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<ul class="summary-list"><li>"Bitcoin Jesus" Roger Ver was arrested in Spain on charges of tax evasion this week. </li><li>The DOJ says Ver dodged $48 million in taxes owed to the IRS. </li></ul>Veteran crypto trader Roger Ver, also known as "bitcoin Jesus," was arrested in Spain and charged by the US Department of Justice with evading $48 million in taxes. According to a <a href="https://www.justice.gov/usao-cdca/pr/early-bitcoin-investor-known-bitcoin-jesus-indicted-allegedly-committing-tax-fraud-and" target="_blank" rel="noopener">press release</a> from the Justice Department on Tuesday, Ver was arrested in Spain last weekend on criminal charges, with authorities set to seek extradition for his trial in the US.Ver faces three charges of mail fraud, two charges of tax evasion, and three charges of subscribing to a false tax return. These allegations are said to have resulted in a minimum loss of $48 million in taxes due to the IRS. The DOJ says that when Ver renounced his US citizenship and became a citizen of St. Kitts and Nevis on February 4, 2014, he and his US-based companies — MemoryDealers and Agilestar — collectively owned approximately 131,000 bitcoins that valued at $871 each, with the companies allegedly holding about 73,000 of them.However, the DOJ said Ver didn't comply with the US law to file taxes and report the market value of worldwide assets and pay an "exit tax" on capital gains. "Bitcoin Jesus" also allegedly gave false information to a law firm and appraiser, which resulted in undervaluing his assets by not disclosing the true number of bitcoins he and his companies owned, including an underestimation of his personal holdings.The Justice Department claims that Ver's two companies retained about 7,000 bitcoins by June 2017, and Ver purportedly sold tens of thousands of them for around $240 million in cash. Additionally, he was legally obliged to report and pay taxes on distributions, despite not being a US citizen at that time.Ver, who was an early cryptocurrency evangelist, has been avidly promoting bitcoin for years, earning him the "Bitcoin Jesus" moniker. Also this week, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/former-binance-ceo-sentenced-to-four-months-in-prison-2024-4">Binance's former boss Changpeng Zhao</a> was sentenced to four months over the exchange's violation of anti-money laundering rules. His sentencing comes a little over a month after former <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/sam-bankman-fried-sentenced-prison-ftx-alameda-research-2024-3#:~:text=Sam%20Bankman%2DFried%20has%20been,still%20tried%20to%20shift%20blame.">FTX boss Sam Bankman-Fried</a> was sentenced to 25 years for defrauding customers.

Crypto investor 'bitcoin Jesus' arrested and charged by the Justice Department with $48 million tax evasion

Crypto.com is everywhere. Its <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/cryptocom-how-startup-bought-staples-center-rights-700-million-2021-12">name is plastered on the home</a> of arguably the most famous NBA franchise, the Los Angeles Lakers. It's sponsoring Formula 1 races and UFC matches. Its ads are <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/crypto-ads-return-tv-prices-rise-meme-stock-bitcoin-2024-5">back on the airwaves</a>, with Eminem declaring during the NBA playoffs that "fortune favors the brave."Crypto.com is also nowhere. It doesn't have a flashy CEO like FTX's Sam Bankman-Fried (<a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/sam-bankman-fried-sentenced-prison-ftx-alameda-research-2024-3">who is currently in prison</a>) or Binance's CZ (<a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/former-binance-ceo-sentenced-to-four-months-in-prison-2024-4">who is headed to prison</a>). Unlike with <a target="_blank" href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/currencies/sec-sues-coinbase-violating-securities-regulation-binance-crypto-regulation-gensler-2023-6">Coinbase</a>, regulators don't seem to be sniffing around. Sure, the company has high-profile marketing efforts, but day to day, Crypto.com doesn't really come up much at all.Crypto.com is one of those things I've long placed in my "I wonder what the deal is" column, along with <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/jojo-siwa-rebrand-shows-difficulty-child-stars-grow-up-2024-4">Jojo Siwa</a>, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/bird-flu-virus-chickens-cows-human-food-outbreaks-pandemic-2024-5">bird flu</a>, and <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/f1-nascar-races-motorsports-2022-6">the difference between F1 and NASCAR</a>. It seems impossible to watch a sporting event without seeing its name somewhere, and yet I rarely chat with someone who uses it or come across its name in headlines. Part of the issue is that I live in New York, where its services aren't allowed. (That's not a knock on the company — for a lot of crypto exchanges, the Empire State is a tough nut to crack.) But it's also a rather nebulous entity in the American market. It says it's got 100 million users globally, but it still seems to fly a little under the radar.Often, when I mention Crypto.com to someone who works in the crypto industry, they tell me they know about it, of course. When I ask exactly what they know about it, they come up pretty empty. Maybe it's mainly popular abroad, they speculate, or only for novices. Google data indicates that while a good chunk of the search interest does come from America, more comes from outside the US, notably from Singapore, Nigeria, and Bulgaria."Huh, I guess bigger than I thought," one crypto evangelist remarked after looking up its trading volume."They own the Lakers' arena? I've always been so confused on how they did that," another crypto entrepreneur said. (To be fair, the company doesn't own the arena; it just bought the naming rights.) He'd set up a Crypto.com account during the 2021-2022 market cycle to do a specific maneuver not allowed on Coinbase at the time, but he hasn't really used it since then.When I asked Nic Carter, a general partner at Castle Island Ventures, about the company, he replied in an email, "It's kind of a mystery, yes."He added that, like me, he doesn't know anyone who uses it. "But I think that reflects the user base — it's not necessarily crypto-natives but rather retail that wants a casual and accessible experience (is my understanding)," he said.Crypto.com is positioning itself as the new face of crypto, even as it remains rather faceless itself. It might prove to be a smart move — it's boosting its brand and, in turn, its consumer base while avoiding much of the scrutiny other exchanges have faced. For the time being, Crypto.com is balancing between notability and infamy. It's walking softly but carrying a big ad budget.While Crypto.com only really burst onto the American scene over the past four years or so, it's been around for a while. Originally named Monaco, the exchange was founded in 2016 in Hong Kong by Kris Marszalek, a Polish-born entrepreneur with a colorful past, and a handful of others. Amid the 2017 crypto run, it raised money from the public via an initial coin offering — creating and selling a digital token of its own, similar to a stock-market IPO. In 2018, the company landed the coveted Crypto.com domain name, purchasing it for an undisclosed amount from an academic who had long refused to sell it. (Even more confusingly, Crypto.com is technically operated by Foris DAX Asia, which, according to a scan of Reddit, can befuddle many users when their tax paperwork comes in. It's also the name Crypto.com lobbies under.) Crypto.com's primary business is its cryptocurrency exchange, which works as a middleman for people buying and selling crypto, but it also offers other products, including crypto Visa cards.The 2021-22 market cycle is when Crypto.com, now headquartered in Singapore, made its big splash. In late 2021, it <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/staples-center-la-being-renamed-crypto-com-arena-2021-11">bought the naming rights</a> to what was then the Staples Center in Los Angeles as part of a 20-year, $700 million deal. It signed sponsorship deals with UFC and F1 while also rolling its "fortune favors the brave" ad campaign, which originally featured Matt Damon. Crypto.com was seeking brand awareness, and it was willing to spend millions upon millions for it."This is one brick in a bigger wall of introducing Crypto.com as a brand to the world and communicating what our core values are," Steven Kalifowitz, Crypto.com's chief marketing officer, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/cryptocom-how-startup-bought-staples-center-rights-700-million-2021-12">told Business Insider</a> at the time. In the moment, it all sort of made sense. FTX was flying high and had paid $135 million to slap its name on the Miami Heat's stadium. Its founder, SBF, was running around with Bill Clinton and Tony Blair in the Bahamas and suggesting he'd spend $1 billion on the 2024 election. Binance's CZ was <a target="_blank" href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/currencies/binance-ceo-chaopeng-zhang-cz-forbes-investment-crypto-adoption-media-2022-2">talking about investing $200 million in Forbes</a>, saying it would push media companies toward adopting crypto and lead to the decentralization of the industry. But we know how the story ends: <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/ftx-crypto-exchange-implosion-sam-bankman-fried-what-it-means-2022-11">FTX imploded</a>, along with some <a target="_blank" href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/currencies/ftx-crypto-implosion-vaporized-billions-dollars-sam-bankman-fried-explained-2022-11">other high-profile crypto projects</a>, and <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/crypto-winter-web3-startup-valuations-forge-global-secondary-markets-2023-5">crypto winter set in</a>. A lot of <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/ftx-crypto-king-sam-bankman-fried-rise-and-fall-2022-11">crypto's mini-emperors</a> turned out to have no clothes.Crypto.com, however, managed to weather the storm, though not perfectly. The company accidentally sent some $400 million to the wrong account in November 2022, prompting some users to pull their money out of the platform. At the start of 2023, <a target="_blank" href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/currencies/crypto-layoffs-job-cuts-ftx-valuation-tech-markets-cro-2023-1">it laid off 20% of its workforce</a>, blaming economic headwinds and FTX's collapse. The Financial Times reported last June that Crypto.com was operating internal proprietary trading teams, which US regulators had dinged Binance for, even though Crypto.com insisted it was fine. The regulatory environment in the US appears to have made the company a little nervous — it shut down its American institutional exchange in the middle of last year.In the US, Crypto.com has managed to avoid much of the blowback its competitors have faced. (This isn't the case in other countries — in the Netherlands, for example, it was fined for operating without registration.) While the S<a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/sec-binance-coinbase-crypto-digital-currency-2023-6">ecurities and Exchange Commission has gone after</a> Coinbase and Kraken for operating unregistered securities exchanges, it hasn't made a peep about Crypto.com. Crypto.com has so far ducked notice, even though it's running a lot of the same playbook. In April, the company's chief operating officer acknowledged in an interview with Decrypt that its big-budget marketing efforts could put a target on its back but said the trade-off was worth it.Crypto.com's determination to push ahead, both loudly and quietly, has set it up to try to capitalize <a target="_blank" href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/currencies/bitcoin-price-outlook-100000-crypto-winter-bank-crisis-btc-halving-2023-4">on the market's recent run</a>. Bitcoin is once again on the up and up, and so too is Crypto.com. The company is hiring again, it's advertising aggressively again, and it's talking a big game about its business prospects — its CEO, Marszalek, told Bloomberg in April that it was looking to triple its number of registered users.Data from the marketing-intelligence firm Sensor Tower indicates crypto advertisers' digital spending in the US increased by 185% year over year in the first quarter of 2024. Crypto.com spent eight times as much as Coinbase on digital advertising during that period. (It's worth noting that back in the first quarter of 2022, Crypto.com actually outspent FTX on digital ads by a bit.)But the thing about all Crypto.com's advertising dollars is that they seem to be only effective-ish. Data compiled by CCData shows that Crypto.com has a 2.3% market share by trading volumes on the spot market globally, which is about half of Coinbase, which has 4%, and only slightly above Kraken, which has 1.4%. (Globally, Binance is still dominant.) According to Sensor Tower, Crypto.com saw a 140% increase in downloads in March from the prior month, though it fell slightly behind Coinbase, which had a 160% increase. Crypto.com didn't respond to multiple requests for interviews or comments for this story. Most of the people I did speak to gave the verbal equivalent of a shrug when I asked what they thought of the company.One crypto executive said part of the issue was that Crypto.com, being an upstart from Asia, is a little outside Silicon Valley's mainstream crypto circles. Similar to the clubby "<a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/paypal-mafia-members-elon-musk-peter-thiel-reid-hoffman-companies">PayPal Mafia</a>" that <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/why-paypal-mafia-members-elon-musk-have-been-successful-founders-2022-6">dominated software in the 2010s</a>, a sort of Coinbase crew has its hold on the crypto industry of the 2020s. The exec wasn't too keen on Crypto.com's flashy advertising either, describing it as "decadent" and irresponsible."All that buying of stadiums and renaming stuff, it's just kind of viewed as lame by most people in crypto," they said. "I think the tackiest thing and frankly irresponsible thing to do is to roll out FOMO ads. 'Buy crypto or get left behind' is a really irresponsible message. JPMorgan doesn't do that."And despite the company's ability to dodge serious regulatory scrutiny, it hasn't engendered a lot of goodwill among some crypto evangelists."I'm supportive of bitcoin, but I think Crypto.com is overall a big negative for the American public. It's very confusing. It's a casino," said Alex Gladstein, who as the chief strategy officer at the Human Rights Foundation has argued that bitcoin is important for advancing human rights and freedom. "When you go to the website, they encourage you to try and bet on these coins that go to zero. I don't think it's anything to do with financial empowerment for people or any sort of alternative wealth building."To be sure, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/gambling-young-men-sports-betting-crypto-meme-stock-market-addiction-2024-4">the casino thing could be said about most crypto exchanges</a> — and sports-betting apps, and many regular trading apps. Crypto.com seems to be careful about coloring within the regulatory lines. The head of its legal department in the Americas just put out a "crypto legal handbook," which, OK.Crypto.com is embedded in our culture, and it isn't. It's sort of taken on the FTX mantle but with a more anonymous bent. For the company, it's a pretty savvy space in which to operate: ubiquitous but relatively anonymous. For everyone else, mileage may vary on how you feel about the whole thing. It's a good reminder that, whatever the company, it's better to use exchanges only for trading your crypto assets, not for storing them.Maybe Eminem won't come to regret voicing those ads like Matt Damon did. Or maybe in five years we'll be looking back at this moment and saying: "Remember that one crypto company? Is it still where the Lakers play? Or is it now something else?"<a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/author/emily-stewart">Emily Stewart</a> is a senior correspondent at Business Insider, writing about business and the economy.

The new king of crypto

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Donald Trump courted bitcoin lovers by branding himself the "crypto president."</li><li>The industry hopes his second term will bring regulatory changes and give bitcoin a role in the economy.</li></ul>Donald Trump flipped from <a target="_blank" href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/currencies/btc-usd?utm_medium=ingest&amp;utm_source=markets&amp;utm_medium=ingest&amp;utm_source=markets">bitcoin</a> cynic to <a target="_blank" href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/currencies/trump-bitcoin-cryptocurrency-election-outlook-crypto-funding-regulation-biden-novogratz-2024-7?utm_medium=ingest&amp;utm_source=markets">"crypto president"</a> and it paid off big.Trump <a target="_blank" href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/currencies/news/trump-bitcoin-commentary-seems-like-scam-against-the-us-dollar-2021-6-1030500598?utm_medium=ingest&amp;utm_source=markets">disparaged digital assets</a> as recently as just a few years ago, describing bitcoin as a scam, and yet his latest electoral win was fueled in no small part by crypto-friendly pledges that unlocked millions in campaign funding.With Trump headed back to the White House, it's now the industry's turn to see if its bets on a second term paid off. Here's what they're want to see. <h2 id="1009b70b-3c95-4408-9e2d-ef2b16069f01">Regulatory overhaul</h2>One of the root themes of Trump's crypto platform is a promise to sweep aside regulatory restrictions that have hung over the industry in recent years.Criticism has been loud over the Biden administration's handling of the sector, characterized by heated confrontations between the Securities and Exchange Commission and major crypto players."Those guys, I mean, they just put so much uncertainty in this entire industry. It was unbelievable. There was no clear guidance, no regulations," said Tim Kravchunovsky, CEO of Chirp, a decentralized telecommunications company.Speaking with Business Insider, he added that regulatory conflict has pushed crypto business out of the US, costing Washington its competitive edge. Matt Mena, crypto research strategist at 21Shares, agreed with that sentiment. "By creating a more welcoming regulatory environment, this approach could draw back projects and founders who have left the country due to regulatory uncertainty, generating thousands of new jobs and millions in tax revenue, bolstering the economy while advancing the crypto sector," he told BI over email.To this end, the industry anticipates that Trump will replace regulatory heads with more crypto-friendly people. The president-elect is already surrounded by such figures, Mena said, such as Elon Musk, JD Vance, Robert F. Kennedy, and Howard Lutnick.Meanwhile, to make Trump's plan of turning the US into a "crypto hub" possible,Kravchunovsky suggested that Washington could provide incentives such as federal grants and tax cuts.<h2 id="b1a4e172-d8a3-4ea3-b022-1a29b3897ab5">Crypto bills</h2>On the legislative front, crypto players will also be watching for the repeal of SAB 121 and the passage of several key bills,SAB 121, an SEC policy document <a target="_blank" href="https://content.next.westlaw.com/practical-law/document/Idfd9dfac273211ef8921fbef1a541940/President-Biden-Vetoes-Legislation-Rescinding-SEC-Staff-Accounting-Bulletin-121-SAB-121-on-Crypto-Custody?viewType=FullText&amp;transitionType=Default&amp;contextData=(sc.Default)">kept in place by the Biden administration</a>, discourages US lenders from acting as crypto custiodians, given that it requires them to hold an equivalent amount of cash against their crypto holdings. It's removal would free institutional investors to further adopt digital assets.Mena also cited anticipation around FIT21, an act aiming to clarify the regulatory roles around digital assets. Consumer protections would also strengthen under this bill, he said.Meanwhile, Trump's administration could accelerate progress on three meaningful pieces of stablecoin legislation, which aim to set up guardrails around future stablecoin issuance. These dollar-pegged crypto assets are increasingly used for purposes similar to traditional finance, Standard Chartered said in a note on Friday.<h2 id="eae31105-86db-4e91-9d15-cfc75e92738f">A bitcoin reserve?</h2>Since Trump's victory, speculation has jumped that a strategic bitcoin reserve could be in on the way. Though the President-elect has not specifically voiced such a plan, the idea that his administration would buy bitcoin as a reserve asset has created enthusiasm among crypto bulls."We're already seeing that that [crypto's] gaining trust, and it's gaining trust within institutions and countries. More and more countries are adopting it. So I don't think it's a matter of years. I think it's a matter of months," Kravchunovsky said.Mena sees the price of bitcoin soaring to $1 million "almost overnight," if a strategic reserve were to be established. The scenario would prompt other nations to build up their own reserves, pushing bitcoin's total market cap 13 times higher. Meanwhile, Standard Chartered head of FX research Geoff Kendrick considers a bitcoin reserve fund as a high-impact development with a low probability of happening for now. Investors should instead pay attention to Trump's separate promise to cease all sales of government bitcoin. If this happens, that could mean a sizeable upswing in the price of the token, he wrote.<h2 id="6a25764b-b3fc-4a7c-a689-ece320390cd4">Crypto's time to shine</h2>In whatever way the industry changes under Trump, one thing feels certain: the election has cemented the crypto markets place in the mainstream."Crypto is now essentially legal in the U.S., marking a major turning point for the industry," Mena wrote.According to Kendrick, crypto-friendly adjustments have the potential to drive the total market value of the cryptocurrency market to $10 trillion by the end of 2026, a major jump from the current $2.5 trillion level.He reiterated his expectation that bitcoin will hit $200,000 by the next year's end.

What the crypto market actually wants from a Trump presidency

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Bitcoin is a "fraud" and "Ponzi scheme" and cannot serve as a currency, Jamie Dimon said.</li><li>The JPMorgan CEO said cryptos that enable smart contracts and blockchain apps might have value.</li></ul><a target="_blank" href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/currencies/btc-usd">Bitcoin</a> is a scam and fails as a currency, Jamie Dimon said."If you mean crypto like bitcoin, I've always said it's a fraud," the JPMorgan CEO told <a target="_blank" href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/videos/2024-04-17/when-jpmorgan-ceo-jamie-dimon-speaks-the-world-listens-video">Bloomberg TV</a> on Wednesday."If they think they're a currency, there's no hope for it. It's a <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-bernie-madoffs-ponzi-scheme-worked-2014-7">Ponzi scheme</a>," he added.However, the billionaire banker did say tokens that serve a purpose may not be worthless."If it's a crypto coin that can do something like a <a target="_blank" href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/currencies/mark-cuban-smart-contracts-most-likely-fraud-source-identity-proof-2021-9">smart contract</a>, that has value," he said. "There will be smart contracts, and <a target="_blank" href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/mark-cuban-shark-tank-crypto-nft-blockchain-technology-dallas-mavericks-2022-4">blockchain works</a> — to the extent crypto is accessing certain blockchain things, yeah, that might have some value."Dimon has trashed bitcoin repeatedly in recent years. He's <a target="_blank" href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/currencies/bitcoin-price-rally-jamie-dimon-record-high-cryptocurrency-smoking-fraud-2024-3">compared it</a> to smoking a cigarette, <a target="_blank" href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/currencies/jpmorgan-jamie-dimon-bitcoin-crypto-blockchain-regulation-crime-ponzi-scheme-2022-9">said</a> it's "dangerous" to own, <a target="_blank" href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/currencies/jamie-dimon-crypto-bitcoin-regulation-sec-etf-criminal-laundering-banking-2023-12">urged</a> people not to buy it, and called on governments to ban it.The Wall Street heavyweight has also <a target="_blank" href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/jamie-dimon-economic-outlook-recession-bitcoin-fraud-russia-ukraine-war-2023-1">decried</a> the most popular crypto as a "waste of time," a "hyped-up fraud," and a "pet rock."Moreover, he's <a target="_blank" href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/currencies/jamie-dimon-jpmorgan-bitcoin-crypto-recession-inflation-fed-rate-cuts-2024-1">bemoaned</a> the anonymity it provides and the lack of regulation around its use, saying it enables crimes such as fraud, tax avoidance, money laundering, sex and drug trafficking, and terrorism financing.Dimon may be vehemently opposed to bitcoin, but that hasn't stopped it from hitting record highs — albeit with plenty of volatility on the way.The token's price soared from $10,000 in September 2020 to more than $65,000 in November 2021, then crashed to about $16,000 over the next year.However, it rebounded above $70,000 last month and now trades around the $63,000 mark, giving it a market value of $1.2 trillion.

Jamie Dimon calls bitcoin a 'fraud' and a 'Ponzi scheme' &mdash; and says the crypto is hopeless as a currency

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Two crypto moguls' joint wealth rose by about $15 billion on the back of Trump's election victory.</li><li>Binance's Chaopeng Zhao and Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong added about $12 billion and $2.6 billion each.</li></ul>Two cryptocurrency tycoons saw a near-$15 billion boost to their combined wealth on Wednesday as Donald Trump <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/donald-trump-wins-presidential-election-race-2024-11">won the presidential election</a>.<a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/zhao-changpeng-binance-billionaire-crypto-mcdonalds-fast-food-wealth-lifestyle-2022-10">Changpeng Zhao</a>, who founded Binance and owns an estimated 90% of the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange, saw his net worth soar by about $12 billion or 30% to roughly $53 billion, propelling him into 25th place on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.Zhao was the second-biggest wealth gainer for the day, behind only <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk">Elon Musk</a> who became <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/billionaires-net-worth-trump-stock-market-nvidia-tesla-2024-11">grew $26.5 billion richer</a> as Tesla stock soared. The man known as "CZ" resigned as Binance CEO in November 2023 and was incarcerated <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/former-binance-ceo-sentenced-to-four-months-in-prison-2024-4">for four months</a> this year after pleading guilty to charges that Binance broke anti-money laundering rules.Brian Armstrong, CEO and cofounder of crypto exchange Coinbase, saw his net worth jump by about $2.6 billion or 30% on Wednesday to reach $11 billion, per the Bloomberg list.<div type="image" title="Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong" height="683" width="1024" msid="115058274" hostid="261" sizebytes="35564"></div><a target="_blank" class="" href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/currencies/btc-usd">Bitcoin</a>, the most popular crypto, <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/currencies/bitcoin-price-record-high-crypto-trump-trade-us-presidential-election-2024-11">surged to record highs</a> of about $75,000 on hopes that digital currencies will face an <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/cryptocurrency-bitcoin-influence-election-trump-harris-2024-10">easier regulatory environment</a> under Trump. Ethereum, Solana, Ripple, Dogecoin, and other tokens have also jumped following the former president's reelection.The Republican candidate's decisive victory over his Democratic rival, Kamala Harris, has relieved concerns in financial markets about a contested election outcome and fueled excitement about Trump's proposed tax cuts and deregulation.One result was the world's 12 richest people grew more than $70 billion richer in a single day, per Bloomberg's wealth rankings. Musk led the charge but Oracle's <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/larry-ellison">Larry Ellison</a> also gained about $10 billion, while Berkshire Hathaway's <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-warren-buffett-spends-money-net-worth">Warren Buffett</a> and Amazon's <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/jeff-bezos-life-career-education">Jeff Bezos</a> gained more than $7 billion each.All but one of the 12 individuals have become wealthier this year. LVMH CEO <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/who-is-bernard-arnault-owner-louis-vuitton-lvmh-net-worth">Bernard Arnault</a> is down $34 billion as signs of a luxury slowdown grow. Exclude him and his 11 peers have grown a combined $505 billion richer this year — a figure that exceeds the market value of Oracle ($502 billion).

2 crypto tycoons are almost $15 billion richer after Trump's election victory

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Donald Trump's presidential win boosted his social media company, Tesla, and crypto stocks.</li><li>Banking stocks also gained, while clean-energy stocks tumbled.</li></ul>Donald Trump's victory in the presidential election <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/trump-trade-us-presidential-election-dollar-treasuries-stocks-crypto-djt-2024-11">boosted shares</a> of his social media company, <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk">Elon Musk</a>'s Tesla, and a slew of cryptocurrency stocks in premarket trading on Wednesday.The former president's reelection sent renewable-energy stocks tumbling as traders bet his administration would be <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/biden-trump-climate-policies-ev-subsidies-renewables-fossil-fuel-drilling-2024-7">less friendly</a> in terms of subsidies and regulation.Shares of Trump Media &amp; Technology Group surged as much as 62% to $55 as investors wagered Truth Social's parent company, which counts Trump as its <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/donald-trump-truth-social-tmtg-stock-wealth-election-harris-x-2024-9">largest shareholder</a>, would benefit from his second term. The stock — which has Trump's initials, DJT, as its ticker — was trading 37% higher at last check.If the gain holds, Trump would be about $1.3 billion richer on paper given his near-53% stake in the company.Tesla stock rose 15% in premarket trading and was poised to open at its highest level in more than a year. Musk, the electric-vehicle maker's CEO, has <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-praises-elon-musk-a-star-is-born-2024-11">emerged</a> as one of Trump's most vocal champions and closest advisors.Crypto stocks jumped on the prospect of a <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/currencies/bitcoin-price-record-high-crypto-trump-trade-us-presidential-election-2024-11">friendlier US regulatory environment</a> under Trump. Coinbase and MicroStrategy both rose 13% in Wednesday's premarket. Bitcoin, the most popular crypto, climbed past $75,000 for the first time on election night before paring gains.<h2 id="b91524b5-c53d-4ab4-9fae-d43ef3d76f42">Boost for banks</h2>Conventional financial stocks also gained with Bank of America, JPMorgan, Wells Fargo, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, BlackRock, Blackstone, and KKR rising between 6% and 9% in the US premarket.Traders expect Wall Street banks, asset managers, and private equity firms to benefit from tax cuts and deregulation under Trump.In contrast, clean-energy stocks slid with Plug Power, SunRun, First Solar, and Enphase Energy all dropping at least 10% in premarket trading. Danish wind turbine manufacturer Orsted and rival Vestas fell 10% and 8% respectively in Frankfurt trading.The declines likely reflect concerns that Trump's reelection will lead to the repeal of the Inflation Reduction Act passed by the Biden administration, which provided large-scale tax credits for renewable-energy providers.The broader stock market gained before the open with futures underlying the S&amp;P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average climbing more than 2.3%, while Nasdaq 100 futures rose 1.8%.

Trump Media, Tesla, and crypto stocks surge as Trump wins — and clean energy companies tumble

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Former president Donald Trump unveiled a new cryptocurrency company earlier this week.</li><li>Two entrepreneurs behind the firm describe themselves as millionaires living large in the Caribbean.</li></ul>Donald Trump is the face of a new cryptocurrency business whose founders have a professional past littered with debts, lawsuits, and some questionable dating advice.In an X space on Monday, Trump formally unveiled World Liberty Financial, a cryptocurrency business that promises to launch its own crypto token whose value will be pegged to the U.S. dollar, alongside entrepreneurs Zachary Folkman and Chase Herro."Crypto is one of those things we have to do," Trump said during the livestream. "Whether we like it or not, I have to do it."Pundits have characterized the move as an attempt to appeal to cryptocurrency enthusiasts, who <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/donald-trump-going-for-crypto-bro-vote-world-liberty-financial-2024-9">tend to be young, white men</a>, amid scrutiny of Trump's past skepticism towards digital currencies. Trump also made other moves to curry favor with crypto fans, including a <a target="_blank" href="https://www.wsj.com/politics/elections/that-time-donald-trump-walked-into-a-bar-and-bought-a-round-using-bitcoin-92cf6dd0">campaign stop</a> on Wednesday at a bar in Greenwich Village where Trump paid for hamburgers and Diet Cokes with bitcoin.It's unclear what Trump's precise role in the business could be — he's <a target="_blank" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/09/16/technology/trump-crypto-world-liberty-financial.html">reportedly</a> identified in some internal documents as a "chief crypto advocate" — but ethics experts say it could present a conflict of interest if Trump wins the presidential election, at which point he would be overseeing cryptocurrency regulations. Three of Trump's children are employees of World Liberty Financial, including his 18-year-old son Barron, who <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/donald-trump-going-for-crypto-bro-vote-world-liberty-financial-2024-9">CoinDesk reported</a> holds the title of "DeFi visionary" at the company.But the key players behind the company appear to be Folkman and Herro, who spoke for nearly an hour on the X livestream and who hold the titles of head of operations and data and strategies lead, respectively.Folkman and Herro, both 39, portray themselves as millionaires many times over. On Facebook, their posts show them racing around the Caribbean on a powerboat and relaxing by the beach with their wives. In 2021, Herro bragged about living in the Ritz Carlton resort in Puerto Rico.Herro describes his life as a rags-to-riches story: As a teen and young adult, he was repeatedly arrested and served jail time on drug charges, but he says he turned his life around and is now a legitimate businessman.Court records tell a more complicated story. Herro and Folkman have incurred debts and sparked lawsuits in nearly every jurisdiction they've lived in, with both appearing in various lawsuits from 2010 to 2020 in places including California, New York, and the US Virgin Islands.Herro and Folkman could not be reached for comment by Business Insider. World Liberty Financial's spokesperson, Jim Redner, told BI he has "no information.""I've been kept in the dark. I've been trying to get information, but I have nothing," Redner continued. "In 25 years, it is the most unusual project I have ever been associated with."In 2010, Herro was sued in Los Angeles by a former business partner who alleged he'd invested $170,000 in what he thought was Herro's medical marijuana dispensary. In fact, Herro had simply taken the money and run, according to the suit. Herro was ordered to pay a $207,366 default judgment.Around the same time, Herro was sued by JPMorgan Chase and by a collections agency in San Diego. Herro also appears to owe more than $280,000 in unpaid California state taxes, according to lien notices.Other court records indicate Herro was running an advertising business using fake Facebook accounts. In 2014, Herro sued a man he alleged had sold him 20 dud Facebook accounts that Herro had wanted to run ads on. The accounts stopped working almost immediately, Herro alleged, putting him out the $100,000 he'd paid. The parties settled out of court.The same year, Herro sued the company behind a "colon cleansing" product Herro had been marketing on Facebook for <a target="_blank" href="https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.nysd.435573/gov.uscourts.nysd.435573.1.0.pdf">nearly $570,000</a> in unpaid invoices, according to court documents previously reported by <a target="_blank" href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2024-09-13/behind-the-trump-crypto-project-is-a-self-described-dirtbag-of-the-internet">Bloomberg</a>. The owner of the company was later convicted of an unrelated securities fraud and is currently in prison.The landlords of the Virgin Islands home Folkman and Herro rented in 2016 <a target="_blank" href="https://usvipubapi.vicourts.org/api/v1/publicaccessdocuments/41794a9088d6c1e09ac34e86d4373aa997866a72dd702092c9cd46121c0d8837/download">sued</a> the pair and their roommates for $36,000 in unpaid rent and $75,000 in property damage, including damage from six dogs the landlords alleged were living in the home without authorization. (The parties settled out of court.)Herro is also currently being sued by a woman who chartered his speedboat — Herro rents out the boat, christened Clickbait, for $1,250 a day — and suffered a spinal cord injury.Folkman's entré into business came in 2011, when he co-founded the company Date Hotter Girls LLC, where he dispensed pick-up artist advice under the name "Zack Bauer." In <a target="_blank" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aEhRSm9aXpo&amp;t=59s">a video</a> from a 2011 conference for "alpha males," Folkman boasted about his system "to take girls home and have sex.""That's what she showed up to the bar for," he told attendees. "That's why she's wearing a miniskirt and high heels and put on all that makeup and took an hour and a half to get ready. That's why she changed her shirt five times and she went out wearing a thong."In 2020, while Folkman was selling a nonrefundable $2,000 ecommerce training course promising to "teach you the exact strategies I've used to build multiple 7- and 8-figure businesses with nothing but online advertising and some basic offer creation," he racked up $77,000 in credit card debt. A bank statement included in a lawsuit seeking to recoup the overdue balance filed by American Express showed nearly all of his expenditures were on Facebook ads. (Folkman never responded to the suit, and a judge dismissed the case after AmEx missed a filing deadline.)Business Insider attempted to locate the three people who had contributed positive testimonials to the course's website but could not. The photos next to their names were of other people.Folkman and Herro's previous venture into crypto ended ignominiously. Both were involved in a project called Dough Finance, whose source code appears remarkably similar to that of World Liberty Financial, <a target="_blank" href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1vbbt4ekTRkiQ36b4Lo9fiLwFjyIU6wPz26punK50Mwg/edit">Coindesk reported</a>. Hackers stole $2 million from Dough Finance users in July. The project's website is now inactive, though the company posted on X that it has recovered some of the stolen funds and plans to return money to users.It's still unclear when World Liberty Financial will begin allowing investors to purchase its tokens. But even before its official launch, it's already warning crypto buyers about scams."Attention community: Please be aware of scams and fake tokens," World Liberty Financial posted on Telegram last month. "Do not engage with these tokens!"

Trump's crypto allies boast lavish lifestyles amid trail of debts

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Mark Cuban says it takes luck to become a billionaire, and the super rich should pay more taxes.</li><li>The "Shark Tank" investor says crypto needs a killer app, and NFTs will stage a comeback.</li></ul>Mark Cuban underlined the role of luck in becoming ultra wealthy, called for the super rich to pay higher taxes, and revealed how he would make money from scratch during an <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ko5AJh2J4xU" target="_blank" rel="noopener">episode</a> of Wired's "Tech Support" released this week.The "Shark Tank" investor and Dallas Mavericks owner — who <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/how-mark-cuban-saved-billions-yahoo-windfall-dot-com-crash-2020-6-1029303375">sold his internet-radio startup</a> to Yahoo for nearly $6 billion in 1999 — also flagged Alexa and ChatGPT as business opportunities, bemoaned the lack of a killer app for <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/currencies/mark-cuban-shark-tank-crypto-internet-downturn-winners-defi-nft-2022-5">cryptocurrencies</a>s, and struck a bullish tone on <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/personal-finance/nft-meaning#:~:text=A%20non%2Dfungible%20token%20(NFT,clips%2C%20music%2C%20and%20more.">non-fungible tokens</a> (NFTs).Here are Cuban's six best quotes, lightly edited for length and clarity:1. "The reality is, in order to become a billionaire, the one thing you have to have is luck. Any billionaire who tells you they could just do it again, no. <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/warren-buffett-afghanistan-ovarian-lottery-luck-inequality-higher-taxes-rich-2021-8">You have to be lucky</a>."2. "Billionaires should pay more in taxes. I would not be in this position without this country, because nothing happens that's great — whether it's healthcare, teachers, roads, you name it — without people paying their taxes. It may be painful when you write that big check, but just think about how you got there. One of the most patriotic things that you can do when you're wealthy is pay your taxes."3. "I am really, really, really good at sales. I'm gonna find a sales job, and I'm gonna learn more about that industry than anybody on the planet. And I'm gonna set a commission as high as I possibly can. And three months in, when I've demonstrated that I am the best salesperson in the history of that company, I'm gonna walk into my boss' office and I'm gonna tell him or her, 'You're either gonna pay me this amount of money to keep me, or I'm gonna start my own business selling this stuff.' That is exactly what I would do. Everything always goes back to sales, no matter what." (Cuban was asked what he would do if he only had $500, a phone, and six months to make as much money as possible.)<div type="image" title="Mark Cuban smiles during an NBA game." height="1333" width="1778" msid="104761286" hostid="261" sizebytes="91056"></div>4. "<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-alexa-business-failure-10-bn-losses-2022-11">Alexa</a> has so many capabilities, and so many people have them, but they have no idea how to use any of the programming or scripting capabilities. You can go and start a business where you could go to your neighbors, to car dealerships, to businesses, and show them for 50 bucks an hour or more, how to use their Alexa in their homes to save energy, to save time in their businesses."The same thing is happening with large language models like <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/everything-you-need-to-know-about-chat-gpt-2023-1">ChatGPT</a>. There's new features coming out in ChatGPT and its competitors every single month. So if you just get involved and stay ahead, you're gonna be the person in demand, selling your services on how to prompt ChatGPT to help a business, or even to tutor kids on how to best use it for school."5. "Crypto has some problems. Most people, when they think crypto, they think speculation. That's not what crypto's really about. Crypto is really about creating new applications that make things better and easier. What crypto is missing is that one application that grandma really wants to use."Think back to the iPhone. It came out in 2007, but it wasn't until the best apps like Instagram and Snapchat and Facebook went mobile, that the App Store and the iPhone really took off. Crypto is still waiting for its Instagram moment." (Cuban gave the example of NFTs being used as tickets so their original owner receives a cut every time they're resold.)6. "The NFT market sucks. You know how many other industries have sucked? There was a time after the internet stock market crashed, where Amazon was selling for $5 a share, Microsoft was selling for hundredths of what it sells for right now. I'm not gonna tell you what you should or shouldn't do, other than to say with NFTs, the best time to buy is when you're a collector and you love the NFT."Don't buy to speculate. You know what happens to speculators? They get their ass handed to them. Someday you're gonna turn around and say to yourself, 'I should have bought those damn NFTs when they were next to nothing.'"

Mark Cuban says crypto lacks a killer app, NFTs will stage a comeback, and billionaires should pay more tax. Here are his 6 best quotes from a new Q&A.

<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/sam-bankman-fried-sbf-fraud-trial-ftx-explainer-2023-10"></a><ul class="summary-list"><li>This post originally appeared in the Insider Today newsletter.</li></ul>Hi! If you want to get in the Halloween spirit, check out <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/most-haunted-places-around-the-world-palaces-mansions">nine of the world's most haunted castles and mansions</a>, including their dark histories.But first, we're looking at why FTX cofounder and ex-CEO Sam Bankman-Fried's <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/sam-bankman-fried-sbf-fraud-trial-ftx-explainer-2023-10">criminal trial</a> has implications that could upend the entire crypto industry.What's on deck: <ul><li>Markets: The one thing every <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/bonds/treasury-yields-stock-market-impact-outlook-interest-rates-bonds-2023-10" target="_blank" rel="noopener">investor should be watching</a> in the market.</li><li>Tech: How one former Meta employee <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/meta-salary-increase-tips-engineer-2023-10" target="_blank" rel="noopener">increased his compensation</a> to over $800K.</li><li>Business: A recap from the third day of former President Donald Trump's <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-leaves-fraud-trial-on-3rd-day-2023-10">NY business fraud trial</a>.</li></ul>But first, do you swear to tell the truth?If this was forwarded to you, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/subscription/newsletter/insider-today">sign up here.</a><h3>The big story</h3><h2>Crypto goes on trial</h2><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/sam-bankman-fried-sbf-fraud-trial-ftx-explainer-2023-10"></a><div type="image" title="A court sketch of Sam Bankman-Fried on the first day of his trial." height="1440" width="1920" msid="104188592" hostid="261"></div>The jurors were selected and sworn in. Opening statements were made. Welcome to crypto's make-or-break trial. Yes, Sam Bankman-Fried, not crypto, is the one on trial. But make no mistake: the industry has plenty at risk despite not being listed as a defendant. (For a refresher on the trial, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/sam-bankman-fried-sbf-fraud-trial-ftx-explainer-2023-10">start here</a>.)Bankman-Fried, the cofounder and ex-CEO of crypto exchange FTX, was deeply enmeshed in the crypto ecosystem. Simply known as SBF, he became one of the industry's most recognizable faces (<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/sam-bankman-fried-gets-haircut-for-first-day-criminal-trial-2023-10" target="_blank" rel="noopener">and heads of hair</a>). Plenty of people were happy to go along for the ride, from <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/currencies/ftx-bankruptcy-top-investors-list-tom-brady-kevin-oleary-sbf-2023-1" target="_blank" rel="noopener">high-profile backers</a> like Tom Brady and Kevin O'Leary to <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/currencies/ftx-ventures-was-a-disorganized-mess-with-missing-financials-bankruptcy-documents-say-1031923485">startups looking for funding</a>. That's why SBF's trial boils down to crypto's trial. <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/currencies/ftx-bankruptcy-filing-crazy-details-sam-bankman-fried-crypto-exchange-2022-11">FTX's bankruptcy filing</a> and <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/sam-bankman-fried-biography-michael-lewis-tom-brady-jail-2023-10" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Michael Lewis' book on Bankman-Fried</a> have been eye-opening, to put it mildly. The proceedings will likely provide more fascinating details about the inner workings of FTX and the broader crypto industry, potentially airing out its dirty laundry and shortcomings.SBF's own defense team seems keen to start pointing fingers, according to reporting from Insider's Katie Balevic, Jacob Shamsian, and Grace Kay. In his opening statements, Mark Cohen, SBF's defense attorney, shifted blame to <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/sam-bankman-fried-lawyer-tries-pins-ftx-collapse-caroline-ellison-2023-10">Bankman-Fried's ex-girlfriend, Caroline Ellison</a>, and the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/sam-bankman-fried-ftx-crypto-fraud-trial-attorney-cryptocurrency-market-2023-10" target="_blank" rel="noopener">volatility of the crypto market</a>.<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/sam-bankman-fried-lawyer-tries-pins-ftx-collapse-caroline-ellison-2023-10"></a><div type="image" title="digital illustrations of Caroline Ellison (left) and sam Bankman-fried (right)" height="960" width="1920" msid="104188594" hostid="261"></div>The crypto industry, meanwhile, is ready to move on.One crypto exec recently told me the industry "has already learned many lessons from the FTX (and others') collapse."The exec, who asked to remain anonymous, said crypto has transformed for the better, and the trial won't change anything. They pointed to the wave of bitcoin ETF applications from big players as evidence that crypto is here to stay.But I'd argue that's an even bigger risk for the industry. Financial giants could view the details from the trial as evidence for why they should co-opt crypto from smaller, native players.BlackRock and Fidelity have both filed applications for <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/blackrock-spot-bitcoin-etf-crypto-reactions-2023-6">launching bitcoin ETFs</a>. PayPal unveiled a <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/currencies/paypal-crypto-launches-first-us-dollar-pegged-stablecoin-2023-8" target="_blank" rel="noopener">stablecoin pegged to the US dollar</a>. Visa, too, has <a href="https://usa.visa.com/about-visa/newsroom/press-releases.releaseId.19881.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">pushed further</a> into the space. In short, big institutions seem primed to take over the space and shape it to their liking. Some in the crypto industry are embracing a more grown-up approach. A recent industry conference was light on yacht parties and NFTs, instead <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/currencies/crypto-market-messari-mainnet-nft-regulation-sec-gensler-technology-coinbase-2023-9" target="_blank" rel="noopener">focusing on regulation and practical tech</a>. But as more evidence comes out regarding the role that the wider crypto industry played in <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/ftx-crypto-king-sam-bankman-fried-rise-and-fall-2022-11">SBF's rise and fall</a>, it remains to be seen whether they'll be part of crypto's next chapter or pushed aside by bigger players.<h2>3 things in markets</h2><a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/bonds/treasury-yields-stock-market-impact-outlook-interest-rates-bonds-2023-10"></a><div type="image" title="someone on the trading floor, pointing up" height="960" width="1920" msid="104188597" hostid="261"></div><ol><li>The most important thing investors should be watching. The 10-Year US Treasury yield has turned into the markets version of must-see TV. On Wednesday it hit a cycle-high of 4.88%, its highest level in more than a decade. But those high yields are bad news for the stock and bond market, <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/bonds/treasury-yields-stock-market-impact-outlook-interest-rates-bonds-2023-10">and even the wider economy</a>.</li><li>Oil prices take a dip. After a surge in pricing over the past few months, oil prices have started to slightly fall. The end of peak travel season, along with reports of Russia lifting its ban on diesel exports, has some worrying about "<a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/commodities/oil-prices-wti-brent-crude-inventory-demand-destruction-economy-slowdown-2023-10" target="_blank" rel="noopener">demand destruction</a>." </li><li>Where the market is headed, according to the experts. It's pretty tough to make sense of the market these days. Get perspective from top Wall Street strategists about what's next <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/stock-market-outlook-wall-street-investors-forecast-september-october-bonds-2023-10" target="_blank" rel="noopener">after a brutal September</a>.</li></ol><h2>3 things in tech</h2><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-nvidia-cloud-ai-anthropic-2023-10"></a><div type="image" title="Andy Jassy" height="866" width="1154" msid="104188600" hostid="261"></div><ol><li>Amazon dominated the first boom in the cloud industry. But it's falling behind on the second, AI-fueled boom. The main problem is that it <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-nvidia-cloud-ai-anthropic-2023-10" target="_blank" rel="noopener">didn't have a head start</a> this time — and needs a boost to catch up with Nvidia.</li><li>IBM's CEO said he doesn't intend to "get rid of" a single programmer because of AI. Arvind Krishna added that, although it could automate a "repetitive, white-collar job," he thinks <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/ibm-ceo-automation-ai-repetitive-white-collar-jobs-cuts-2023-10">AI is a job creator</a>.</li><li>"I made over $800,000 at Meta. Here's how I significantly increased my compensation." When he first joined as a senior engineer in 2017, Rahul Pandey's total compensation was $390,000. When he left in 2022, he was a tech lead and manager with a <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/meta-salary-increase-tips-engineer-2023-10" target="_blank" rel="noopener">total compensation of $823,000</a>.</li></ol><h2>3 things in business</h2><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-leaves-fraud-trial-on-3rd-day-2023-10"></a><div type="image" title="Donald Trump addresses the press just outside the courtroom doors to his Manhattan business fraud trial" height="1279" width="1708" msid="104188604" hostid="261"></div><ul><li>Trump came, scowled, got gagged, then bounced. Former president Donald Trump <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-leaves-fraud-trial-on-3rd-day-2023-10" target="_blank" rel="noopener">left his business fraud trial</a> on Wednesday after attending for two and a half days. He must return next week to testify in the $250 million civil suit.</li><li>Private credit is a fan favorite among hedge funds. Also called alternative credit or direct lending, the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/private-credit-toast-of-the-town-greenwich-economic-forum-2023-10" target="_blank" rel="noopener">private credit sector is rapidly growing</a>. It's all thanks to higher interest rates and distressed banks.</li><li>Some of America's richest people are simply not paying their taxes. New IRS data revealed that nearly 1,000 people who make more than $1 million annually <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/rich-people-tax-evasion-owe-billions-returns-2023-10" target="_blank" rel="noopener">didn't file taxes multiple times</a> between 2015 to 2020.</li></ul><h2>In other news</h2><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/gen-z-build-your-own-college-degrees-customized-major-jobs-2023-10"></a><div type="image" title="A blueprint drawing of a college degree" height="1000" width="2000" msid="104188607" hostid="261"></div><ul><li>Gen Z students are <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/gen-z-build-your-own-college-degrees-customized-major-jobs-2023-10" target="_blank" rel="noopener">inventing their own college degrees</a>.</li><li>The Wall Street Journal laid off editorial staff in Hong Kong as others <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/wsj-lays-off-hong-kong-staffers-insiders-brace-more-cuts-2023-10" target="_blank" rel="noopener">brace for more cuts</a>.</li><li>More than 75,000 Kaiser Permanente healthcare employees across the country <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/kaiser-permanente-strike-healthcare-workers-largest-us-history-2023-9" target="_blank" rel="noopener">have gone on strike</a>.</li><li>Home prices in Lakeland, Florida, are <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/housing-market-lakeland-florida-home-prices-falling-for-sale-2023-10" target="_blank" rel="noopener">falling faster</a> than the rest of the US.</li><li>David Beckham called out Victoria for trying to <a href="https://www.insider.com/david-beckham-calls-victoria-out-working-class-posh-spice-2023-10" target="_blank" rel="noopener">relate to the working class</a>.</li><li>Parents are <a href="https://www.insider.com/parents-are-putting-their-kids-on-weight-loss-drugs-2023-10" target="_blank" rel="noopener">putting their kids on the weight-loss drug</a> Wegovy.</li><li>A man lost his $50,000 life savings after <a href="https://www.insider.com/man-lost-50k-lifesavings-downloading-app-for-peking-duck-food-2023-10" target="_blank" rel="noopener">downloading an app</a> to order Peking duck.</li><li>What it's like to move to a tiny, remote community where the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/relocation-moved-city-tiny-community-western-australia-life-more-relaxed-2023-10" target="_blank" rel="noopener">rent is $60 per month</a>, but groceries are a five-hour round trip.</li><li>Google Assistant is <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/google-assistant-with-bard-new-app-chatbot-ai-voice-text-2023-10">starting to merge</a> with ChatGPT competitor Bard.</li></ul><h2>What's happening today</h2><ul><li>Dianne Feinstein's memorial. The trailblazing California senator <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/dianne-feinstein-is-dead-what-happens-next-democrats-2023-9" target="_blank" rel="noopener">died last week at age 90</a>. Vice President Kamala Harris and Sen. Chuck Schumer are among those expected to speak at her memorial event today. </li><li>The Billboard Latin Music Awards are tonight. Performers include Grupo Frontera, Marc Anthony, and Sofia Reyes. Peso Pluma was nominated for 21 awards, while Bad Bunny and Grupo Frontera are each up for 15.</li><li>The NBA preseason kicks off. The Dallas Mavericks and Minnesota Timberwolves will face off in Abu Dhabi at the Etihad Arena.</li><li>Earnings today: Levi's, Kewpie, <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/earnings-calendar" target="_blank" rel="noopener">and other companies</a>.</li></ul><h3>For your bookmarks</h3><h2>Lottery advisor</h2><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/advise-lottery-winners-powerball-heres-what-to-do-win-2023-10"></a><div type="image" title="Emily Irwin of Wells Fargo (left) and a lottery winner (right)" height="1278" width="1705" msid="104188610" hostid="261"></div>"I advise lottery winners." These are the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/advise-lottery-winners-powerball-heres-what-to-do-win-2023-10">top things you should do</a> immediately after winning the lottery, including learning how to say no.The Insider Today team: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/author/dan-defrancesco">Dan DeFrancesco</a>, senior editor and anchor, in New York City. <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/author/diamond-naga-siu">Diamond Naga Siu</a>, senior reporter, in San Diego. <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/author/hallam-bullock">Hallam Bullock</a>, editor, in London. <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/author/lisa-ryan">Lisa Ryan</a>, executive editor, in New York. <a style="text-decoration: underline;" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/author/annie-smith" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Annie Smith</a>, associate producer, in London. <a style="text-decoration: underline;" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/author/shona-ghosh" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Shona Ghosh</a>, deputy executive editor, in London. <a style="text-decoration: underline;" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/author/jack-sommers" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Jack Sommers</a>, senior editor, in London. <a style="text-decoration: underline;" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/author/spriha-srivastava" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Spriha Srivastava</a>, UK bureau chief, in London.

Sam Bankman-Fried isn't the only one on trial. The entire crypto industry is.

<ul class="summary-list"><li>The Biden administration seeks a tax change on crypto transactions, The Wall Street Journal said. </li><li>Currently, people can claim losses on sales of underwater crypto investments, then repurchase them. </li></ul>President Joe Biden is reportedly targeting a tax loophole used by cryptocurrency investors as part of his 2024 budget proposal that's aimed at cutting country's deficit by trillions of dollars. <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/biden-budget-to-propose-saving-hundreds-of-billions-by-cutting-drug-prices-fraud-5fa0f927?mod=e2tw" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Wall Street Journal reported</a> that Biden will propose changing the tax treatment of cryptocurrency transactions. Current rules allow people to sell their underwater crypto investments, claim the loss on their taxes, then immediately buy them back.The administration said such sales are not subject to the so-called wash-sale rule that applies to stocks and bonds, according to the report. <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/personal-finance/wash-sale-rule">The wash-sale rule</a> prevents people from selling stocks and repurchasing them immediately for tax purposes. <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/presdient-joe-biden-billionaire-minimum-tax-budget-capital-gains-2023-3">Biden's 2024 budget proposal</a> was slated for release on Thursday, and the president is targeting a cut of about $3 trillion to the US deficit in the next 10 years.Changing the tax treatment of cryptocurrency transactions could raise $24 billion, according to the Journal.The proposal comes after crypto prices tumbled last year amid the market's persistent "crypto winter." <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/currencies/btc-usd">Bitcoin</a> fell by more than 60% in 2022, and the broader crypto market's valuation fell below $1 trillion after reaching $3 trillion in 2021.The market's been in recovery mode this year, with bitcoin's price up 30% year-to-date. The digital currency trading around $21,760 on Thursday.

Crypto investors could be about to lose a big tax loophole as part of Biden's new budget proposal

<ul class="summary-list"><li>BlockFi CEO Zac Prince withdrew over $9 million last year from his own account with the company.</li><li>He cashed out the millions in order to pay US federal and state taxes, according to a company presentation.</li></ul>Bankrupt crypto lender BlockFi's CEO made withdrawals worth many millions of dollars from his own account with the company last year to pay US taxes.Zac Prince pulled as much as $9.2 million in April 2022 and another $1.36 million in August, the Block <a href="https://www.theblock.co/post/200282/blockfi-said-ceo-cashed-out-nearly-10-million-as-ftx-loan-stabilized-clients" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a>. The BlockFi chief used the first withdrawal to pay US federal and state taxes, according to a BlockFi <a href="https://twitter.com/BlockFi/status/1612485889485336577?s=20&amp;t=b0_Wgj4do2kqDs3tjzWf9w" target="_blank" rel="noopener">presentation</a> dated January 9.Prince's transactions are reflected in data given in the presentation, which provides stakeholders historical background on the company amid its Chapter 11 proceedings. His assets with the company fell to $3.04 million in April 2022 from $13.15 million the previous month, the figures show.The holdings dropped further to $1.37 million in August from $2.42 million in July. The declines would have been partly due to a drop in the market value of cryptocurrencies.BlockFi did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.The bulk of Prince's withdrawals were made some months before BlockFi received a hefty loan from FTX.<a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/currencies/bitcoin-crash-crypto-billionaire-sam-bankman-fried-ftx-jpmorgan-scaramucci-2022-6" target="_blank" rel="noopener">FTX threw a lifeline to BlockFi</a> last year, granting the company a $400 million credit line. The loan was meant to help ease BlockFi's financial hardships amid a crypto market crash fueled by the Federal Reserve's fastest interest-rate increases since the early 1980s. The company ultimately filed for bankruptcy in December following the collapse of FTX, citing exposure to the disgraced crypto exchange. In its presentation, BlockFi said its management team "deployed their personal assets on the platform, to trade, earn interest, and store different cryptocurrencies under the same terms of service as clients." The firm <a href="https://www.theblock.co/post/200282/blockfi-said-ceo-cashed-out-nearly-10-million-as-ftx-loan-stabilized-clients" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told The Block:</a> "Like many BlockFi clients, Zac deployed his own personal assets on BlockFi's platform. Zac kept a substantial portion of his assets on the platform, and the withdrawal he made in April 2022 was to pay U.S. federal and state taxes. Zac and other insiders did not make any withdrawals since October 14, 2022, and no withdrawals of [greater than] 0.2 BTC in value since August 17th." Correction: January 10, 2023: An earlier version of this story misstated that BlockFi's CEO pulled funds from the company after it got a loan from FTX. The withdrawal happened before the loan.

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