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FTX Reaches $200M Settlement With IRS

The IRS initially claimed FTX owed more than $44 billion in taxes, but the amount was later reduced. Plus the top news, stats, and funding rounds of the week in crypto.

Author

Ryan Allis
June 05, 2024

Learn More at www.fyde.fi

Issue Summary: Welcome back to Coinstack, the weekly newsletter for institutional crypto investors and industry insiders. We review the top news, stats, and reports in the digital asset ecosystem for our 250k weekly subscribers. This week, FTX reached a $200M settlement with the IRS, CZ began a four-month prison sentence, Coinbase accused the SEC of trying to destroy the crypto industry, and big new venture rounds came in for Babylon ($70M) and Fortunafi ($9.5M). 

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💵 Weekly Crypto Fundraises & Deals

Here are all the crypto fundraises we heard about this week, ranked by size…

🗞️ Crypto News Recap: The Top 5 Stories

Welcome back to This Week in Crypto… everything you need to know in one scannable format. Here are the top 5 stories of the week… 

  1. ⚖️ FTX reaches $200M settlement with IRS on tax bill: According to a June 3 filing, the exchange and the IRS agreed to settle a $24 billion tax dispute. The IRS initially claimed FTX owed more than $44 billion in taxes, but the amount was later reduced. The settlement depends on the court’s approval of FTX’s reorganization plan.

  1. 👨‍⚖️ Binance founder CZ begins four-month prison sentence as the country's richest inmate: Binance founder Changpeng Zhao, a.k.a CZ, has reported to a low-security California facility in order to begin his four-month federal prison term as the country's richest inmate. 

  1. ⚖️ Coinbase accuses the SEC of trying to destroy the crypto industry in final push to get the agency to write rules: An appeals court should order the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to start writing rules for crypto, Coinbase argued in its final push for rulemaking.

  1. 👩‍⚖️ FTX lawyers and advisors charged over $500 million in bankruptcy process so far: FTX lawyers and advisors have seen over $500 million in fees approved from the estate as the bankruptcy costs keep rising.

  1. 🚀 LayerZero adds Solana to its cross-chain bridge network: LayerZero, an interoperability protocol for cross-chain asset transfers, has announced the addition of Solana to its network of more than 70 blockchains.

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💬 Tweet of the Week

Source: @pythianism

📊 Key Stats of the Week

Here are the most important and interesting stats in crypto this week...

1. Polymarket MAUs going vertical

Source: @tokenterminal

2. Here's how much onchain profit L2s earned in May

Onchain profit = Revenue from L2 gas fees - Costs of posting batches and verifying proofs on L1

1. Base - $6.98M
2. Optimism - $1.57M
3. Scroll - $1.35M
4. Arbitrum - $802k
5. Linea - $612k

Source: @0xKofi

3. We have crossed $160b of stablecoin issuance (over 90% in tether and usdc) with $2-3T+ in monthly volumes.

Source: @jamesjho_

4. Tokenized treasuries are approaching $1.5b of issuance 

Source: @jamesjho_

5. The ALT buy signal has reached its lowest point since 2021 meaning its the best time to buy ALTs. Expect a huge reversal in the 2H of 2024

Source: @1995research

6. Top Moving Coins From the Top 100

📝 Highlights from the Top Crypto Reports

Here are the top highlights from the best crypto research reports this week…

About the Author: Cole DeRousse serves as a Research Assistant at 1995 Digital Asset Research, where he blends technical research with social investing strategies. His primary focus is on fostering the growth of the Web3 community and ecosystem, aiming to awaken people to the transformative power of Web3 apps and technologies. This is an excerpt from the full article, which you can find here.

Introduction

The phrase "Winners average winners," popularized by HsakaTrades and akin to "let your winners ride" from the 'All in Podcast,' underscores a crucial investment strategy in the digital assets space. It suggests that rather than cashing out, investors should focus on compounding gains by continuing to invest in their best-performing assets. The rationale is simple: identifying a winning asset is challenging, and once you have a winner, its potential to outperform the market (in our case btc/eth) can be significant, especially if it leads its respective buzz narrative sector and is a bull trend versus its BTC and Eth pair. This strategy embodies the 20IQ trading style with the simple thesis of ‘Strong Coin = Good Coin’, which ironically 150iq market participants do the same because they understand that the strongest coin is usually the cycle leader for the respective narrative. In this report, we go through the 3 hottest narratives and the cycle leader based on relative strength which embodies the ‘winners average winners’ strategy.

AI Narrative Cycle Leader - Render

AI Sector: In the realm of Artificial Intelligence, Render (RNDR), partnered with Apple, stands out for its significant traction and integration in AI features like Chatgpt and graphic rendering. Nosana (NOS) on Solana follows as an exceptional candidate, resembling an early-stage RNDR, exclusively available on Jupiter—a promising factor for those looking to replicate Render’s success trajectory. Lastly, Prime Echelon, an innovative AR/VR card game, rounds out our AI sector picks, leveraging the increasing popularity of immersive gaming experiences to establish its market position.

Honorable Mention: Oasis Network ($ROSE): For this honorable mention, I want to spotlight Oasis Network, which is carving a niche in decentralized data governance and privacy-enhancing technologies. Although $ROSE has not yet distinguished itself as a top performer, it possesses all the makings of one. The partnerships with industry giants like Meta and Google Cloud underline its legitimacy and potential in the AI field—distinguishing it from many projects that promise much but deliver little. Furthermore, Oasis's development activity surpasses that of other AI contenders, such as Tao, setting a robust pace in project advancements. Led by Dawn Song, a renowned AI researcher who consults for figures like Elon Musk and Vitalik Buterin, the project's leadership, active development, and high-profile collaborations collectively signal that $ROSE could emerge as a frontrunner in the AI sector as the broader market begins to appreciate its underlying value and technological contributions.

🎧 Top Crypto Podcasts of The Week

Here are the crypto podcasts that are worth listening to this week...

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📰 The Coinstack Newsletter:

Tracking the most important blockchain stories of the 2020s, including a decentralized internet and the creation of a new open global monetary system that works for everyone. As always, published for informational purposes only. Please do your own research. Just our opinions. Not intended as financial advice as we are not financial advisors. We may own some of the digital assets we write about as we believe strongly in the sector. Please do your own research. Published and written weekly by Ryan Allis and Mike Gavela. 

Coinstack is a news and analysis newsletter for the digital asset industry. None of the information here is a recommendation to invest in any securities or other types of investments. Past performance is no guarantee of future results. Any historical returns, expected returns, or probability projections may not reflect actual future performance. All investments involve risk and may result in loss.

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