Author: Dren.H

On February 1st, 2023, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell held a press conference to provide an update on the state of the US economy and to announce the Federal Open Market Committee’s (FOMC) decision to raise the policy interest rate by 25 basis points. In his opening statement, Powell highlighted the difficulties that high inflation is causing for the American people and emphasized the Federal Reserve’s commitment to bringing inflation down to its 2 percent goal. He noted that the Fed has taken forceful actions to tighten the stance of monetary policy over the past year and that these actions…

The US Treasury announced that it will list crypto addresses on its Specially Designated Nationals as a means to prevent sanction evasion. The US Treasury has imposed sanctions on 22 individuals and entities that support Russia’s military-industrial complex and evade global sanctions. The action, part of the Treasury’s strategy to target sanctions evasion, is taken through the Russian Elites, Proxies, and Oligarchs (REPO) Task Force.  The task force is a multilateral effort to identify, freeze and seize assets of sanctioned Russians around the world. The sanctions target a network led by Russia- and Cyprus-based arms dealer Igor Zimenkov and his…

Elon Musk criticizes the US government regarding its use of money after the US debt hit a record high of more than $31 trillion. The US National debt has exceeded $30 trillion for the first time in history, amounting to nearly 130% of the country’s yearly economic output. This high and rising federal debt is largely due to the government’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, involving cash infusions into the economy.  As of January 31, $6.5 trillion of the national debt is classified as “intragovernmental holdings” and held by federal agencies like the Social Security Administration, while $23.5 trillion is…

Bitcoin mining revenues showed noticeable increases in January, with miners’ resilience during Q4 of 2022 finally paying off. The Bitcoin mining community has experienced a remarkable surge in earnings, with a 50% boost in revenue in the opening month of 2023. After facing a year of financial struggles due to rising energy costs and global political tensions, the industry is finally reaping the rewards of its persistence. Last December marked a low point for the industry. Bitcoin mining revenue dipped to a record low of $14 million since October 2020. The dip put immense financial pressure on mining companies, causing…

Binance Labs recently evaluated 48 different projects in less than a week, according to Changpeng Zhao, CEO of Binance. Changpeng “CZ” Zhao, took to Twitter to share the latest developments at Binance Labs. In a recent tweet, CZ announced that Binance Labs evaluated 48 projects last week, despite the recent FUD surrounding the cryptocurrency industry. This comes just a day after another tweet from CZ where he mentioned that all the “withdrawals” came back. The collapse of FTX has resulted in much more scrutiny for Binance and other leading cryptocurrency exchanges. Regulators are paying close attention to every move that…

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has reminded taxpayers that they must report their crypto income when filing their 2022 federal income tax return. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has issued a reminder for taxpayers to disclose all digital asset-related income on their 2022 federal income tax return, similar to the process in 2021. The term “digital assets” replaces the previous term “virtual currencies.” IRS updated the question (found at the top of Forms 1040, 1040-SR, and 1040-NR) to reflect the new terminology. They also “expanded” instructions to provide more clarity. All taxpayers need to answer the question regardless of whether…

SBF requested to access his FTX funds, even though his bail condition does not allow him to do so.  Sam Bankman-Fried, CEO of cryptocurrency exchange FTX, is making a legal effort to regain access to the company’s funds. Hence, his legal team is challenging a bail condition that prevents him from accessing the funds, according to court filings from January 28th. Bankman-Fried’s lawyer, Mark Cohen, submitted a letter to United States District Court Judge Lewis Kaplan. He stated that his client should be able to access assets held by FTX. He argues that SBF was not involved in any previous…

OpenSea, one of the biggest NFT marketplaces, may face legal action from an NFT collector, who claims that the former is ignoring users’ concerns. Robbie Acres, an NFT collector, is filing a lawsuit against OpenSea. OpenSea allegedly failed to give the proper assistance to Robbie and other collectors during their time of need. Robbie lost two of his precious NFTs in a phishing scam. After noticing that his NFTs were missing, Robbie notified OpenSea and asked for their assistance on how to try and get the NFTs back. However, OpenSea responded more than two days late. By that time, the…

Robinhood’s Twitter account was momentarily “hacked,” where a hacker promoted a scam token in BSC. On Wednesday, January 25th, Robinhood’s Twitter account was presumably hacked by an unknown person or group. Hackers used Robinhood’s account to promote a scam token. In the tweet, hackers promoted Robinhood’s “new token ($RBH), deployed on the Binance Smart Chain (BSC). More than 10 people took the bait and purchased the scam honeypot token until Robinhood’s social media team eventually deleted the tweet. That is at least according to Conor Grogab, Coinbase’s head of product business operations. According to him, users purchased around $1,000 worth…

Coinbase, one of the biggest exchanges in the US, recorded an increase in trading volume in the first weeks of January when compared to the last quarter, unlike its competitors. Coinbase, despite being subject to many controversies in 2022, managed to have a slight increase in trading volume. In an analysis conducted by JPMorgan experts, Coinbase remains one of the most trusted exchanges in the market, especially in the US. This comes despite all the ongoing FUD on centralized exchanges.  In their analysis, JPMorgan used CryptoCompare data to see how different exchanges performed in the first three weeks of January.…