The SEC is backed into a corner on Bitcoin ETF approval, the IRS has new rules for crypto transactions in 2024, and the original version of the Mickey Mouse mascot trends as NFT.
The United States Securities and Exchange Commission has been backed into a corner in approving a spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF), according to Bloomberg analyst James Seyffart. The analyst said the investment vehicle has a 90% chance of receiving the green light between Jan. 8 and 10. A go-ahead in the coming days could bring $10 billion in inflows to Bitcoin ETFs in the first year. However, widespread adoption could take weeks or even months, as institutional investors will likely carry out due diligence before adding the cryptocurrency to their portfolios, noted Seyffart.
Crypto brokers are now required to report personal information on digital assets transactions worth more than $10,000 to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). The requirement is part of the infrastructure bill signed into law in 2021 by President Joe Biden, and seeks to reduce the size of the tax gap in the United States. Upon completion of a transaction, brokers must provide the tax agency with the sender’s name, address and social security number within 15 days. Following the bills passage, many lawmakers suggested additional legislation to fix the reporting requirement, claiming that the information required from brokers would be difficult or impossible to collect.
Walt Disney Company’s original incarnation of the Mickey Mouse mascot recently entered the public domain and quickly became the top trending nonfungible token (NFT) on OpenSea. Three NFT collections featuring the classic mascot dominated OpenSea’s trending list on Jan. 2, with the Steamboat Willie Public Domain 2024 collection reaching the top spot, achieving around $1.2 million in trading volume. Disney clarified that while this early version of Mickey, known from Walt Disneys 1928 animated short film, “Steamboat Willie,” is now public domain, the copyrights of modern iterations remain intact.
