Market Watch | Bitcoin | $13,504 | 7 day: +3.6% | | Ethereum | $393 | 7 day: -5.4% | | All crypto | $399b | 7 day: unch | | Bitcoin dominance | 62.8% | 7 day: +2% | Prices as of 1 p.m. EDT
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 (Tax reconciliation is your responsibility.) Coinbase's debit card arrives for U.S. customers: Coinbase Card. The tax reporting requirements for using a crypto debit card are tremendous. - In the U.S., each use of a cryptocurrency to purchase a good or service is a separate, taxable event for IRS reporting purposes.
- Despite advocates at the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants and others to add a "de minimus" exemption for small cryptocurrency transactions, the IRS has refused to exempt any transactions.
- Despite Coinbase attempts to simplify tax-reporting documents for its customers, Coinbase cannot consolidate tax records for customers who have multiple exchange accounts or private wallets.
We covered the confusing launch of Binance's debit card (Coinbase Card's competitor) here and here. - In August, Coinbase's primary competitor, Binance, confirmed the rumor of Binance acquiring a crypto debit card provider, Swipe (SXP).
- Binance opened pre-registration for Binance Card in a perplexing manner.
- Binance claims to be the world's leading crypto exchange with over $9.4b in reported daily volume.
More about Coinbase Card: - Coinbase opened the waitlist this week for its newly-released Visa debit card for U.S-based consumers.
- Coinbase Card initially launched for European and U.K-based users.
- Coinbase's debit card draws funds from a customers' portfolio directly while making payments.
- Consumers may use Coinbase Card at any merchant supporting Visa.
- MetaBank, which holds a Visa U.S.A. Inc. license, will issue Coinbase Cards in the U.S.
- California-based Marqeta will also be involved in Coinbase Card operations.
- Coinbase's blog mentions an array of features: two-step verification, instant freeze options, and support for 30 different cryptocurrencies in the U.S. (9 cryptos in the U.K and Europe).
- Coinbase announced a rewards program for Coinbase Card users to allow U.S residents to receive 1% in bitcoin (BTC) or 4% in stellar lumens (XLM) as rewards.
- The spending rewards program is optional to join and will also be taxable.
- Coinbase Card's daily spending limit is $2,500 in the U.S., £10,000 in the U.K., and €10,000 in European countries, according to news reports.
USDC marketing: - Coinbase FAQs highlight that Coinbase Card will not impose a fee on transactions backed by USD Coin (USDC).
- USDC is Coinbase's supported and controlled stablecoin through its partner, Circle.
- Non-USDC transactions will incur a 2.49% transaction fee for U.S. residents.
The Block Crypto 
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 A hydroelectric dam in China Bitcoin's hashrate is at all-time highs; profitability is at all-time lows. Chinese miners are migrating from hydroelectric to fossil fuel power. - In steady decline all year, bitcoin is becoming progressively less profitable coin to mine.
- In addition to the May 11, 2020 halving, the increase in bitcoin's hashrate (caused by the increasing popularity of mining) is causing reduced profitability.
- Large bitcoin mining farms and new ASIC hardware-collateralized financing are partially responsible for the increase in bitcoin's hashrate.
- ASIC financing companies such as Blockfills, Arctos, BlockFi, and Galaxy Digital provide miners with high-end mining equipment.
- The bitcoin miner revenue per terahash (bitcoin's hashrate index), according to Luxorhash, a U.S-based mining company, is perpetually rising.
- Bitcoin miners earned at least $1.4 per terahash in 2017. They now extract a mere $0.09.
- Before 2020, miners were producing just 90 EH/s to generate new blocks. That figure peaked at 157 EH/s in the middle of October.
Chinese mining giants: - China's annual wet season brings cheap hydroelectricity to substantial Chinese mining farms based in the Sichuan, Yunnan, and Guizhou provinces. The rainy season is ending.
- According to a Weibo post by Kevin Pan, co-founder of Chinese crypto mining giant PoolIn, many Chinese miners will switch to fossil fuel power to continue mining during the winter, keeping profitability low.
- Some mining companies based in the northern territories, including Xinjiang and Inner Mongol, have already converted from hydroelectricity to fuel-based power.
- Coindesk reported an 11% drop in miner revenues in September.
- According to the COO of mining media company HASHR8, many significant North America-based companies like RIOT and Foundry are now offering financing options collateralized by ASIC machines.
Coindesk
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Criminals are laundering stolen bitcoin from KuCoin. We reviewed the original crime ⏤ the third-largest exchange hack in cryptocurrency history, which revealed the centralized powers of ostensibly decentralized projects ⏤ here. - Hackers are attempting to launder the bitcoin via several "mixers."
- Blockchain analytics company Elliptic shared news regarding the movement of stolen bitcoin from the KuCoin hack.
- On Oct. 26, the mixing process began for 425 bitcoin (out of the 1,008 reportedly missing bitcoin) via ChipMixer.
- Like all mixing service providers, ChipMixer allows an individual to muddle cryptocurrencies, mixing them with other funds and obfuscating transactions. ChipMixer also allows users to divide, join, and bet on cryptocurrencies within the mixing service.
- Using a transaction mixer is not a unique method to launder stolen BTC funds. In July, Twitter hackers used ChipMixer and Wasabi to launder some 50% of their stolen bitcoin.
- Funds lost during KuCoin accounts exceeded $280m, but according to executive Johnny Lyu, the exchange identified the suspects.
The Block Crypto
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The Wyoming Division of Banking has signed a "no-action" letter for Two Ocean Trust, a Wyoming-chartered trust company and qualified cryptocurrency custodian. - The Oct. 27 letter empowers Two Ocean Trust to custody both digital and traditional assets under Wyoming law and act as a "qualified custodian" under the Investment Advisers Act of 1940.
- The Wyoming Division of Banking categorized the company as a "bank" under the Advisers Act after it satisfied all criteria. These include trustee powers similar to those of national banks.
Forbes
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QUICK HITS - Bitwise has $100m in assets under management.
- Grayscale has $7.5b in assets under management.
- President Donald Trump's reelection campaign website was briefly hacked by cryptocurrency scammers.
- John McAfee is tweeting about crypto from behind bars in a jail cell in Barcelona, Spain. He is awaiting extradition to the U.S. on criminal charges.
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 |  | Written and curated by wide-eyed bitcoin watcher since $1, Aaron Wise. Streaming headline junkie, Associated Press fanboy, eye-strained news terminal watcher, 2017 founder of Cryptocurrency Newsfeed. Temporarily based in Florida while awaiting the construction of cryptopia. |  | | Editor | Edited by Eduardo Garcia in New York. Eduardo is writing an illustrated book about climate change that will be published by Ten Speed Press, an imprint of Penguin Random House. Bylines in The New York Times, The Guardian, Slate, Scientific American, and others. In one of his previous lives, Eduardo worked as a Reuters correspondent in Latin America for nearly a decade. | |
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