💸IRS Finalizes Broker Rule

Happy Holidays Defiers!

Markets were relatively calm during Christmas week, with Bitcoin consolidating between $95,000 and $99,000 as altcoins rallied.

After shedding $1.5 billion of assets in four days, Bitcoin ETFs bounced back towards the end of the week.

With just days left in 2024, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) finalized its broker rule, which will require know-your-customer (KYC) for DeFi front-ends by 2027. Meanwhile, Tether is under pressure to comply with Europe’s MiCA by December 30.

Plus, Suilend TVL crosses $500M, crypto hackers stole $2.9B this year, Berachain vaults attract $200M, and Interpol goes after Richard Heart.

Also, don’t forget to check out our podcast with the vice president and general manager of Robinhood Crypto, Johann Kerbrat.

Enjoy!

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PODCAST & INTERVIEWS

Robinhood Crypto's Roadmap: Johann Kerbrat on Expansion, Staking, and Blockchain Integration

In this week’s podcast, Cami Russo was joined by Johann Kerbrat, the vice president and general manager of Robinhood Crypto.

In this episode, Johann shares the journey of Robinhood Crypto, from its early days of launching in 2018, to its recent introduction of staking and self-custody wallets, and a possible shift towards a full-fledged crypto exchange. He discusses how Robinhood is leveraging blockchain to enhance efficiency, lower costs, and expand access to financial instruments, and shares Robinhood Crypto’s long-term vision.

Binance CEO Richard Teng Predicts Exponential Crypto Growth in 2025 | Bullish Outlook & Key Drivers

Richard Teng is bullish on the crypto industry's future, predicting exponential growth in 2025 driven by clearer regulations, increasing institutional adoption, rising market capitalization reducing volatility, and continued innovation and investment from crypto VCs.

Friday

Bitcoin ETFs Reverse Losing Streak With $475M of Inflows Following four days of record outflows totaling $1.5 billion, Bitcoin ETFs are regaining investor confidence.
IRS Demands KYC for DeFi in “Unlawful” Tax Reporting Rule The U.S. government agency finalized the rule, requiring identification for DeFi front ends in a “dying gasp on its way out of power.”
Tether Faces Pressure as EU MiCA Compliance Deadline Looms The stablecoin could face removal from European exchanges if it fails to comply with MiCA, which aims to standardize EU market rules for crypto assets.
Magic Eden’s Token Rallies As Trading Volume Rebounds to Highest Since August ME is climbing as Magic Eden’s trading volume shows signs of recovery after a prolonged downturn.
Bitget Token Hits All-time High after $5B Burn Announcement BGB surged as much as 23% to an all-time high of $8.45 before retracing.
Singapore Tops Hong Kong in Blockchain Rankings as U.S. Lags Hobbled by regulatory hostility, the U.S. placed fifth in a study of the best jurisdictions for blockchain adoption.
Bitwise and Vivek's Strive Plan Bitcoin Treasury ETFs Trump government waste-cutter Vivek Ramaswamy’s Strive is MicroStrategy focused, while Bitwise Asset Management looks for the ‘Bitcoin Standard’ of 1,000 BTC.
Suilend TVL Surpasses $500 Million after Airdrop The money market is now the largest DeFi protocol on the Sui blockchain.
Aethir and Injective Partner To Launch Tokenized GPU Marketplace The marketplace will include features like fractional ownership, composability, and real-time resource trading.
Korean Crypto Users Spike Following Trump’s Election Victory 610,000 new South Korean users invested in crypto in the month following the U.S. presidential election, pushing the total above 30% of the population.
Coingecko Report Crowns Memecoins as Leading Crypto Narrative in 2024 Alongside the main memecoin narrative, four other memecoin trends made the top 20.

Thursday

Bitcoin ETFs Face Outflows for Fourth Consecutive Day Bitcoin spot ETFs recorded over $1.5 billion in outflows over four days amid the ongoing market correction.
Hacks Cost Crypto $2.9B in 2024 A new report from Hacken found that DeFi is getting a handle on security, while CeFi losses doubled to almost $700 million.
Vitalik Buterin Sparked MOODENG Memecoin Rally After Adopting Famous Hippo The Ethereum-based memecoin’s trading volume surged by more than 1,000%.
StakeStone’s Berachain Vault TVL Surpasses $130 Million in 24 Hours The liquidity platform’s vault is one of two incentivized pre-deposit vaults launched as a part of Berachain’s “69 hours of Beramas” initiative.
BONK Memecoin to Burn $50 Million to Commemorate 2nd Anniversary The move comes just a month after the project burned over $3 million worth of BONK tokens.
Crypto Community Rallies Around MIRA Token Created for Four-Year-Old Fighting Rare Brain Tumor The MIRA token, created in honor of Mira Chen’s fight against a rare brain tumor, skyrockets in value, with proceeds supporting critical research and treatment.
Kaito Genesis Drop Sparks Controversy Eligible participants were able to cash out a 40x on Kaito’s NFT mint, but others accuse the team of a poorly executed allowlist.

Tuesday

Altcoins Rally as Bitcoin Flounders on Christmas Eve Saylor’s MicroStrategy bought another $561 million worth of Bitcoin last week.
Digital Assets Suffer $1B of Outflows Amid Fed's Hawkish Stance Despite $1 billion in outflows, digital asset funds managed to maintain positive inflows, marking the 11th consecutive week of growth.
Trump Appoints Pro-Crypto Former Football Player Bo Hines to Digital Assets Council Hines will be tasked with promoting innovation and supporting the growth of the cryptocurrency industry.
Coinbase Releases Report on Likely Crypto Trends in 2025 The largest U.S. crypto exchange highlights stablecoins, tokenization, ETFs, DeFi, and crypto regulation as the five areas to watch.
Saylor Floats Framework for Crypto Industry Regulation and Growth Michael Saylor’s Digital Assets Framework also proposes a Bitcoin strategic reserve to offset the U.S. national debt.
VC Investments in Crypto Will Double to $18 Billion in 2025: Pitchbook A new report from the venture capital database Pitchbook predicts substantial growth from 2024’s $9.9B and generalist VCs returning with larger deals.
Interpol Issues Red Notice for Hex Founder Richard Heart The international police organization alleges Heart, whose real name is Richard Schueler, evaded hundreds of millions of euros in Finnish taxes and assaulted a 16-year-old.
Hyperliquid Dips on North Korea Hack Fears The HYPE token price and protocol TVL suffered over the weekend as users exited, fearing a potential exploit.
Michael Saylor Proposes to ‘Neutralize” the National Debt With a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve Microstrategy also added crypto champion Brian Brooks, a top bank regulator in the first Trump administration, to its board.