 Login Digital Asset News is like a top story in cryptocurrency and digital assets. Man, I'm breaking down a bite-sized piece, as today we've got some important stuff. First up, Tether printing presses and overdrive as regulators watch closely. And what this really comes down to is the lawsuit that is going to move forward against Tether and its associated partners, such as Bitfinex or Ifinex, and how this is going to play into the cryptocurrency and digital asset market as a whole. Also, the dominoes continue to fall as big bank UBS to charge negative rates on holding above 250,000 for some of its members. And this is just the start of what is going on for negative rates as banks are charging customers to hold on to their cash. Amazing. Also, looks like the SEC is going to have a new chairman. His name is Gary Gensler. I'm going to look at how bullish or bearish he is on cryptocurrency and specifically XRP. And finally, we'll round it all out to a little tax news. Everybody's favorite. Kenyan crypto firms, I noticed, as digital tax law takes effect. And you can see this going throughout globally from Kenya to South Korea and, of course, to the U.S. of A as IRS to transition from education to enforcement. So we'll take a look at all that great stuff. But first, let's take a look at what's going on the market. So today is January 13th, 9am, El Paso, Texas time. And what do we got? Well, Bitcoin continues to slump just a little bit. We had gone from 40 to 30. Now we're up to 35. Now we're down to 343. Quite the roller coaster. And if you watched the video from yesterday, it was me and the OG, one of the original gangsters, Diddy from the Bitcoin family. We've just talked about how, you know what? Hey, this is normal. Things are going to happen. You're going to go up 10, 20%, 30, 40%. You're going to go down 40, 50%. And just hold on for the ride because that's what the all-time high years are, which is what we're in right now. And that's what's going to happen. So just be prepared. Ethereum above 1,000. I like that. 2.3%. Ted is tethered. Well, actually, everybody cares now. I can't say anymore. Everybody's really interested in this. And I'm going to take a look at what's going on legally and what could potentially happen if things just really fall down to the wayside. XRP up 4.6%. Hey, watch out. Polkadot in the fifth spot up 18%. Wow, almost 10 bucks. Pretty good. Litecoin's doing well. Cardano's doing well. Everything's doing well. What else? Anything great? Synthetix, one of our plays from yesterday. We did a Trinity Trading and hopefully, you know, makes up to that $18 spot. That's what we're, that's our goal. Go ahead and check that out. It's a link at the very end. And what else do we have? 20% for Aave. Wow. That's pretty good. But again, not, not it's all-time line. So let's take a look at how we would have done if we just would have invested into Bitcoin. That's all I like to do because, you know, what's the point, right? So if you would invest in everything else except for, well, Polkadot, you're doing pretty well. Litecoin 0.1. Wow. 2.7, 3.4 for Chainlink. 6% for Bitcoin SV. Congratulations. Synthetix again. Great play. 18%. And really why we do this is just to see like how we would do if we just would have invested in some all coins versus Bitcoin. And today looks like a pretty decent day actually. 14% for Zcash, 2.4. I don't know what Solana is, but apparently it's making the big rounds. We'll see how that goes. So that's what's going on. And today, let's just break into the top story because this, to me, is pretty fascinating. Okay, what's going on? So, Tether, I get this question a lot and it's been asked a lot throughout everywhere. And the thing is, we've got to break this down and just see where we're going and does this really even matter? So, this is what it states. This is from CoinGeek. This was from today. It says, Tether and his associated partners approach January 15th. Hearing with the New York Attorney General Office, it appears the infamous printing press that produces new USDT tokens has been more active than ever. And I'm going to show you how active it actually is. I'm just going to skip ahead. This is how active it is. This was from just a day ago, 400 million USDT printed, 400 million USDT printed. I mean, this is like reserve bank reserve type of action. That's amazing. So the real question is, is it being backed by anything? Do they really have the dollars or not? So with a large portion of the money flowing in digital asset markets recently and inflating asset prices coming from USDT, any regulatory action against it could have a largely negative impact. And it could and it couldn't. Really what it comes down to is, look, if this is a stablecoin and you're saying that it's backed by the dollar, where's your dollars? Show us the dollars. Show me the money. And everything's good. And that's it. I mean, there's some other different things in play, but that really is the big thing. So there's an ongoing injunction that prevents Tether Holdings Limited from loaning funds to the Bitfinex exchange. Tether Holdings Limited shares a parent's company called DigiFinex with Bitfinex. So what was going on here was that they were loaning out money or loaning out USDT to Bitfinex back and forth, and it looked like they were covering some losses. And that's not good. And this happened a while ago. This is 2018, 2019. And it looks like things, they probably shaped things up a little bit. I mean, look, if you get called before the New York Attorney General and you're like, look, we got to make sure you guys are legit. If you just go, well, we got some things in the back works and we'll, you know, we'll get it to you as soon as possible. Maybe behind the scenes, you clean things up. That's pretty much how it's done, right? You got caught. Maybe you were doing something a little bit crazy. You had a year, a year and a half to fix things. So if you didn't fix things, if there was anything to be fixed, then we got serious problems. So this is actually the letter that was put out December 9th. And what they were asking for, they were saying, hey, show us the documentation that proves all these things that were going on. They said, you know what, we can do that, but here's the thing. What they asked for was, they asked for an extension. They asked for an extension on September 17th to say, hey, we don't have the information, but we'll get it to you in 90 days. Then 90 days came up, they go, hey, we still need some more time. And we gave you some things, but we're going to need some more time for some other stuff. And now we're just waiting for that deadline to pass, which is going to be on January 15th. So they should have everything. And however, usually how these types of things work is they might just say, hey, we need another extension. Look, if you've ever been sued like I have in the past, it's one of those things. You just, you go through the whole process and it takes years and years and years. That's why this, this whole thing with the XRP and the SEC, unless they drop it, I see it to drag out quite some time. We're going to go over that in a bit. But I think really what it comes down to is how big is this going to affect everything? And I'll go over that just after this part. But the question is asked really is, because of regulatory issues, is Tether a stable coin, a security, a derivative or a decentralized blockchain asset? That's what this piece asks. So it is a stable coin because it's peg of the dollar. We can just say that that's what it is. As far as the security, security, as far as I understand it, is that when you are issued a security, it means that you're trying to gain some type of economic response or some type of revenue from the work of a third party. So in this case, really it's peg to the dollar. There's really nothing to that. It's a stable coin. So that does really make sense. And as far as a derivative, it really comes down to what is the underlying asset that you're talking about? Well, the underlying asset is the dollar, and that just really goes down. So that's really not a really good thing to say that, yes, this is a derivative or a security in all honesty. And then the last piece is, is it a decentralized blockchain asset? Yes. And right now, the way that the government classifies cryptocurrencies, it's property and not really a currency per se. So really what I just see it as is stable coin property. And that's really it. Now, I'm not a lawyer, nor do I play one on TV, but that's just how I seize it. So there's a couple of things. First, first of all, is how is this all going to play into how banks use it? Well, if you remember, just a couple of days ago, the OCC says banks can use stable coins in payment. So if they're looking for clarity or regulation, they've already said, Hey, you know, you can go ahead and use that, whether it's a stable coin derivative, a blockchain aspect, you guys can use it. And we'll kind of figure it out. So everybody, but it seems like everybody's kind of playing loose with the rules. And this was just one of the many articles that came out about it. Now, nothing has been done because banks are not known for innovation. So I don't see them, you know, picking up the torch going, Hey, thanks, we're gonna do that right away. They're not here for innovation. For Pete's eggs, they've been using Swift since like the 60s and 70s. I think they're gonna change too much anyhow nowadays. So the next question comes out of this is, what's going on with tether? So this is a very odd thing. And hopefully, somebody can help me out in the comments section. But we're taking a look at tether here. And the market cap is 23 billion. And of course, the story, including supply is 24 billion. So essentially, you know, pretty much one to one, right? It's, you know, you got about 24 billion circulating supply is 24 billion. And that's what's going on right here. And it's peg the dollar. So, you know, 24 to 24, or actually, right now, it's 0.98. So yeah, that makes sense, right? Maximum circulating supply, everything's out there and so on and so forth. Here's the thing, here's my question, the 24 hour trading volume, 96 billion. So you got the market cap of 23 billion, and the market, the trading volume of 96 billion. And we take a look at every other thing that's out there. So that doesn't happen anywhere else. I mean, look at Bitcoin, you got 64 billion, the trading volume 24 hours, 646 for the market cap. Gotcha. 33 for Ethereum, 122, 88, 24, totally inversed. XRP, 3 to 13, and on and on it goes. The other stablecoin like USD, it's not, that's not how it is. It's got 1.7 for 24 hours. And then the market was 4.7 makes sense, right? Because you've only, you've got a max market cap and then 24 hour trading volume, okay, we're underneath that. The only one that I could see where it was kind of closely inversed, there was, it was sushi swap. And that is down here somewhere. Sushi's got 594 million, market cap is 590 million, which is pretty close, right? And the next one I think was Qtum, which was, you know, pretty close as well, but that's about in the top 100. So the question I have is, why are they inversed? So that's what it really comes down to. And then the next question I really have is this, is let's say, let's take the worst case scenario, is Bitfinex and Tether and the subsidiary, so you know, we're totally don't have anything there. We have nothing in Tether, so it's just going to collapse. So if you did collapse that one, let's just take the market cap. So the market cap is 24 billion. And people are saying, well, if that's what's propping up the whole market, then everything's going to collapse. Well, 24 billion is quite a bit of money, right? But that could wipe out some people, and that would be pretty awful if you store it in a Tether. But if you take 24 billion off the table, what is the total market cap right now? The total market cap is 960 billion, almost 1 trillion. And we're going to go above that. And then people say, well, how does that affect Bitcoin? Well, Bitcoin's market cap is 646 billion. So let's just take away 24 billion. Well, that happens all the time. Now, psychologically, this will be a huge factor. But in the grand scheme of things, what will happen? Tether will go away. It'll be replaced by a stablecoin that will be regulated by the government. All stablecoins will be regulated. And they say, you know what, we're not going to have what happened to Tether. We're going to stop that nonsense. And here we go. And now banks can use it, blah, blah, blah. So I think that could definitely happen. I just don't see what the bigger question though is, if you had a 24 hour volume of 88 billion, where's this all going into? And then if 88 billion is gone from the total market cap, that's quite a big chunk of a number. Again, I would, me personally, I don't use Tether. I don't know why people want to use Tether. I will just use USDC, is the ERC 20 token and the fees. But so is Tether. So I mean, in some exchanges, you have to use it. And I will talk to you about like, if you're on Binance, that is a huge amount of the volume. This is the total volume for all Tether right now that is being used across all the different exchanges. And if you take a look at Binance, 4% is just on Binance. I don't know why there's two. Oh, sorry, Bitcoin, USDT, Ethereum, USDT. That's like 5%, 6% of all the Tether that is being used in just those two on one exchange. And then you can go down the list. So you take all this different volume off, what are people going to go to? Well, some other kind of stablecoin. Me personally, I wouldn't have it in Tether. I don't know why people have it in Tether. That's just me. Let me know what you think in the comment section. Let's move on to our next piece. Next up, this is a quick piece, negative rates. We had heard about these. I was like, isn't that going to happen? And here we are. So this was today in Zurich, UBS, pretty big bank, will begin charging clients with cash balances above 250,000 Swiss francs or $280,000, almost 1% interest rate fee from July. Switzerland's biggest bank said, it's becoming encouraged and clear that we'll have to contend with negative interest rates for years to come. That's why we decided to lower the threshold for deposit fees in the end, less than 5% of our clients affected, which is true. So, but this is where it all starts. This is a slippery slope. At first, we're going to start with, you know, the 250,000 people. And I'm like, you know what, maybe we'll go down to 175. And then before you know 100,000, then 10,000, then 5,000, then everybody's got a negative interest rates. If you want to keep your cash so we can protect it and have it insured, well, guess what? You're going to pay for that 1%, which doesn't seem like a lot, but everything adds up. And also, when you keep it here, we're also going to do fractional reserve lending, which whatever you put in, we're going to lend it out. So we're going to double dip. And I mean, look, it's a business. It's a business. And that's, that's fine if you want to do that. But here's the thing. Why don't you just take a big chunk of your cash, which is on fire anyhow? Why don't you just put in the crypto, which is, this is the year to do it 2021. I can't tell you what to do. But if you listen to MicroStrategy, Michael Saro, the CEO, he's like, we're taking out of cash. And we're going to put in the crypto, especially Bitcoin, well, actually all Bitcoin, and it's going to go up and we don't have to have it on fire. And also we've actually doubled our position in five months. So that is what's going on. Let me know anything in the comment section next piece. This one was interesting. So with the new President-elect Joe Biden coming in, I know people are still holding out that Trump might win. I don't think it's going to happen, but okay. Look, there's going to be a new U.S. SEC chair. And what's going on is, it's this guy, Gary Penciller, will blame chair of the U.S. SEC by President-elect Joe Biden, said two sources familiar with the matter and appointment likely to prompt concern among Wall Street firms of tougher regulation. Why? Well, Gansler was chair of the CFTC from 2009-2014. So when I read this, I'm like, ooh, that doesn't sound too good, you know, tougher regulation, maybe for Wall Street because they know him. But the question I had is who is he? Because also, you know, Brian Brooks is potentially stepping down. Nothing has been said. Nothing has been said by anybody, but this is just an expectation because Brian Brooks, head of the OCC, was appointed by Trump. And usually when new administrations come in, they like to clean house and get all their people in there. However, Biden has said he was willing to work with Republicans and was thinking about keeping Republicans or nominating Republicans to his cabinet. Let's see if that happens. Brian Brooks is a great guy, hope to heaven he stays there, that would be fantastic. But the real question is, you know, who is Gary Gansler? And I think this statement, this two minute video will kind of clear it up for you if you have any apprehension. Let's take a listen. Let's say Mexico, if it's between the U.S. and Mexico. So one idea that's been around, it's widely associated with Ripple, but it's not only associated with Ripple, is this simple chart. What if I move fiat to crypto and crypto to fiat? This is called a bridge crypto or bridge currency. I can sort of say I can go from U.S. dollars to Bitcoin or XRP, you fill in the middle, and then move over to the other fiat. Mexico pays so in my example. And might that take some cost out of the system? We have Sean's issue earlier, volatility. If the crypto is fluctuating a lot, that causes some issues. If there's a lot of cost or friction, because now you're doing two currency exchanges, not one. I'm calling crypto a currency for this purpose. I know that crypto is not technically a currency. But for this moment, let me just call it, you have two currency exchanges. And that's pretty much it. And he goes into some different details. Now, he does make a distinction before everybody XRP army goes, ah, that's our savior. Look, he does say that there is a difference between Ripple, the company, and XRP, the product. And he talks about transferring and ODL, on-demand liquidity, things like that. And he said, it's very different. And I was like, well, that sounds pretty good. But then this was actually a response from Jake Czerwinski. If you know what Jake, good guy to follow. He is the lawyer for compound finance. And he said, look, Gary Gensler deeply understands crypto and has strongly supported Bitcoin for years. Selection as SEC chair signals a policy shift in favor of Bitcoin. However, he also won a record in 2018, saying there's a strong case that XRP is a security signaling no shift on that issue. So I know when we see these things, we get very enlightened and very excited, but we have to withdraw and get all the facts. So thanks, Jake, for putting out that tweet. All right, let me know what you think in the comments section and let's move on. Lastly, taxes, everybody's favorite topic. He only likes this stuff. I only talk about it because I have to talk about it because I got to pay it. And I think that if you've ever done anything with cryptocurrency assets and you've done in KYC or AML, you know it too. And also, I want to thank the supporters of this video, which is CryptoTrader.Tax. They have been friends of the show for quite some time and they've actually sponsored this video. So I appreciate it. And let's talk about taxes because this is what is going on, not just in Kenya. This is going on in South Korea. And guess what's going to happen with the IRS? They're going to transition to enforcement. So real quick, Kenya's plan digital service tax or DST came in effect at the start of 2021. That's right now. Part of the country's 2020 revamp finance act focuses on the digital service markets, e-marking transactions, including crypto payments, now attract a 1.5%. Levy, the new tax policy, prescribes a 1.5% tax on the gross transaction value of every crypto sale, which means for everybody outside of Kenya, you're going to have to pay for that. And then inside, it's going to be a different case. However, that's just one of the new tax laws that are coming in effect. And I think why this is happening here, also in South Korea, because they're going to have a 20% tax. And also in America, where they're going to just transition going, hey, Bob, you know, there's a question on there that says, did you engage in any virtual currencies? And you said no. So we're going to write you a letter. They're going to go from that to going, hey, Bob, here's a fine because you lied to us. And that's what's going on in this article. We've covered this a couple of times. I want to really go over it because it's the same thing. Just know this, you're going to have to pay taxes. And that's the thing. So you really got two options. Well, you got three options. You can evade taxes and go on the run. You and Wesley Snipes have fun with that. Or the second thing is you can pay taxes and you can go through and do all the different things with each individual exchange that you've gone through and get all the forms and fill them out and convert and all that stuff. Or you could use CryptoTrader.tax. This is exactly what I use. Everything that I talk about on this show, I use. I use them last year. Between the time that I signed up, actually the time that I got logged in to actually figure out what the heck I was doing to send it over to my CPA was 30 minutes. I saved $16,000 in tax loss harvesting. It was fantastic. And this was, I did 2017, 18, and 19, because I had never really done them. So I kind of combined them all together and it was fantastic. So right now, if you want to use that program like I do, which I will be doing again, there is a link in the description below looks like this. Viewers of Danica, 20% off. Also, you can enter to win for a free report, which is a $300 value, which is an unlimited report, which is pretty awesome. So just put the first name and last name, they draw it every week. We've already got one from last week. So fantastic. And this is what I recommend and what I use. Also, if you want to pay any taxes, kinda, you can use a crypto IRA from iTrust. Now, if you got a traditional IRA somewhere else, an old employer plan, like a 401k, 403b, military TSP or a 457, then you can move them over tax and penalty free to a crypto IRA at iTrust. So I have an account there. I've had it now there for eight months or so, six months, eight months, it's been a while. And everything that I put in is going to be tax free. Now I get tax on the income that I have, but if Bitcoin goes from, you know, when I put it, when I started there, like 8,000, and it goes up to, well, it's already 35,000, or it made some pretty good money. And I don't have to pay the capital gains tax using this program. Again, that link is also in the description. And that is all I really have for today. So look, I know this went a little bit long with a lot of things going on. This is the year. This is the year and just expect massive volatility, but just be prepared that we should hit some all-time highs. Again, not investment advice, it's just what I'm doing. What I think is going to happen. All right. So thanks for watching. I appreciate it. I will see you on the next one.