The privacy-centric monero (XMR) continues to rally despite lingering regulatory concerns.

The cryptocurrency rose to $139 early Monday, the highest level since September 2018, according to data compiled on the CoinDesk 20.
At press time, monero was changing hands at $135, up 200% on a year-to-date basis.
Monero has rallied by over 50% the past seven weeks.
A month ago, the U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS) announced a bounty to anyone who can develop solutions to trace monero's transactions.
More: https://www.coindesk.com/monero-2-year-high

The increased interest in central bank digital currency (CBDC) has led to a surge in ideas and research about the topic, so much so that it’s all but impossible to keep up with everything that’s been published lately. All this information brings a welcome diversity of perspectives to the debate, but it also makes it more difficult to focus on the most important aspects of CBDC.

When it comes to designing a CBDC, we need to draw a crucial distinction between direct and indirect CBDCs.
More: https://www.coindesk.com/big-choices-designing-central-bank-digital-currencies

The IRS has clarified some questions around crypto disclosures for the upcoming tax season. A popular DeFi application appears to have been attacked. JPMorgan analysts see “considerable” upsides to bitcoin.

Top shelf
Crypto guidance
The U.S. Internal Revenue Service has clarified that simply holding cryptocurrencies does not need to be disclosed. A published set of draft instructions for this year’s 1040 tax form spells out that returnees must disclose any crypto sales, exchanges for goods or services, or exchanges for property (including other crypto assets). Respondents must also reveal if they received any cryptocurrency for free, including via airdrops or hard forks. “The draft is likely to stand unless there are ‘unexpected issues’ or new legislation requiring changes, the IRS said in the document,” CoinDesk’s Daniel Palmer reports.
More: https://www.coindesk.com/defi-harvest-irs-crypto-jpmorgan-bitcoin

The number of bitcoin “whales” – large investors with an ability to influence market trends – has jumped to four-year highs alongside the recent price rally.

As of Sunday, the population of whale entities – clusters of addresses held by a single network participant holding at least 1,000 BTC – was 1,939, the highest since September 2016, according to data source Glassnode.
The whale entities metric increased by 2.2% last week, possibly adding to bullish pressures around bitcoin's price.
The top cryptocurrency by market value rose by over 13% last week to register its best single-week performance since April.
More: https://www.coindesk.com/number-of-bitcoin-whale-addresses-at-highest-since-fall-2016

Virgil Griffith’s lawyer has filed a motion to dismiss the U.S. government’s charges that the Ethereum developer violated sanctions law by speaking at a North Korean cryptocurrency conference.

The motion, filed by attorney Brian Klein, claims the government’s late-2019 indictment of Griffith doesn’t “specify any alleged overt facts” and contains no actual allegation of fact.

Griffith was arrested last November on charges he violated the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) and executive orders by going to North Korea and speaking during a crypto conference, where he allegedly taught government officials how to use the technology to bypass economic sanctions.
More: https://www.coindesk.com/virgil-griffiths-motion-dismiss-north-korea

Bitcoin has proven itself to be a risk asset, not a safe haven, with “considerable” potential upside, according to a Friday note from JPMorgan’s Global Quantitative and Derivatives Strategy team obtained by CoinDesk.

Writing to clients in “Flows & Liquidity,” one of JPMorgan’s flagship publications, the authors said that characterizing bitcoin as a “risk” asset rather than a “safe” asset is “more appropriate” based on the leading cryptocurrency’s increased positive correlation with the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index since March.

Bitcoin’s function as a risk asset is “likely more of a reflection of a need for an ‘alternative’ currency rather than a need for a ‘safe’ asset or ‘hedge’.”
More: https://www.coindesk.com/bitcoin-gold-millennials-jpmorgan-price

News this week that R3 and IBM are working together raised eyebrows, because each entity has been on different and competing sides since the early days of enterprise blockchain.

From next month, the commercial version of Corda (the version big banks and the like are paying R3 for) will be made available via IBM’s LinuxOne servers, delivering a hybrid of on-premise and cloud offerings. R3 announced the news at its annual developer conference, CordaCon.
More: https://www.coindesk.com/ibm-r3-pact-shows-tech-trumps-tribe-in-enterprise-blockchain