This is the view I had just about a week ago on Saturday morning as I prepared to dig us out of the 7 inches of snow that was dumped on us. It certainly wasn't the most we have ever seen, but it was enough to mess things up around the region for a handful of days.
This morning we woke up to another batch of snow heading our way. It won't be nearly as much as last time, but it should still be enough that I need to bust out the Toro again. There's something really satisfying to me about clearing the driveway when we get a snow like this.
It's not that we had anywhere we needed to be, I just like seeing the pavement amidst all the chaos that is swirling around it. One small slice of normalness or something like that I guess.
It is time again for another Finance Friday/Friday Finance. This is a series I started where I talk about random bits of financial stuff that I have seen, gathered, or experienced during the week. I hope as a reader you find it informational, entertaining, or both. I also hope it can generate some good discussion and edify the community.
It's been an interesting week in the finance world. The ETFs have been running for a little bit now and they continue to grow even as we speak. Probably not surprising to many people, it doesn't seem to be moving the price of BTC too much. I expect we will have to wait until April for more of that.
Fine with me, I have my monthly buy happening today and $41,000 looks a lot better than $46,000.
HIVE Hoax
I had a friend on Hive who reached out to me to tell me that HIVE had been listed on Coinbase. I was in the middle of something, so I couldn't check myself, but the excitement (along with a bit of skepticism) was slowly building.
The message me back a short time later to tell me it had been some kind of hoax on Twitter. I'm not going to mention who it was because I know they felt bad. We've all been duped a time or two though, so no worries. I definitely makes you think about what the future might hold for HIVE.
In the US, the opportunities to move a decent amount of HIVE just doesn't exist. Sure, you can move it to BSC via Splinterlands, but probably not in any great volume. Which is sad. I was talking to a fellow HIVE member the other day and they were using a big chunk of their HIVE to gamble with. "Might as well do something with it since I can't cash it out" was their roughly quoted response.
Given the decentralized nature of HIVE, it's likely we will never see a major exchange listing. Unless the SEC household gets cleaned out, it's just too risky. Which leaves us very few options should this next bull be as big as many believe it will.
LEO Hoax
Speaking of moving funds over to BSC... A while ago I decided to remove some of my CUB Finance positions, so I converted all of my BUSD to BHBD and tried to move it over into HIVE. There was an issue with the LEO bridge and my funds sat stuck for just about a month. Finally, Leo announced that due to a number of reasons they would be moving to a "power down" model for BHBD to HBD transfers.
That basically meant I needed to wait 13 weeks for the full amount of my funds to be returned to me. I wasn't happy, but what are you going to do, things happen and I did my best to be understanding.
Here we are about four weeks later and I should have gotten one of my HBD transfers yesterday. Sadly, it did not happen. I put in a ticket of course, but man, it's just not a good look.
Don't get me wrong, I'm sure they will get my funds to me, I have no doubt about that, but this whole process has been less than ideal.
I've been hesitant to post publicly about this for fear of retaliation, but also because I don't subscribe to that Facebook mentality of airing all your grievances publicly. Although it would be very Seinfeld like to do so.
I do think people should know to proceed with caution if they are using the service. Definitely don't use it if you need to do anything time sensitive!
Precious Metal Auctions
A local bullion dealer that I recently discovered has a new round of auctions taking place. You will have to do your own research to decide if they are worthwhile or not, but if you want to check them out, you can find them here.
If you are part of the silver/gold stacking community, you might want to check them out. I visited their small storefront a while ago and they have a great online store. I purchased a good
deal of silver from them online over the holiday season.
I've never used the auction portion of their site, but it looks interesting. They also sponsor our local minor league baseball team with silver and gold giveaways throughout the summer.
I've been really impressed with Kzoo Bullion and it might be another resource to add to your list. They do have the same shipping rules as most the other places. $200 minimum purchase for free shipping.
Not so fast IRS
About a week ago I wrote this post that included a bit about the IRS requiring people to report crypto transfers over $10,000 USD.
Well in more recent news, the IRS has walked that back a bit after what I can only imagine was some backlash. It appears now that they don't have a date for when this will start and they are indicating it applies more to businesses than individual holders.
You know they are still going to want to get their pound of flesh from us individuals, but that will likely come in the form of some different regulation. If you want to find more information about it, just do a quick Google search for IRS digital asset transfer reporting. I am sure you will find at least one article talking about it.
That's all I've got for you today. It's going to be a busy weekend for me with little downtime. I hope all of you find a way to relax!