FTX Buys Liquid for Asia Expansion

THIS WEEK IN CRYPTO

India took a big step toward crypto legalization. India announced a 30% tax on any income from the transfer of virtual digital assets, a first for the nation. Furthermore, India is planning to launch a national digital currency of its own. Modi's ruling party did not strike that plan from the budgeting agenda, so India's central bank may launch that coin as early as this year.

TurboTax will let users deposit tax refunds into crypto accounts. The software company has teamed up with Coinbase to allow users the option to convert their state and federal tax refunds into cryptocurrency. Coinbase sees itself as an “on-ramp” to the crypto economy. It wants to make things easy for people by offering direct deposits of all kinds, said the company’s head of product, Prakash Hariramani. Read more here.

BTC is an easy way to avoid regulation risk since the SEC has already come out multiple times and stated it is unlikely/not a security, says BowTied Bull. As for ETH and other altcoins, staked coins do not count as income according to the IRS unless they are sold. This is a huge deal as it suggests only the “on and off ramps'' will be tax targets. Meanwhile, NFTs are safe from regulatory pressure as it is not a security but more of a collectible. Read more here.

Bitcoin and Crypto job postings grew 395% in 2021, representing more than 3x the growth of the broader tech industry, according to LinkedIn. A LinkedIn “crypto” search reveals close to 200,000 people working in the industry in total. Jobseeker demand for the crypto industry continues to rise, and new openings are quickly filled. Talent is leaving the top companies of today to build the companies of tomorrow.

$320 million hack of Wormhole bridge rocks crypto markets. This is reported to be the second-largest crypto hack in history, and the fact that this hack has so much to do with the Solana network has some investors concerned. Wormhole is one of the largest bridges between Solana and other blockchains such as Ethereum, Terra, Avalanche, Polygon, and the Binance Smart Chain.

FTX to buy Japanese rival Liquid for Asia expansion for an undisclosed sum. The deal includes Quoine Corporation, which was one of the first crypto exchanges to register with Japan’s Financial Services Agency. FTX, which earlier this week announced it had raised $400 million at a $32 billion valuation, is expanding aggressively in the Asian crypto market.

GameStop kickstarts its NFT initiative with Immutable X partnership. It's partnering with Australian blockchain startup Immutable X to develop a non-fungible token marketplace, the next step in the company’s shift toward digital. The partnership establishes a fund of up to $100 million in Immutable X’s IMC tokens, which the companies will use as grants for NFT creators. Read more here.

Alexis Ohanian’s Venture-Capital firm raised $500M to double down on crypto startups. Mr. Ohanian said he expects the firm to invest mainly in crypto startups because entrepreneurial and software development activity in the sector is strong and growing. The firm will also back companies in other sectors such as climate, food, and space exploration.

Shiba Inu has a trio of notable catalysts in 2022. First, there's the expected launch of Shibarium, a layer-2 blockchain project to dramatically reduce, or perhaps even eliminate, transaction fees associated with SHIB. Second, investing-platform Robinhood Markets might list it. The third big catalyst for Shiba Inu in 2022 is the ongoing development of the NFT-based gaming platform, Oshiverse. Read more here.

Solana investors are bullish on 2 catalysts. First, Solana announced its Solana Pay platform, launched in partnership with Solana Labs. Solana Pay aims to become a leader in crypto payments among merchants. Second, Coinbase Global announced the listing of two SLF-based tokens. Both Bonfida (CRYPTO:FIDA) and Orca (CRYPTO:ORCA) will be available for transfer into Coinbase, while actual trading remains on the horizon. Read more here.