream

“A strategic digital asset policy can strengthen the U.S. dollar, neutralize national debt, and position the United States as a global leader in the 21st century digital economy.”

michael sailorCo-founder and Chairman of MicroStrategy

“I think Japan should consider following the example of the United States and converting some of its foreign exchange reserves into cryptocurrency assets such as Bitcoin.”

Satoshi HamadaMember of the Japanese House of Councilors

“I am excited to be Moo Deng’s adoptive father and support her with a donation of 10 million THB as she grows over the next two years. (Moo Deng) + set aside 88 ETH for frens, maybe more.”

Vitalik ButerinEthereum co-founder

“BTC dominance has peaked and I believe ALT will surpass $BTC in the coming months. Finally we will see a real ALT season soon.”

aquapseudonym cryptocurrency trader

“We can pay for the delivery of goods with digital financial assets. It is also possible to use Bitcoin mined in the Russian Federation within an experimental framework.”

Anton SiluanovMinister of Finance of Russia

Key predictions of the week

Analyst says he ‘wouldn’t be surprised’ if Ethereum surpasses Bitcoin in January.

According to one cryptocurrency analyst, Ethereum is showing signs of an explosive rise compared to Bitcoin in January 2025.

TradingView shows that Ethereum’s relative strength against Bitcoin (ETH/BTC ratio) is currently at 0.0356. “I wouldn’t be surprised if $ETH/$BTC hits 0.04 in January,” MN Capital founder Michael van de Poppe said in an X post on December 24.

The last time the ETH/BTC ratio hit 0.04 was on December 8, when ETH was trading just above $4,018, the psychological $4,000 price level.

Van de Poppe predicts that there will be more inflows into Ether in January 2025, but Bitcoin may experience outflows, leading to price consolidation. He expects this to spark “altcoin operations in the Ethereum ecosystem.”

Top FUD of the week

Montenegro’s Attorney General approves Mr. Do Kwon’s extradition to the United States

Terraform Labs co-founder Kwon Do-do’s extradition to the United States was approved by Montenegro’s Justice Minister Bojan Božović after Montenegro’s Constitutional Court rejected the former administration’s appeal.

The Ministry of Justice simultaneously refused to extradite Mr. Kwon to his home country of Korea. According to a translated statement by news outlet Vijesti, Montenegro’s Justice Ministry wrote:

“We conclude that most of the standards set forth in the law support a request for extradition from U.S. authorities.”

The decision to extradite Kwon to the United States followed several lengthy legal battles and the decision to extradite the Terraform Labs founder was overturned several times.

EU silence does not comply with USDT MiCA, exec says

Although the European Union’s (EU) cryptocurrency regulations are set to fully take effect in just a few days, there is still significant uncertainty regarding Tether’s USDt stablecoin.

US cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase delisted Tether’s USDt in mid-December, citing compliance with the EU’s Markets in Cryptocurrency Assets Regulations (MiCA).

Since Coinbase’s delisting of USDT, the stablecoin has continued to trade across the EU, and many exchanges appear to be waiting for more clarity from European authorities on USDT’s MiCA compliance.

EU regulators have not stated whether USDt is MiCA compliant, but according to MiCA Crypto Alliance members, this does not mean the stablecoin will not be considered non-compliant in Europe.

All I wanted for Christmas was to get $773 million in BTC back.

James Howells, an IT engineer from Newport, Wales, is fighting a risky legal battle to recover a hard drive containing private keys worth 8,000 bitcoins (worth about $773 million).

The drive was accidentally disposed of in a landfill, holds bitcoins in 2009 and represents property associated with the early days of the cryptocurrency market, and is currently off-limits to Newport City Council due to environmental permits.

In an exclusive interview with Cointelegraph, Howells said the legal process is ongoing and is being supported by a world-class legal team trained in British law and cutting-edge artificial intelligence technology.

Despite having approximately $773 million of his holdings disposed of in 2013, Howells remains optimistic and hopes to reward stakeholders, contribute to the cryptocurrency community, and potentially reinvest in blockchain projects if he recovers any lost BTC. It’s a plan.

Howells assembled a legal team including the Crown’s Counsel, a senior barrister, and a support team of barristers and paralegals to defend his case.

He aims to access landfills and recover accidentally discarded hard drives while complying with legal and environmental regulations for access.

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Cointelegraph Magazine writers and reporters contributed to this article.