Author: Yahoo Finance

Senators Cynthia Lummis (R, WY) and Kirsten Gillibrand (D, NY) are proposing a tax exemption for up to a certain level of capital gains on cryptocurrencies, as part of new forthcoming legislation to regulate cryptocurrencies. “We came up with a number of $600 just start out with, but among the things that we’re doing is sharing our bill draft with a number of our constituents so we can get feedback,” Lummis said in an interview with Yahoo Finance. “Is $600 the right number? Should it be higher considering inflation, and in other factors?” Unlike traditional classes, like stocks and bonds,…

Russian soldiers surrendering to Ukraine will receive 5 million rubles worth of crypto or cash, according to Masha Efrosinina, local TV host and honorary ambassador of the United Nations Population Fund in Ukraine. Fast facts Efrosinina said in an Instagram post that surrendering soldiers of the Russian military will receive 5 million rubles (US$60,000) in cryptocurrency or fiat, and an amnesty after trial. The offer comes from The Ministry of Defense of Ukraine and the global IT community, according to Efrosinina.According to the Ukrainian ambassador to the U.S., a Russian platoon that surrendered on Feb. 24 was unaware that they were being sent to kill…

Bitcoin (BTC-USD) and other major cryptocurrencies have tracked the volatility and broader market declines seen so far in 2022. But the pressure could be short-lived, according to at least one pundit, with a handful of temporary factors driving the latest pullback for digital currencies. “It always is uncomfortable when the market goes down, but I think we’re actually setting up for an extraordinarily strong second half of the year,” Matt Hougan, chief investment officer of Bitwise Asset Management, told Yahoo Finance Live on Tuesday. “The current pullback is being driven by three things, which are going to resolve. One, of course,…

The Federal Reserve on Friday codified a set of new rules that restrict some of the nation’s most powerful economic policymakers from actively trading stocks and other securities. Senior officials at the central bank will not be allowed to purchase individual stocks or sector funds, and will be prohibited from holding individual bonds. The rules were expanded to cover cryptocurrencies, commodities, foreign currencies, derivatives contracts, short sales, and purchases on margin. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell teased the new rules late last year, following revelations that at least three top officials within the Fed made large trades at the same time they were…

China made headlines in 2021 when it first banned all domestic cryptocurrency mining in June and then outlawed cryptocurrencies completely in September. Following Beijing’s decision, questions remained as to where large scale mining companies would move their operations to next, with China being responsible for much of their world’s mining activity up until the crackdown. GEM Mining CEO John Warren believes that the U.S. has been able to fill the vacuum left by the Chinese pullout of the crypto space. “What you’ve seen over the past years with China shutting down, Kazakhstan shutting down, [is that] North America — and specifically the United States —…

The rise of cryptocurrencies, one of the biggest financial trends to emerge in years, has raised the stakes for regulators to exert more influence over the sector, while protecting investors. The rapid adoption of digital tokens has made the development of a central bank digital currency (CBDC) a more “urgent” proposition, a top official told Yahoo Finance recently, especially as a multi-agency debate unfolds over crypto regulation. “We absolutely support an urgent study of CBDC,” Treasury Under Secretary for Domestic Finance Nellie Liang said in a Yahoo Finance interview last week, but stopped short of outright endorsing one. “There are many ways…

Bitcoin in recent days leapt past the symbolic round number of $40,000 and the 50-day moving average of $42,800, as traders hoped for a sustained rebound of the cryptocurrency after a significant sell-off. But the asset is hardly out of the woods, says Vikram Mansharanmani, a lecturer at Harvard University and author of “Think for Yourself: Restoring Common Sense in an Age of Experts and Artificial Intelligence.” Mansharanmani, who recently spoke to Yahoo Finance’s Akiko Fujita for a special program called “Future of Finance,” predicted major ups and downs for cryptocurrency investors in the coming years. But ultimately, Mansharanmani expressed…

Occurring parallel to the recent downturn in equities markets has been a sizable pullback in the prices of cryptocurrencies. According to CoinShares CEO Jean-Marie Mognetti, though the space has been taking a beating, popular cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin may still be able to recoup losses even in the face of rising interest rates. “It’s going to be interesting to see how it’s reacting in a bit of a more medium term perspective, but I think Bitcoin still has some room,” Mognetti told Yahoo Finance Live. “And it’s going to be almost testing the capacity of the Fed to tighten the economy and also the interest rate,…

Cryptocurrencies lost momentum on Thursday, tumbling sharply after the outcome of the Federal Reserve’s Wednesday Open Markets Committee meeting gave digital coins a fleeting boost. After briefly appearing to decouple from risk-sensitive stocks, Bitcoin (BTC-USD), Ethereum (ETH-USD) and its crypto cohorts ended Wednesday’s whipsaw session in the red, along with Wall Street. The reversal signaled the correlation with equities was not likely to end anytime soon, especially with the Fed poised to hike interest rates as early as March. The leading crypto units were down by at least 3% in early dealings, with Bitcoin changing hands below $37,000 — not…

Cryptocurrency mixers and the illicit activity often associated with them regularly make headlines. To the casual observer, the frequency of these attention-grabbing stories can give the impression that crypto mixing is far more prevalent than it is. Data tells us mixer transactions make up a shockingly small fraction of overall crypto activity. Since Bitcoin’s inception, blockchain technology has been closely associated with the dark web, money laundering, tax evasion and worse. Just last year millions in bitcoin were paid in ransom to the hackers of the Colonial Pipeline, further perpetuating the public’s belief about the underground world of blockchain-based currencies. By…