NFTs Make Music | Goldman Warms To Bitcoin

NFTS TURN UP THE MUSIC

NFTs, or non-fungible tokens, are undeniably the new darlings of crypto, especially among artists. The tokens allow them to sell digital media, such as artworks, at nifty prices and collect a cut of secondary sales, too. Now, musicians are getting involved in the action. They can use NFTs to sell an album, drop a single or strike a more complicated bargain—perhaps selling off a cut of future earnings for the immediate investment. The realization is taking the music world by storm.

On March 3, the band Kings of Leon announced they plan to release a new album through an NFT sale, something no other artist has done. And three days prior, the electronic dance music star 3LAU finished an $11.7 million NFT auction, the biggest sale of the tokens yet . He sold off a variety of different types of NFTs, some of which included access to new songs and digital copies of his 2017 Ultraviolet album.

BITCOIN & CRYPTO SEEK HIGHER GROUND

After a roller-coaster week, bitcoin briefly made a comeback north of $50,000 before falling to $48,000 on Thursday following U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell’s statements expressing a lack of immediate concern over rising treasury yields. Analysts predict potential further upside resistance while markets search for a new equilibrium.

That said, institutional interest for crypto continues to grow. On Monday, Goldman Sachs announced the reboot of its cryptocurrency trading desk after a three-year hiatus. The cryptocurrency trading operation is set to begin dealing bitcoin futures for clients later this month. The banking powerhouse has also posted the results of a client survey finding that 61% of respondents expect their digital asset holdings to increase in the next 12-24 months.

CRYPTO AND TAXES DEMYSTIFIED

With tax season in full bloom, the IRS recently updated Question 5 of its FAQ that states “If your only transactions involving virtual currency during 2020 were purchases of virtual currency with real currency, you are not required to answer yes to the Form 1040 question [concerning the purchase of cryptocurrencies]”

However, this clarification is only leading to more confusion. Does that mean cryptocurrency purchases made in fiat currencies are not subject to any type of IRS tax reporting? It seems that way, but remember this: FAQs are not considered authority when taking a position on a tax return and FAQs change frequently. At a minimum, tax professionals recommend the best practice of printing a dated copy of the relevant FAQ into the client’s tax file.

BLOCKCHAIN 50 SPOTLIGHT

This week, Forbes Blockchain 50 member MicroStrategy purchased approximately 328 more bitcoins on Monday and 205 bitcoins on Friday, bringing the company's total bitcoin holdings to $4.48 billion as of March 5, 15:36 EST. MicroStrategy’s chief executive Michael Saylor believes “bitcoin is going to flip gold” and eventually “subsume the entire gold market cap. Once it gets to $10 trillion, its volatility will be dramatically less. As it marches toward $100 trillion, you’re going to see the growth rates fall, the volatility fall, and it’s going to be a stabilizing influence in the entire financial system of the 21st century.”

ELSEWHERE

An Original Banksy Has Been Burned and Turned Into an NFT [Decrypt]

Ripple pilots private version of XRP Ledger for central bank digital currencies [TheBlock]

PayPal to Buy Crypto Custody Firm Curv: Sources [CoinDesk]

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