Wait… JPMorgan is bullish now

Plus: Australia’s tax office might not love this Bitcoin decision

GM. We picked the top stories, ran them through a juicer, and created a smoothie with your daily dose of context.

🇦🇺 Is crypto gonna be tax-free in Australia?

🏦 JPMorgan might offer clients access to Bitcoin ETFs.

🍋 News drops: the SEC playing Jenga, South Korean actress using company funds to buy crypto + more

🍍 Market flavor today

We’re back in the green after a red day yesterday – basically, we’re still strapped into the usual rollercoaster, and the bulls seem to be the ones having fun now:

Bitfinex analysts believe that Bitcoin is showing real, structural strength. Here’s what they’re seeing:

• Spot demand remains strong, meaning that people are actually buying BTC, not just betting with leverage = a more committed market;

• Its price action has this healthy pattern: short periods where the price stays flat → quick move higher. This suggests buyers are slowly building positions, not chasing pumps = a sign of real demand;

• The spot premium is still high. This shows that buyers would rather hold real BTC than trade futures = a sign they trust its long-term value.

And what does that all add up to?

Even though Bitcoin hasn’t yet broken its all-time high, it’s trading close to it, and there’s no sign of weakness.

So, the current sideways movement might just be a moment of consolidation before the next upward move. Before you say anything, yes, pullbacks are still possible – but the bigger picture remains positive.

Meanwhile, there’s another strong signal: according to Santiment’s Brian Quinlivan, coins are being taken off exchanges and moved into cold storage.

👉 Bitcoin’s supply on exchanges dropped to 7.1% – the lowest since November 2018;

👉 Ethereum is down to 4.9% – the lowest in its history.

Coins on exchanges are typically there to be sold.

Therefore, less crypto sitting on exchanges means less sell pressure, which supports the idea that people are expecting prices to rise, not fall.

🥝 Memecoin harvest

Charts that said, “haha what’s gravity?” 🪂

Data as of 04:55 AM EST.

Check out these memecoins and plenty more here.

Yesterday, we talked about how the UK is forcing every crypto company to track and report user data for every trade and transfer. So they can tax it, of course.

Now let’s flip the globe and head to Australia, where things took a very different turn.

In a legal case against William Wheatley, a federal officer accused of stealing 81.6 Bitcoin, Judge Michael O’Connell ruled that Bitcoin counts as money, not property.

Now, capital gains tax doesn’t apply to regular currency.

Sooo, you’re connecting the dots… and Bitcoin really is “money”… then it it shouldn’t be taxed under capital gains rules.

And that would mean that Aussies could be looking at up to $1B AUD (about $640M USD) in tax refunds.

Now, before anyone starts emailing the tax office: this decision doesn’t actually change the law. It’s just one judge’s interpretation in a single case. It’s not a new rule, not an official change in tax policy, and not something the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) is required to follow.

Unless a higher court confirms it, other judges – and the ATO – are free to ignore it.

Still, this whole thing brings up a legit question: should Bitcoin be treated like money – and taxed like it too?

… Probably not.

• People do use Bitcoin to pay for stuff – flights, hotels, certain online stores. It’s handy for international payments, donations, and peer-to-peer payments;

• However, most Bitcoin holders treat it like digital gold – a long-term investment they hope will grow in value, not something they buy coffee with.

So while Bitcoin can function like money, it’s not widely used that way. It lives in this weird middle ground: part currency, part asset, not fully either.

That’s what makes the tax situation so messy. If Bitcoin doesn’t clearly fit into one category, then trying to apply black-and-white tax rules is always going to feel a little off.

😈 You can’t ignore crypto forever

Jamie Dimon, the CEO of JPMorgan, used to be like Grampa Simpson in this meme:

Well, tbh, he still kinda is… but less.

Dimon kept JPMorgan mostly out of crypto. While other major banks bought Bitcoin ETFs, JPMorgan stuck with futures and didn’t let its advisors recommend spot Bitcoin ETFs to clients.

But now, things are changing.

No, Dimon didn’t become a degen (yet 👀) – but he seems to be easing up. His latest take:

“I don’t think you should smoke, but I defend your right to smoke.”

In other words – he may not like crypto, but he won’t stop clients from getting exposure.

Word is, JPMorgan’s gonna offer clients access to Bitcoin ETFs. It still won’t offer custody services, but even allowing clients to buy is a big shift from how closed-off they were before.

This gives Bitcoin more legitimacy among wealthy clients and traditional investors.

And coming from the CEO of the world’s fifth largest bank, it sends a clear message: if you wanna stay competitive in finance, you can’t ignore crypto forever.

🍋 News drops

📝 Donald Trump signed the Take It Down Act into law. It’s meant to stop people from posting deepfake… uhh… intimate photos or videos of others without their permission.

🧱 Caroline Crenshaw – the only Democrat left on the SEC – says the agency’s removing rules without thinking it through. She compared it to a game of Jenga: keep removing too many pieces, and the whole thing could collapse.

🇰🇷 South Korea’s leading presidential candidate, Lee Jae-myung, wants to launch a stablecoin backed by the Korean won. He says it would let people send money on the blockchain without needing to rely on foreign options like USDT.

⚖️ South Korean actress Hwang Jung-eum confessed to taking about 4.3B won (over $3M) from her own company to buy crypto. Now she’s facing embezzlement charges under a serious economic crimes law.

🤑 Joining KuCoin? We’ve got a referral link waiting for you – might as well start with the bonuses.

🍌 Juicy memes