  The biggest crypto news and ideas of the day Dec. 27, 2021 If you were forwarded this newsletter and would like to receive it, sign up here. Sponsored by  Welcome to The Node.
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Today's must-reads Top Shelf  PROHIBITIVE TAX? Crypto companies in Japan have implored authorities to change tax policies that some say are driving them out of the country. On Dec. 10, Japan's ruling coalition approved a tax plan for the 2022 fiscal year that continues to treat token listings, airdrops and treasuries as taxable. Crypto startups, faced with a tax rate as high as 35% or potential taxes even if assets aren't sold, are leaving the country, CoinDesk Lavender Au and Eliza Gkritsi report.
METAVERSE MENTIONS: Kraken is developing a marketplace for non-fungible tokens (NFTs) where users can arrange loans using the tokens as collateral, CEO Jesse Powell told Bloomberg. Although competing exchanges Coinbase and FTX have also moved into NFTs, NFT-backed loans are somewhat more novel. Elsewhere in the metaverse, PwC Hong Kong bought LAND in The Sandbox. The virtual real estate platform welcomed just 4,500 unique addresses in the past 30 days, according to DappRadar.
PROPOSED BANS: Amid ongoing economic experimentation, soaring inflation and growing bitcoin use, Turkey President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan will send a crypto law to the country's parliament, two publications reported Friday. In April, Turkey's central bank said it was banning the use of cryptocurrency for payments, although it remains legal to hold crypto in the country. Separately, an influential economic group tied to India's ruling party has called for a ban on "private" digital currencies and the development of a central bank digital currency (CBDC). In the U.S., Sen. Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.) will pitch Congress next year on creating a self-regulatory body for crypto as part of her sweeping digital asset policy bill.
MINING BUMP: Marathon Digital is purchasing a record number of bitcoin miners from Bitmain. The publicly traded firm did not disclose a total but claimed that in terms of exahashes per second (EX/s) the new machines will generate, the deal was the largest single order of Antminer S19 XP bitcoin miners, part of its plan to have 199,000 operational miners by 2023 (reportedly to bump its hashrate by 600%).
BLOCKCHAIN DEVELOPMENT: Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson said "a formal open-source project structure" similar to Hyperledger to Linux to help steer blockchain development is in the cards for 2022. He is also pursuing "end-to-end microfinance" capabilities and a native web wallet for the $50 billion blockchain, in a year-end video shot from Boulder, Colo. Separately, ERC-20 tokens have come to Dfinity's Internet Computer with its new cross-chain bridge to Ethereum. Finally, in a reversal, Telegram CEO Pavel Durov has put its weight behind Toncoin, one of two blockchains that came out of the demise of the $1.7 billion TON blockchain targeted by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in 2020.
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Monday, December 27, 2021
Crypto Startups Flee Japan's Tax Policy
Friday, December 24, 2021
Web 3 and the Metaverse Are Not the Same
| The biggest crypto news and ideas of the day Dec. 24, 2021 If you were forwarded this newsletter and would like to receive it, sign up here. Sponsored by Welcome to The Node.
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Today's must-reads Top Shelf Happy Friday to all and merry Christmas to those who celebrate. For the long holiday weekend, we at CoinDesk have gathered a few recent articles, essays and op-eds you might want to read. No better gift than a good read.
PANTERA'S PREDICTIONS: Pantera's Paul Veradittakit makes six predictions about crypto in 2022. This year, we saw decentralized finance (DeFi) swell to a $100 billion+ industry, bitcoin (BTC) reach a price peak of $69,000, massive ecosystem growth for companion blockchain networks (layer 2) such as Arbitrum and alternative chains like Solana, over $22 billion in sales for non-fungible tokens (NFT) and more mainstream and institutional interest than ever before. Can that keep pace?
STABLECOIN SUCCOR: Jake Chervinsky, head of policy at the Blockchain Association, writes about why the U.S. should support the nascent stablecoin industry rather than pursue a central bank digital currency (CBDC). Stablecoins are already expanding the reach of the U.S. dollar, but if the government were to restrict stablecoins in favor of a CBDC, that trend could quickly reverse. U.S. Rep. Tom Emmer of Minnesota makes a similar case.
WEB 3 VS. META: Web 3 and the metaverse are not the same, argues culture commentator Annie Zhang. "What people missed is the innovation and focus Meta was pushing for was largely on hardware and a 3D user consumption and input interface that, quite frankly, does not exist today. Facebook is trying to solve the immersion problem," she writes. Web 3 might have higher ambitions – even if Jack Dorsey doesn't want in.
GENERATING GENERATIVE ART: Joshua Davis is among hundreds, maybe thousands, of creators who have made life-changing amounts of money from the non-fungible token (NFT) boom. But he didn't make his mil selling profile jpegs of zombie gophers wearing polo shirts. Davis is just one of the many "generative artists," or those who use new tools like machine learning to automate the creation of art, who have finally found a home in the world of crypto, writes CoinDesk's David Z. Morris.
THE DAO DIVIDER? What's next for Friends With Benefits, the buzzy new decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) and social club? Designed to be open to all who purchase various tiers of the group's tokens, FWB, (75 will get you access to the group's sprawling, multifarious Discord server, with dedicated chat rooms for everything from memes to music), the price of this social token is subject to the market. Is FWB pricing out future friends, asks CoinDesk's Will Gottsegen?
A message from Nexo When it comes to buying, borrowing or earning on your crypto, you won't find and easier, safer way to do it than Nexo.
And here's what'll happen next: you and your referrals will both get $25 in BTC within 30 days of them passing Advanced Verification and topping up the equivalent of $100 or more of any asset supported on the Nexo platform.
There's no limit on the number of people you can refer, so invite as many friends as you'd like!
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Coinbase: Building a Secure Crypto Infrastructure for Institutional Investors
As the largest publicly traded cryptocurrency exchange in the U.S., Coinbase often serves as a bridge for institutional investors between traditional finance and the world of digital assets. And with the launch of its prime brokerage, Coinbase now has an integrated product that provides institutional investors with a suite of services including trading, analytics and secure custody.
Using the same regulatory, compliance, insurance, and security practices and standards that leading banks follow as its starting point, Coinbase then invests heavily in adapting and strengthening them so they're tailored to the unique aspects of digital assets.
The Chaser... 
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