Bitcoin sturdy with a head of steam

The uproarious bull market for Bitcoin rocketed onward and upward. On Friday morning, the biggest cryptocurrency reached a new record price near $41,500. This was after an all-time high of $40,123 was hit on Thursday, according to CoinDesk.

January is one week old. BTC, year-to-date, is up 40%. In roughly the past month, BTC has doubled.

As of Friday at 7 a.m. EST, BTC was $41,100, up 10% over 24 hours.

Over the past 24 hours, XRP has slid 8% to where it is closer to thirty cents than to forty, but there is at least some sense of stability after a brutal month. Looking at the last 30 days, the crypto commonly associated with Ripple is down 40%.

The SEC has come after Ripple with a legal action that has clouded XRP's future. Ripple has vowed to fight. Really?

With a new administration coming into power in the U.S. might Ripple take a less combative posture and perhaps try to resolve this matter?

Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse on Wednesday via Twitter confirmed that yes the company would try.

Decentralized Finance projects dominated crypto headlines during the middle of 2020, but what's in store for DeFi in 2021?

This trend will continue to accelerate across more sectors, according to Orchid CEO Steven Waterhouse, aka “Seven,” speaking to BeInCrypto.

 “You have seen DeFi redefine more traditional banking products," Waterhouse said, noting yield-returning assets.

"We are going to move into a space where other kinds of services are experimented on and built with crypto. Everything, in some sense, is about finance."

Yes or no? Individuals filing U.S. tax returns now have more information about how to respond to the Internal Revenue Service's prominently placed, unambiguous question on the Form 1040: “At any time during 2020, did you receive, sell, send, exchange, or otherwise acquire any financial interest in any virtual currency?”

The IRS now requires taxpayers who purchased crypto in 2020 to answer “yes.” Bear in mind the agency is not just asking whether filers sold, traded or exchanged crypto (as spelled out in previous instructions).

Last January, when the agency published new 1040 forms, they included a line-item specific to virtual currency activity. 

This past spring, Uphold announced a partnership with TaxBit to become the first exchange to provide users with tax liability calculation within the user portal and to document activity. Uphold users will receive a 1099-B to close the books on 2020, taking comfort in what likely for many will be estimated net gains.