TBD, the Bitcoin-focused subsidiary of Jack Dorsey’s Block, has announced it is building “Web5: an extra decentralized web platform” powered by Bitcoin, in a move that comes months after Dorsey criticized Web3 for venture capitalists’ involvement in it.

Washington, DC-based cryptocurrency think tank Coin Center has filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Treasury Department and the Internal Revenue Service claiming a crypto tax reporting requirement in an infrastructure law is “unconstitutional.”

Cryptocurrency lender Celsius Network has frozen withdrawals, swaps, and transfers on its platform for its 1.7 million customers, in a move that widened an ongoing crypto market route and saw BTC’s price drop below $24,000.

Sponsored: Registrations are now open for Bybit World Series of Trading (WSOT) 2022. This year, the annual competition features an upsized prize pool worth up to a whopping $8 million, with attractive rewards, daily lotteries, NFTs, and much more.

Top stories in the Crypto Roundup today:

• Jack Dorsey’s TBD Announces Bitcoin-Powered ‘Web 5’
• Coin Center Sues U.S. Treasury Over ‘Unconstitutional’ Tax Reporting Rule
• Crypto Lender Celsius Pauses Withdrawals on Its Platform
• Crypto Investment Products’ Weekly Flows Turned Positive in May
• Sponsored: Bybit WSOT 2022 — Solo or Squad?

Jack Dorsey’s TBD Announces Bitcoin-Powered ‘Web 5’

TBD, the Bitcoin-focused subsidiary of Jack Dorsey’s Block, has announced it is building “Web5: an extra decentralized web platform” powered by Bitcoin, in a move that comes months after Dorsey criticized Web3 for venture capitalists’ involvement in it.

TBD was launched back in July 2021 with the aim of creating an “open developer platform” focused on decentralized finance and Bitcoin. Dorsey suggested Web 5 will be the company’s “most important contribution to the internet.”

TBD pitched Web 5 as a layer of the internet allowing developers to focus on creating “delightful user experiences, while returning ownership of data and identity to individuals.” TBD’s website reads:

“On the web today, identity and personal data have become the property of third parties. Web5 brings decentralized identity and data storage to your applications.”

TBD is looking to create a “new class of decentralized apps and protocols,” and will use ION, a layer-2 protocol built on top of the Bitcoin blockchain for it.

The project is under open-source development and does not have an official release date.

Coin Center Sues U.S. Treasury Over ‘Unconstitutional’ Tax Reporting Rule

Washington, DC-based cryptocurrency think tank Coin Center has filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Treasury Department and the Internal Revenue Service claiming a crypto tax reporting requirement in an infrastructure law is “unconstitutional.”

The lawsuit claims that last year President Biden and the U.S. Congress amended a “little-known tax reporting mandate” that if allowed to go into effect “will impose a mass surveillance regime on ordinary Americans.”

The provision in question, from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, would require individuals and businesses receiving $10,000 or more in crypto to report to the government the name, date of birth, and social security number of the sender.

The lawsuit says this would help “uncover a detailed picture of a person’s personal activities,” including their “intimate and expressive activities far beyond the immediate scope of the mandate.” It adds:

“The reports would give the government an unprecedented level of detail about transactions within a realm where users have taken a series of steps to protect their transactional privacy.”

Coin Center noted that its mission is to “defend the rights of individuals to build and use free and open cryptocurrency networks” while having the “right to write and publish code – to read and to run it,” as well as the right to “assemble into peer-to-peer networks” and the “right to do all this privately.”

Crypto Lender Celsius Pauses Withdrawals on Its Platform

Cryptocurrency lender Celsius Network has frozen withdrawals, swaps, and transfers on its platform for its 1.7 million customers, in a move that widened an ongoing crypto market route and saw BTC’s price drop below $24,000.

The company’s native token, CEL, has lost over 50% of its value in the last 24 hours and is down well over 90% since April. Celsius’ move to halt withdrawals comes at a time in which investors have been questioning high-yield interest products in the cryptocurrency space after UST’s fall from grace.

In announcing the freeze, Celsius wrote it is “taking this action today to put Celsius in a better position to honor, over time, its withdrawal obligations.” It added users will keep accruing rewards on their holdings.

There have been questions surrounding Celsius’ high yields and its exposure to Terra’s ecosystem ahead of its collapse, as well as questions surrounding its losses after the BadgerDAO hack.

Ethereum blockchain data shows that the largest CEL holder is Celsius itself, with 184 million tokens, around 26.6% of the cryptocurrency’s circulating supply. Blockchain sleuths have noted wallets associated with Celsius have moved $89 million worth of wrapped BTC and $63 million of ETH to other exchanges.

Celsius hasn’t revealed when customers may expect to be able to withdraw again.

Crypto Investment Products’ Weekly Flows Turned Positive in May

Following a widespread decline in price, weekly net flows to cryptocurrency investment products average $66.5 million in May, compared to average weekly outflows of $49.6 million the month prior.

Find out more via CryptoCompare’s latest Digital Asset Management Review report.

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Disclaimer:

Cryptocurrencies are unregulated. Cryptocurrency profits may be subject to Capital Gains Tax. The value of investments is variable and can go down as well as up.

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