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

The main news of the week

IRS issues rules on digital asset reporting, says lead brokers.

The United States Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has issued final rules requiring brokers to report digital asset transactions, expanding existing reporting requirements for clients that facilitate transactions involving digital assets such as decentralized exchanges.

In the year To take effect in 2027, the regulations will require brokers to disclose gross income from the sale of cryptocurrencies and other digital assets, including information on the taxpayers involved in the transactions.

The final rule is “the only DeFi participants treated as brokers […] They are trading frontline service providers,” he said.

The document does not directly apply to all decentralized finance (DeFi) applications and their level of decentralization, it focuses on front-ends such as data sourcing and tax disclosure.

US-listed Bitcoin, Ether ETF hits $38.3B in net revenue in year of launch

U.S. spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds collected a staggering $35.66 billion in net revenue by 2024 — far exceeding previous industry estimates — while the spot Ether ETF finished strong, with $349.3 million in net revenue of $2.68 billion over the past four trading days. Since its inception.

BlackRock's iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF (IBIT) led the pack with net income of $37.31 billion, while Fidelity Wise Origin Bitcoin Fund (FBTC) and ARK 21Shares Bitcoin ETF (ARKB) rounded out the top three with $11.84 billion and $2.49 billion, respectively. . , followed by Bitwise Bitcoin ETF (BITB) at $2.19 billion, according to Farside Investors.

These net revenues beat the previous $14 billion first-year estimate from Alex Thorne, head of research at Galaxy Digital.

However, the year-end didn't end too strong, seeing Bitcoin ETFs shed $1.33 billion since December 19.

Five of the last six trading days were net inflows, with IBIT seeing the highest inflow of $188.7 million on December 24.

The Yat Siu X account hack may be part of a recent string of hacks: ZachXBT

Blockchain game conglomerate Animoca Brands co-founder and chairman Yat Siu confirmed that the X account was hacked and used to promote what appears to be the latest in a string of attacks on crypto X accounts.

“Unfortunately [Siu’s] Social media account hacked,” Animoka posted to X on December 26. “The token on Solana was created by the hacker as mentioned in a post.

In the now-deleted post, Siu's account shared a link to a token launched by Solana's memecoin startup Pump.fun called Animoca Brands (MOCA) — named after the company and its associated MoCover Irreversible Token (NFT) set.

Anonymous blockchain researcher ZachXBT wrote that Siu, the victim of a phishing email behind similar hacks and fake token posts that netted him $500,000 last month, “could go down.”

ZachXBT said the fake MOCA token was “deployed at the same address” as similar fake tokens shared by other recently hacked crypto-centric X accounts.

MicroStrategy calls a shareholder meeting to fund additional Bitcoin purchases

Software company MicroStrategy has called a shareholder meeting to expand its equity issuance plan and buy more bitcoins.

According to a Dec. 23 proxy filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the company is seeking approval to increase the number of shares authorized for both Class A common stock and preferred stock, giving it more flexibility to issue additional shares as needed.

The first amendment seeks to increase the authorized share of Class A common stock from 330 million shares to 10.33 billion shares, while the second amendment seeks to increase the authorized share of preferred stock from 5 million shares to 1 billion shares.

Crypto hacks will spend $2.3B by 2024, a 40% YoY increase.

In the year Cryptocurrency hackers stole more than $2.3 billion worth of crypto from the Web3 ecosystem in 2024, a sign of major adoption for the industry.

Crypto hacks have been on the rise since Bitcoin topped $100,000 for the first time on December 6, fueling the appeal of increasing cryptocurrency prices.

Crypto hackers stole more than $2.3 billion worth of assets on 165 occasions, a 40% increase from 2023, when $1.69 billion worth of crypto was hacked, according to a report shared by onchain security firm Syvers.

Winners and losers

At the end of the week, Bitcoin (BTC) at $94,337, Ether (ETH) at $3,317 and XRP at $2.14. According to CoinMarketCap, the total market cap is $3.28 trillion.

Among the largest 100 cryptocurrencies, the top three altcoin gains of the week were Bitget Token (BGB) at 89.76%, Virtuals Protocol (VIRTUAL) at 27.12% and GateToken (GT) at 23.93%.

The top three altcoin losers of the week were Etena (ENA) at 23.52%, ONDO (ONDO) at 21.44% and Aptos (APT) at 20.19%. Be sure to read Cointelegraph's market analysis for more information on crypto prices.

The most memorable quotes

“PQ signature research will eventually produce more conservative well-reviewed, more compact signatures, and Bitcoin may add to those plans as an alternative.”

Adam Temeles, co-founder and CEO of Blockstream

“A strategic digital asset policy will strengthen the U.S. dollar, eliminate the national debt, and position America as a world leader in the 21st century digital economy.”

Michael Saylor, co-founder and executive chairman at MicroStrategy

“I think Japan should follow the example of the United States and consider turning some of its foreign currency reserves into crypto assets like Bitcoin.”

Satoshi Hamada, Members of the Council of Japan

I'm happy to be a foster father to Mo Deng as she grows up in the next 2 years and support her with a 10M THB donation, maybe 88 ETH. [Moo Deng] + Brakes.

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin

“I think BTC Dominance has peaked and ALTs will start outperforming $BTC in the coming months. We will finally see the real season of ALTs soon.”

Aqua, an anonymous crypto trader

“We can pay for delivery of goods with digital financial assets. Bitcoin, which we produce here in the Russian Federation, can also be used in the experimental regime.

Anton Siluanov, Minister of Finance of Russia

Top forecast of the week

Analyst ‘Wouldn't Be Surprised' If Ethereum Outperforms Bitcoin In January

According to a crypto analyst, Ether is showing signs of breaking away from Bitcoin in January 2025.

TradingView shows the relative strength of Ether – the ETH/BTC ratio – currently at 0.0356. “It wouldn't surprise me if $ETH / $BTC breaks to 0.04 in January,” said MN Capital founder Michael Van de Pop in a December 24 X post.

The last time the ETH/BTC ratio touched 0.04 was on December 8, when ETH traded at just $4,018 from the psychological price level of $4,000.

Van de Pop predicts that in January 2025, there will be more inflows into Ether, which could see Bitcoin's outflows, which will strengthen its price. This is expected to launch an altcoin run “in the Ethereum ecosystem”.

Top FUD of the week

Montenegro's Minister of Justice Do Kwon approved the extradition to the United States

The extradition of Terraform Labs co-founder Do Kuhn to the United States was approved by Montenegrin Justice Minister Bojan Bozovic after the Montenegrin Constitutional Court rejected the former executive's appeal.

The Justice Ministry also rejected Kwon's extradition to his native South Korea. The Ministry of Justice of Montenegro wrote, according to a statement translated by news outlet Vijesti.

It concluded that “many of the criteria set forth by law support a request for extradition to the United States of America.”

The decision to extradite Kwon to the United States followed a lengthy legal battle over the decision to extradite the Terraform Labs founder.

EU's silence USDT will not comply with MiCA, says exec

EU cryptocurrency rules are set to go into full effect in a few days, but there is still considerable uncertainty surrounding Tether's USDt stablecoin.

US crypto exchange Coinbase delisted Tether's USDt in mid-December, citing EU markets' compliance with the Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA).

The stablecoin continues to trade in the EU after Coinbase's USDT delisting, with many exchanges apparently awaiting more clarity from European authorities on whether USDT will be in line with MiCA.

EU regulators haven't ruled out whether USDt is MiCA compliant, but that doesn't mean the stablecoin won't be seen as unregulated in Europe, according to a member of the MiCA Crypto Alliance.

All I want for Christmas is my $773M BTC back.

James Howells, an IT engineer from Newport, Wales, is fighting a high-profile legal battle to recover a hard drive containing 8,000 bitcoin private keys – worth $773 million.

The drive, which was mistakenly dumped in a dumpster, contains 2009-era bitcoins, represents a fortune linked to the early days of the cryptocurrency market and is currently banned from entry by Newport City Council due to its environmental permit.

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

In the year While holdings worth $773 million are being disposed of in 2013, Howells optimistically plans to still compensate stakeholders, contribute to the crypto community, and reinvest in blockchain projects — if he recovers his lost BTC.

Howells has assembled a legal team that includes King's Counsel, senior lawyers, and a supporting team of solicitors and lawyers.

It aims to locate the landfill and access the misplaced hard drive while complying with legal and environmental regulations.

The best magazine stories of the week

History Protocol helps developers survive AI attacks with ‘programmable IP' crypto

Story Protocol wants to license AI to firms and make it easier for creators to pay for IP and content, just as Netflix has done TV and movies.

Bitcoin payments are being weakened by a centrally stable coin.

Satoshi didn't try an easily censorable payment network built around a centralized stablecoin tied to fiat, but that's what we ended up with.

Women are more bullish about blockchain games than men: Web3 Gamer

Women working at Web3 Games are more bullish on the industry than men, and we also chat with Acci University founder Spracky.

Editorial staff

Cointelegraph magazine writers and reporters contributed to this article.