Bitcoin News and Finance: What You Need to Know

A Russian company has announced the country’s first authorized transaction with digital financial assets (DFAs) involving a foreign currency, China’s yuan. The deal, reportedly the largest made to date under the current Russian DFA law, covers the issuance of tokens secured by commercial debt. Digital Financial Assets for 58 Million Yuan Issued by Russian Platform A licensed firm has finalized Russia’s first deal with digital financial assets denominated in foreign fiat. The transaction involved the issuing of DFAs worth 58 million Chinese yuan (approx. 516 million rubles or $8.26 million) secured by commercial debt. It took place on a platform developed by Lighthouse, which was approved by the Bank of Russia in March as one of the “information systems operators” allowed to manage digital financial assets. Russia’s largest bank, Sber , and the tokenization service Atomyze were also registered as such. While Russian authorities have been working to adopt a more comprehensive legal...

There’s a silver lining to the crash in the NFT market — millions of dollars of potential tax-savings. To help NFT investors claim their tax-savings before the end of the year, CoinLedger recently launched an NFT tax-loss harvesting tool . Let’s break down how the tool works and how it can help people save money on their tax bill. What is Tax Loss Harvesting? Tax loss harvesting is a tax reduction strategy used by savvy investors to reduce their total tax liabilities for the year. By selling assets that have gone down in value since originally acquiring them, investors can harvest capital losses and generate tax write offs. Imagine the following scenario: Jane Doe sells a portion of her bitcoin holdings in February 2022 and realizes $50,000 of capital gains in doing so. That $50,000 is now income that Jane has to pay taxes on. If Jane is a high earner, she may have to pay up to 37%, or $18,500 to Uncle Sam in taxes. Ouch! Let’s say during the same year Jane also spent $30,000...

“Vox Populi, Vox Dei, man.” So says self-proclaimed Chief Twit Elon Musk from a private jet flying high above the world during a Twitter Spaces appearance on Sunday, Dec. 4 (JST). It does sound nice to say, but the voice of the mob should never be the voice of “God.” The reasons are myriad. Suffice it to say that in the same way failed crypto-exchange CEO Sam Bankman-Fried supposedly set off Musk’s BS detector, so should Musk be setting off our own alarm bells. His actions simply don’t match his nice-sounding words, and anyone who refuses to understand free speech is also going to miss the boat on crypto and economic freedom. God Save the ‘Technoking,’ the People Are Disposable Tesla CEO and self-proclaimed “free speech absolutist” Elon Musk recently ended a massively-tuned-into Dec. 4 Twitter Space hosted by Mario Nawfal, by noting that we live in a time which, different from times past, doesn’t involve “some king or whatever [that would] just by default suppress” free speech. Thi...

The CEO of Blackrock, the world’s largest asset manager, says that most crypto companies will not be around following the collapse of crypto exchange FTX. However, the executive is still optimistic about blockchain technology. Blackrock’s CEO on FTX’s Collapse and Future of Crypto Larry Fink, the CEO of Blackrock Inc. (NYSE: BLK), the world’s largest asset management firm, talked about cryptocurrency and the collapsed exchange FTX during an interview at the New York Times Dealbook Summit last week. Blackrock had $7.96 trillion in assets under management (AUM) as of the third quarter. The asset management firm invested $24 million in Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF)’s FTX through a billionaire fund it manages, the CEO explained. Regarding the FTX meltdown, Fink said: “We’re going to have to wait to see how this all plays out … I mean, right now we can make all the judgment calls and it looks like there were misbehaviors of major consequences.” The Blackrock chief executive believes that mos...

The host of Mad Money, Jim Cramer, says former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) is a pathological liar and a conman. “That guy is a clueless idiot. Intent means nothing. Saying sorry means nothing,” Cramer stressed. Jim Cramer on Sam Bankman-Fried and FTX Collapse The host of CNBC’s Mad Money show, Jim Cramer, shared his thoughts about the collapse of crypto exchange FTX and its co-founder and former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) in a couple of interviews on CNBC Thursday. Cramer is a former hedge fund manager who co-founded Thestreet.com, a financial news and literacy website. Commenting on Bankman-Fried’s claim during an interview at the New York Times Dealbook Summit that he “didn’t try to commit fraud on anyone,” Cramer said: That guy is a clueless idiot. Intent means nothing. Saying sorry means nothing. If you commingle, if you had no record keeping, those are against the law. “You were sloppy, you didn’t keep records —illegal — alright, so if you’re admitting to illegality,...

Leading global cryptocurrency exchange, Bitget, announces today that it is launching its Proof of Reserves Page, which will demonstrate to users that we are a full-reserve exchange, as supported by its Proof of Reserves (“PoR”), using the cryptographic-audited Merkle tree method, and that users’ assets stored on the platform are safeguarded. The Proof of Reserves page provides users with a wealth of information on the topic, including several core elements such as “Merkle Validator”, the monthly snapshots presenting the balance of the reserve pools, user education on Proof of Reserves and the importance of being fully reserved, as well as how the Merkle tree supports and proves the authenticity and consistency of the data presented by Bitget. Snapshots of reserve wallets on the platform and the user’s assets serve as reassuring evidence and demonstrate that their assets are held at least at a 1:1 ratio. To further enhance transparency and ensure the accuracy of the information on t...

Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman has warned about the possibility of a perennial winter for blockchain projects, including crypto. In a recent article published in the New York Times (NYT), the economist criticizes blockchain as a tech and its uses citing several signs that he believes precede this upcoming winter. Paul Krugman Compares Crypto Winter to Fimbulwinter Paul Krugman, the Nobel prize award winner, is warning about an upcoming eternal cryptocurrency winter for blockchain-based projects, including Bitcoin and other cryptocurrency networks. In an NYT opinion piece published on Dec. 1, the economist discusses the real utility of this tech, and how there are already signs that predict a future downfall. Krugman criticizes the real utility of this technology when there are other centralized alternatives that currently function quite well. On this, Krugman explained his skepticism, stating: What’s the point?” Why go to the trouble and expense of maintaining a ledg...

Nigeria users of the crypto exchange AAX, which suspended withdrawals on Nov. 12, reportedly stormed its offices in Lagos and began assaulting employees. Reports that disgruntled AAX users have harassed the crypto exchange’s workers came just days after the Nigerian crypto and blockchain advocacy group asked to refrain from doing so. Meanwhile, the former vice president of AAX claimed in a tweet that the “brand is no more and trust is broken.” Disgruntled Nigerian AAX Users Told to Spare Local Employees According to a local report, a group of disgruntled Nigerian users of Atom Asset Exchange (AAX) recently stormed the crypto exchange’s offices in Lagos and assaulted employees. The angry mob reportedly demanded the lifting of a freeze on withdrawals, which came into effect on Nov. 12. While the Dec. 2 report by Legit does not state when the incident occurred, it nonetheless corroborates an earlier plea made by the advocacy group the Stakeholders in Blockchain Technology Association...