April 4th, 2025

Crypto donations top $1B in 2024, gain traction after Myanmar, Thailand quake

Binance co-founder Changpeng “CZ” Zhao donated over half a million dollars worth of crypto to the earthquake disaster relief effort in Thailand and Myanmar, in another testament to the growing utility of blockchain-based emergency charity efforts.

Zhao donated 1,000 BNB tokens worth almost $600,000 to the disaster relief funds for the region on March 3, blockchain data shows.

“Sent 1000 BNB for the donation for Myanmar and Thailand,” wrote Zhao in an April 3 X post.

The crypto donation comes after Thailand and Myanmar were hit by a 7.7 magnitude earthquake on March 28, causing severe damage to buildings and widespread flooding.

At least 2,719 people have been confirmed dead in Myanmar and 18 in Thailand, with 76 people still unaccounted for, according to the latest figures shared by Reuters.

The $600,000 donation comes nearly a week after Zhao pledged to donate 500 BNB for the relief efforts, an initial commitment that he doubled. Cryptocurrency-based donations have emerged as a significant lifeline for the region, due to banking restrictions caused by damaged infrastructure.

Crypto donations exceeded $1 billion in 2024, spurred by increasing digital asset valuations and growing crypto regulatory clarity. About 16% of the donations went toward education, while 14% went toward medicine and health-related efforts.

The Giving Block has launched a crypto-based emergency relief effort for Myanmar and Thailand to raise $500,000 for the devastated region.

The organization expects crypto donations to reach $2.5 billion in 2025 on growing crypto wealth generation and increasing adoption due to a more favorable political landscape.

Crypto donations gain traction for emergency relief efforts

Zhao’s donation is a testament to the growing role of cryptocurrency in humanitarian aid, according to Anndy Lian, author and intergovernmental blockchain expert.

“Crypto donations, compared to traditional fiat contributions, offer unique advantages, especially in emergencies,” Lian told Cointelegraph, adding:

“Speed is a key factor—transactions on blockchain networks can settle in minutes, bypassing the delays of banks or intermediaries, which is critical when time saves lives.”

“In disaster-stricken areas like Myanmar or Thailand, where infrastructure might be compromised, crypto can reach recipients directly via digital wallets, no SWIFT codes or wire transfers required,” Lian explained.

Lian also donated 44 BNB tokens to the relief efforts in Myanmar and Thailand, a move that was publicly praised by Zhao.

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has been known for his crypto donations. In October, Buterin donated over $180,000 in Ether to the biotech charity Kanro.

Source: https://cointelegraph.com/news/cz-donates-1000-bnb-thailand-myanmar-earthquake-relief

Anndy Lian

Anndy Lian is an early blockchain adopter and experienced serial entrepreneur who is known for his work in the government sector. He is a best selling book author- “NFT: From Zero to Hero” and “Blockchain Revolution 2030”.

Currently, he is appointed as the Chief Digital Advisor at Mongolia Productivity Organization, championing national digitization. Prior to his current appointments, he was the Chairman of BigONE Exchange, a global top 30 ranked crypto spot exchange and was also the Advisory Board Member for Hyundai DAC, the blockchain arm of South Korea’s largest car manufacturer Hyundai Motor Group. Lian played a pivotal role as the Blockchain Advisor for Asian Productivity Organisation (APO), an intergovernmental organization committed to improving productivity in the Asia-Pacific region.

An avid supporter of incubating start-ups, Anndy has also been a private investor for the past eight years. With a growth investment mindset, Anndy strategically demonstrates this in the companies he chooses to be involved with. He believes that what he is doing through blockchain technology currently will revolutionise and redefine traditional businesses. He also believes that the blockchain industry has to be “redecentralised”.

www.anndy.com

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January 25th, 2025

MicroStrategy may owe taxes on $19B unrealized Bitcoin gains: Report

Despite never selling any Bitcoin, MicroStrategy may have to pay taxes on its unrealized gains.

Michael Saylor’s MicroStrategy, the largest corporate Bitcoin BTCUSD holder, may have to pay federal income taxes on its unrealized gains, according to the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022.

The act established a “corporate alternative minimum tax” under which MicroStrategy would qualify for a 15% tax rate based on the adjusted version of the company’s earnings, according to Jan. 24 report in The Wall Street Journal.

Still, the US Internal Revenue Service (IRS) may create an exemption for BTC under President Donald Trump’s more crypto-friendly administration.

MicroStrategy’s holdings have surpassed 450,000 BTC, worth more than $48 billion, after the company bought $243 million of BTC on Jan. 13.

According to MicroStrategy’s portfolio tracker, the company’s Bitcoin holdings have an unrealized gain of over $19.3 billion.

The report comes six months after MicroStrategy agreed on June 3, 2024, to pay $40 million to settle a tax fraud lawsuit that had accused it and Saylor of tax evasion.

The attorney general of the District of Columbia sued Saylor and MicroStrategy in August 2022, alleging the executive had paid no income taxes in the district for at least 10 years while he lived there.

MicroStrategy and Coinbase push against corporate alternative minimum tax

MicroStrategy and cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase have pushed back against the corporate alternative minimum tax (CAMT) regulation.

The two firms have requested that the US Treasury and IRS adjust the final rule to exclude unrealized crypto gains from the adjusted financial statement income (AFSI) to “avoid serious unintended consequences to US corporations holding substantial cryptocurrency.”

The two firms wrote in a joint letter to lawmakers on Jan. 3:

“The unforeseen combination of CAMT and a newly promulgated accounting standard are creating unjust and unintended tax consequences… CAMT imposes a 15% minimum tax on the AFSI of any corporation whose AFSI averages at least $1 billion in the prior three-year period.”

“Because the standard affects a corporation’s AFSI, corporations that own enough appreciated crypto (or have enough other book income) to be subject to CAMT must now pay tax on unrealized gains in the value of that cryptocurrency,” the letter stated.

US crypto tax laws gain prominence after IRS issued crypto tax guidelines in 2024

Crypto tax laws gained increased investor interest in June 2024 after the IRS issued a new crypto regulation, which will make US crypto transactions subject to third-party tax reporting requirements for the first time.

Starting in 2025, centralized crypto exchanges (CEXs) and other brokers will start reporting the sales and exchanges of digital assets, including cryptocurrencies.

According to the IRS, the decision aims to help investors “file accurate tax returns with respect to digital asset transactions” and to address potential noncompliance in digital currency.

This decision could push crypto investors to decentralized platforms in a “paradoxical situation” that could make tax revenue harder to track, Anndy Lian, author and intergovernmental blockchain expert, told Cointelegraph.

Showcasing the crypto industry’s backlash, the Blockchain Association filed a lawsuit against the IRS in December 2024, arguing that the rules are unconstitutional because they include decentralized exchanges under the “broker” term, extending data collection requirements to them.

Source: https://www.tradingview.com/news/cointelegraph:83010f015094b:0-microstrategy-may-owe-taxes-on-19b-unrealized-bitcoin-gains-report/

Anndy Lian

www.anndy.com

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September 21st, 2024

Investors claim Tether’s $118B reserves may face audit and liquidity risks

Tether’s lack of third-party audits is raising investor concerns about a potential FTX-like liquidity crisis from the $118 billion stablecoin giant.

Investor concerns are mounting around Tether, the issuer of the world’s largest stablecoin USD₮.

Cyber Capital founder Justin Bons, who shared his concerns about Tether being a potentially bigger scam than FTX, catalyzed the latest wave of concerns.

Bons wrote in a Sept. 14 X post:

“[Tether is] one of the biggest existential threats to crypto as a whole. As we have to trust they hold $118B in collateral without proof! Even after the CFTC fined Tether for lying about their reserves in 2021.”

In 2021, the United States Commodities and Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) fined Tether a $41 million civil monetary penalty for lying about USDT being fully backed by reserves.

Concerns over the stablecoin giant’s influence over the crypto space grew louder recently after data revealed that Tether’s market share surpassed 75% of the entire stablecoin market after a 20% increase over the past two years.

A hypothetical Tether implosion would be banking-driven, unlike the FTX collapse

Part of the concerns are fueled by one of the industry’s most notorious black swan events, the collapse of the FTX exchange, which led to $8.9 billion in lost user funds.

While FTX’s collapse was due to its inability to honor mass customer withdrawals of $6 billion within three days, a hypothetical Tether implosion would be related to its banking partners, according to Sean Lee, the co-founder of IDA Finance.

Lee told Cointelegraph:

“Bear market or not, the possibility of Tether imploding is more about its structural connectivity to its underlying assets and banking rails, not so much market movement. Otherwise, USDT would’ve suffered during the last bear market, but instead, it was actually [USD Coin] USDC that depegged due to their reliance on Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank.”

In May 2022, Tether honored over $16.7 billion worth of USDT customer withdrawals within 10 days without any issues.

In contrast, Washington Mutual Bank could not honor $16.5 billion worth of withdrawals within 10 days, which led to what became known as the biggest banking failure in the US in September 2008.

Others believe that Tether is too big to fail. Notably, Anndy Lian, author and intergovernmental blockchain expert, doesn’t expect Tether to face issues but warned that generally, large centralized entities could pose a risk for the cryptocurrency space:

“Cryptocurrencies were originally designed to operate without central control, promoting transparency, security, and user autonomy. However, Tether, as a centralized stablecoin issuer, holds significant influence over the crypto market due to its widespread use for trading and liquidity.”

Cointelegraph has approached Tether for comment.

Tether’s business structure and transparency raise concerns

On Sept. 8, Tether invested $100 million in Adecoagro, acquiring a 9.8% stake in the Latin American agricultural giant.

This latest investment gave us the first disclosure into Tether’s governance structure, according to Cyber Capital’s Bons, who wrote:

“The board of Tether Holdings only has 2 members; Giancarlo & Ludovicos. This implies that the USDT reserves are still not segregated in 2024 & these two have absolute control!”

IDA Finance’s co-founder, Lee, was also concerned about Tether’s lack of transparency. He wrote:

“Tether is structured as a business and their insistence on not providing the level of detailed transparency that ensures real trust from the community and institutional players is indeed concerning.”

Despite Tether boasting over $118 billion worth of reserves in its second quarter “independent attestations conducted by BDO,” Cyber Capital’s Bons claims that Tether has yet to submit its reserves for a third-party audit:

“However, an ‘Auditor’s Report’ or an ‘Accountant Report’ is not a formal audit at all! Despite the claims, Tether has never submitted its alleged reserves to a real unrestricted, third-party audit!”

Source: https://cointelegraph.com/news/tether-transparency-business-structure-118b-ftx-concern