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⌐◪-◪ → The US Government Department of Justice wants to send Binance Founder Changpeng Zhao (CZ) to jail for 36 months.

For context, back in November CZ:

• pled guilty to anti-money laundering

• agreed to pay a $50 million fine

• stepped down as CEO of finance

The DOJ says, “Zhao's willful violation of U.S. law was no accident or oversight”.

Meanwhile, crypto Twitter is showing sympathy, with some arguing he shouldn’t be jailed at all and that this only happened because he raised the flag on SBF.

Others are convinced he won’t actually go to jail, and will just have to spend some time on house arrest wearing an ankle monitor.

Maybe that’s what his co-founder (and lover) Yi He meant last week when she said CZ is in a “positive situation” in the U.S.

Let me know what you think in Specs Chat!

⌐◪-◪ → BlackRocks spot Bitcoin ETF $IBIT just saw 71 days of consecutive net inflows, meaning the fund has seen more deposits than withdrawals every single trading day.

If they can keep this steak going for another 90 days, they’ll break JP Morgan's Equity Premium Income (JEPI) record of 160 days.

As for now, they’ve broken into the top 10 for consecutive inflows, as shown in the chart above.

Meanwhile, the SEC just asked for comment on BlackRock’s spot Ethereum ETF, but experts still think May approval is unlikely.

Fun fact: If BlackRock held all their Bitcoin in 1 address, they’d be #1 on the 100 richest bitcoin addresses list, by a margin of 5%.

⌐◪-◪ → The new draft IRS form is insane - a complete violation of our right to financial privacy.

They want to force DeFi users to disclose their self-custodial wallet addresses to the government.

If they have their way, in 2025 Form 1099-DA will be mandatory for any crypto transactions sourced from a broker. What exactly that means, of course, is still unclear.

To emphasize how unprecedented this is, typically need a subpoena if they want to access your personal records (bank, medical, etc). This draft form completely disregards that.

Fortunately, it probably won’t go through, which is best explained by a spokesperson from crypto lobbying group Coin Center:

“The inclusion of open source wallet software providers who in no way broker transactions as ‘brokers’ is unconstitutional under both the First and Fourth Amendments”.

Anyway, while I’m hopeful this won’t get approved, the mere fact that it’s being suggested is dangerous territory.

Privacy is a fundamental human right.

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