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Crypto lender BlockFi has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, following the collapse of digital currency exchange FTX.
BlockFi halted withdrawals before the filing, but experts say earnings from BlockFi’s interest-bearing custodial service are still taxable.
Despite recent losses in the crypto market, investors may have other surprise gains for 2022.

It is thought the new U.K. government’s mini-budget may have made buying a house even more difficult.
Photo by LanaStock via Getty Images

Crypto firm BlockFi on Monday filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, two weeks after the collapse of crypto exchange FTX, further complicating taxes for investors during a difficult year.
BlockFi, which offers an exchange and an interest-bearing custodial service for cryptocurrency, halted customer withdrawals before the bankruptcy filing, admitting the firm had “significant exposure” to FTX.

However, “all of those rewards are still taxable,” even though investors currently can’t access their earnings, said Andrew Gordon, a tax attorney, certified public accountant and president of Gordon Law Group.
Officials at BlockFi did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment.
More from Personal Finance:As BlockFi files for bankruptcy, what to know about crypto investor protections3 lesser-known ways to trim your 2022 tax bill or boost your refundHere’s why you may get a tax form for third-party payments for 2022

Why crypto investors may have a tax bill

Despite recent losses, “gains from earlier in the year are still on the books,” Gordon said.
Typically, crypto trading is more active when the market is going up, and that’s when you are more likely to incur gains, he said.

However, it’s also possible to have profits even when the market drops, depending on when you bought and sold the assets.

The IRS defines cryptocurrency as property for tax purposes, and you must pay levies on the difference between the purchase and sales price. 
While buying digital currency isn’t a taxable event, you may owe levies by converting assets to cash, trading for another coin, using it to pay for goods and services, receiving payment for work and more.

How to slash your crypto tax bill

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If you’re sitting on crypto losses, there may be a silver lining: the chance to offset 2022 gains or carry losses forward to reduce profits in future years, Gordon explained.
The strategy, known as tax-loss harvesting, may apply to digital currency gains, or other assets, such as year-end mutual fund payouts. After reducing investment gains, you can use up to $3,000 of losses per year to offset regular income. 
And if you still want exposure to the digital asset, you can “sell and rebuy immediately,” said Ryan Losi, a CPA and executive vice president of CPA firm, PIASCIK.
Currently, the so-called “wash sale rule” — which blocks investors from buying a “substantially identical” asset 30 days before or after the sale — doesn’t apply to cryptocurrency, he said. 

How the FTX collapse and BlockFi bankruptcy may affect your taxes

While crypto taxes are already complex, it’s even murkier for FTX and BlockFi customers.
“There are different ways it can be treated, depending on the facts of the case,” Losi said.
You may be able to claim a capital loss, or “bad debt deduction,” and write off what you paid for the asset. But “it should only be done when that loss is certain,” Gordon said.
With both bankruptcy cases in limbo, customers may opt to file for a tax extension and wait for more details to emerge, Losi said.
“Just like FTX we would suggest taking the ‘wait and see approach’ because the IRS requires that the loss is certain and in full,” Gordon said. “We don’t know that, especially at these early stages with BlockFi.”

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EVOLVE GLOBAL SUMMIT 2022
Evolve Events

Kellogg, the 117-year-old brand that started as a breakfast cereal company has since expanded to be one of the largest food companies in the world, has seen declining cereal sales over the past couple of decades.
The one-time category leader is now facing a number of setbacks, including numerous lawsuits over its products’ nutritional value amid a more health-conscious consumer base. And in 2021, the food giant sustained a damaging fire at its Memphis facility, and later that same year 1,400 workers went on strike to demand better pay and enhanced benefits. Workers eventually ended the three-month strike and agreed to a new contract in December, which included a $1.10 per hour raise for all employees.

In an effort to stimulate growth, on June 21, 2022, the company announced plans to split into three separate companies.
“Right now is the opportune time to do this. We are coming from a position of real strength and great momentum. We have completely turned the business around from a top-line and bottom-line perspective. And we see the next step in our potential in unlocking three new companies,” said Kellogg CEO Steve Cahillane.
Watch the video to learn more about Kellogg’s move to split the company in order to try to kickstart cereal sales and regain some of its bygone glory. More

The World Health Organization said Monday that it would begin referring to monkeypox as mpox in an effort to reduce stigma around the virus.
Both names will be used simultaneously for a year while moneypox is phased out.
The new name was chosen after the WHO launched a public consultation process earlier this year.

The name mpox, otherwise known as Mpox, was chosen after the WHO launched a public consultation process earlier this year.
Orlando Sentinel | Tribune News Service | Getty Images

The World Health Organization said Monday that it would begin referring to monkeypox as mpox in an effort to reduce stigma around the name of the virus.
Both names will be used simultaneously for a year while moneypox is phased out, the global health organization said in a post on its website, encouraging others to follow the new naming convention.

The decision comes after the name monkeypox — so named after first being identified in monkeys — was criticized for adding to racial and sexual stigmatization.
Monkeypox is a rare viral infection that has undergone its largest global outbreak this year, spreading significantly in non-endemic countries outside of West and Central Africa, and primarily among gay and bisexual men.
The name mpox was chosen after the WHO launched a public consultation process earlier this year, opening out a process usually reserved for a closed door technical committee.
Poxy McPoxface, TRUMP-22 and mpox were among some of the names submitted.
The WHO said it hoped the chosen name mpox would “minimize any ongoing negative impact of the current name.”

The name mpox was submitted by men’s health organization Rezo. Its director said at the time that he hoped the removal of monkey imagery helped people take the health emergency seriously.
Over 81,000 cases of monkeypox and 55 deaths have been reported across 110 countries, so far this year, according to the WHO.

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State of Freight

DHL Global Forwarding says technology companies are among clients moving shipments to trucking with the risk of a national freight rail strike in December.
Chips are critical to industries from tech to autos.
The logistics company warned of hot spots of rail congestion in Dallas, Fort Worth, and El Paso.
More trucking capacity is available now versus September when a strike was first threatened.

A container delivery truck heads for one of the terminals at the Port of Long Beach in Long Beach, California.
Frederic J. Brown | AFP | Getty Images

Technology companies supplying critical semiconductor chips to the economy have started shifting cargo shipments from railroads to trucks with a national freight rail strike looming. The moves are being made, DHL Global Forwarding tells CNBC, in an effort to avoid any pre-strike rail preparations that would force freight rail companies to prioritize cargo.
The tech cargo being sent to trucks include semiconductor chips critical to the high-tech sector and auto industry.

“This is tech cargo originating out of California,” said Goetz Alebrand, head of ocean freight for the Americas at DHL Global Forwarding. Alebrand said there is now more truck capacity than there had been when a rail strike was first threatened in September as a result of fewer containers ships overall coming in to U.S. ports.
“There are more trucks and chassis, but that does not mean there are enough trucks to move all rail cargo onto trucks,” Alebrand said.
According to federal safety measures, railroad carriers begin prepping for a strike seven days before the strike date. The carriers start to prioritize the securing and movement of security-sensitive materials like chlorine for drinking water and hazardous materials in the rail winddown.
Ninety-six hours before a strike date, chemicals are no longer transported. According to the American Chemistry Council, railroad industry data shows a drop of 1,975 carloads of chemical shipments during the week of September 10 when the railroads stopped accepting shipments due to the previous threat of a strike.
The Association of American Railroads would be expected to release its planning steps, similar to what it announced in September.

Alebrand said is a client’s cargo is not characterized as perishable or hazardous, it waits to be moved. On average, it takes about two to three days to clear up one day of backup. The September pre-strike containers that were held up for approximately 48 hours took six days to clear.
Delays incurred by a rail strike would only add to the late charges shippers pay the railroads on late cargo.
“DHL Global Forwarding has advised customers of the serious impact that a rail strike could have on their operations, including delays and related detention and demurrage charges,” Alebrand said. “Our first priority has been to make them aware of this situation so that they can prepare for the risk of delays in receiving the merchandise,” he added.

DHL Global Forwarding is also looking at container locations and, as a contingency, it is moving import boxes out of rail yards to the extent possible, and reviewing all import and export flows using rail to check whether trucking is an option in the event of a strike, Alebrand said.
Areas of concern for DHL include Dallas and Fort Worth, which receive cargo from the Port of Houston. The Port of Houston has processed historic volumes of cargo as trade moves away from the West Coast ports to the Gulf and East Coast ports out of fears of a strike among West Coast port workers. The other inland port where DHL sees congestion is El Paso, a big destination for cargo going in and out of Mexico.
“Congress is back in session next week,” Alebrand said. “We now wait to see what happens.”
A rail strike could begin on Dec. 9 if no agreement is reached between unions and rail companies. Congress can intervene using its power through the Constitution’s Commerce Clause to introduce legislation to stop a strike or a lockout, and to set terms of the agreements between the unions and the carriers. More

Demand for U.K. residential properties nearly halved year-on-year in the four weeks to Nov. 20 following the government’s chaotic budget, property website Zoopla found.
New sales fell 28% over the period.
Zoopla’s report said current dynamics were a “shake-out rather than a pre-cursor to a housing crash”. Prices are widely expected to fall next year.

Estate agents “Sold” and “For Sale” signs outside residential properties in the Maida Vale district of London, UK, on Thursday, June 30, 2022.
Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Demand for U.K. residential properties has nearly halved following September’s government budget that spooked financial markets and toppled the prime minister, research Monday showed.
The fiscal package, announced Sept. 23, caused a sell-off in bonds and led to predictions of a potential housing market crash as interest rate expectations rose sharply. In the wake of the budget, a record number of mortgage deals were pulled and many lenders paused offerings as they assessed the volatility.

Buyer demand fell 44% year-on-year in the four weeks to Nov. 20, according to property website Zoopla, while new property sales declined 28%. The stock of homes for sale was up 40% over the same period.
Zoopla said demand had fallen to levels usually seen over Christmas — among the quietest time for property markets — as buyers waited to assess the outlook for mortgages, along with their own jobs and wages.
Richard Donnell, Zoopla’s executive director for research, said the company expected house price falls of up to 5% in 2023.
“But the number of sales going through will remain buoyant for a range of structural, demographic and economic factors,” he said, including ongoing housing scarcity, with the average number of homes on offer per estate agency still a fifth lower than before the pandemic.
Although a fall in house prices is widely predicted, the company’s predictions are less bearish than others.

Economists at Pantheon Macroeconomics forecast a decline of 8% over the next year, while Nationwide, one of the U.K.’s largest mortgage providers, said earlier this month that house prices could collapse by up to 30% in its worst-case scenario.
In contrast, the U.K.’s Office for Budget Responsibility has said it expects house prices to drop 1.2% next year and by 5.7% in 2024.
It comes after a desire for different kinds of property during the pandemic, the suspension of a purchase tax on homes under $500,000 from July 2020 to July 2021 and ongoing supply shortages saw house prices rocket to record highs.
Zoopla said there was currently a “widespread” repricing of homes occurring, but that it was modest in size. It puts U.K. house price growth at 7.8% year-on-year.
Its report described market trends as a “shake-out rather than a pre-cursor to a housing crash” and said the mini budget had “delivered a shock” to sellers and buyers.
“All the leading supply and demand indicators we measure continue to point to a rapid slowdown from very strong market conditions. We do not see any evidence of forced sales or the need for a large, double digit reset in U.K. house prices in 2023,” its report said.
Meanwhile, private rental costs in Britain have risen to record highs amid intense competition for properties, according to separate data published by the website Rightmove last month.
It found rents in London were up 16.1% year-on-year, the highest growth of any region on record.

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China won’t likely make major changes to its Covid policy in the near future, despite this weekend’s protests, analysts said.
“Without a clear guidance from the top, local officials are inclined to play safe by sticking to the existing zero-Covid stance,” said Larry Hu, chief China economist at Macquarie. “It upset many people, who expect[ed] more loosening following the ’20 measures'” announced earlier this month.
“In the short term, the Covid policy will only be fine-tuned without moving the needle,” said Bruce Pang, chief economist and head of research for Greater China at JLL.

A couple pass necessities over a Covid lockdown barrier in Guangzhou city on Nov. 17, 2022.
Future Publishing | Future Publishing | Getty Images

BEIJING — China won’t likely make major changes to its Covid policy in the near future despite this weekend’s protests, analysts said.
One of the reasons for public unrest was the local implementation of recent central government policy, they said.

“Without a clear guidance from the top, local officials are inclined to play safe by sticking to the existing zero-Covid stance,” said Larry Hu, chief China economist at Macquarie. “It upset many people, who expect[ed] more loosening following the ’20 measures'” announced earlier this month.
Groups of people in China took to the streets over the weekend to vent their frustration, built up over nearly three years of stringent Covid controls. Local infections have surged, prompting more lockdowns in the last week.
Although the protests were rare, it was not immediately clear to what scale the demonstrations were held.
Earlier this month, the central government signaled a step toward reopening by announcing “20 measures” to trim quarantine times and generally make Covid controls more targeted.

However, Hu said it’s unclear whether the purpose of the measures is to drastically reduce new infections — likely requiring a hard lockdown — or lower the pace of increase, with less disruption to the economy and hospitals.

“The week ahead could be crucial, as the news on social unrests over the weekend have increased the sense of urgency for more policy clarification and guidance from the top,” he said.
In Beijing over the weekend, unverified social media videos showed residents pointing to the 20 measures and convincing their community management there was no legal basis for locking down their apartment compound.

An implementation gap

On Saturday, a publication overseen by Chinese Communist Party mouthpiece People’s Daily said that based on the 20 measures, only authorities at a county level or above could call for Covid controls, and that school or traffic closures should not occur arbitrarily.
Separately, the People’s Daily ran a front page op-ed Monday on the need to make Covid controls more targeted and effective, while removing those that should be removed.
It will likely take a month for the 20 measures to fully implemented, after which policymakers can make further changes, said Qin Gang, Beijing-based executive director of research institute ICR.
Especially prior to the measures, “it’s clear we have excessively controlled the virus,” Qin said in Mandarin, according to a CNBC translation. “Because it’s excessive, it has brought many problems.”
He noted how it was no longer sustainable for China’s economy and society to accept continued Covid controls.

Read more about China from CNBC Pro

China’s GDP barely grew in the second quarter, dragged down by a stringent lockdown in Shanghai. As of the third quarter, growth for the year so far is just 3%, far below the official target of around 5.5% announced in March.
“In the short term, the Covid policy will only be fine-tuned without moving the needle,” said Bruce Pang, chief economist and head of research for Greater China at JLL. “The focus of narratives is expected to be shifting back and forth between eliminating cases and making more precise measures.”
“Authorities are sending signals of a more pragmatic attitude toward economic roadmap, COVID policy and geopolitical relationships, all of which will help to deliver a gradual economic recovery for China,” he said.

Mostly asymptomatic cases

China’s swift lockdown in 2020 helped control Covid domestically, prevent many deaths and allow businesses to resume work within a quarter. Authorities have also worried about the ability of the public health system to handle a surge of infections.
However, the rise of more contagious variants and more stringent virus testing requirements, among other restrictions, have weighed on business and consumer sentiment.
Mainland China reported for Sunday more than 40,000 local Covid infections spread across the country, and no new deaths. Most of the infections were asymptomatic. Since Wednesday, the national total — but not the number of cases with symptoms — has soared well above that reported during the height of the Shanghai lockdown.

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Rare protests broke out across China over the weekend as groups of people vented their frustration over the zero-Covid policy.
The unrest came as infections surged, prompting more local Covid controls, while a central government policy change earlier this month had raised hopes of a gradual easing.
It was not immediately clear whether the protests reached a meaningful scale in a country of 1.4 billion people, or whether a wide demographic participated.

Demonstrators against Covid restrictions hold blank sheets of paper during a protest in Beijing in the early hours of Monday, Nov. 28.
Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images

BEIJING — Rare protests broke out across China over the weekend as groups of people vented their frustration over the zero-Covid policy.
The unrest came as infections surged, prompting more local Covid controls, while a central government policy change earlier this month had raised hopes of a gradual easing. Nearly three years of controls have dragged down the economy. Youth unemployment has neared 20%.

People’s Daily, the Communist Party’s official newspaper, ran a front page op-ed Monday on the need to make Covid controls more targeted and effective, while removing those that should be removed.
In Beijing, many apartment communities successfully convinced local management they had no legal basis for a lockdown. That came after more and more compounds in the capital city on Friday had abruptly forbade residents from leaving.
On Sunday, municipal authorities said temporary controls on movement should not last more than 24 hours.
Over the last three days, students staged protests at many universities, while people took to the streets in parts of Beijing, Shanghai, Wuhan and Lanzhou, among other cities, according to videos widely shared on social media. The videos could not all be independently verified.

Demonstrations initially started in Urumqi, Xinjiang, on Friday after a building fire killed 10 people the prior day — in an area that had been locked down for months. The narrative on social media centered on how Covid controls prevented residents and rescue workers from saving lives.

While it’s not clear what exactly caused the deaths, local authorities subsequently declared the Covid risk had subsided, and began relaxing controls.
In Shanghai on Saturday, a vigil for the Urumqi deaths turned into a protest against Covid and the ruling Communist Party of China. Some unverified videos also showed calls for President Xi Jinping to step down.
Videos on social media showed police arresting some protesters.

Read more about China from CNBC Pro

Many of the demonstrators have held up blank sheets of white paper. Some have sung the national anthem and “The Internationale,” a socialist song associated with the founding of the Chinese Communist Party.
Notably, social media also showed protesters at the prestigious Tsinghua University on Sunday.
It was not immediately clear whether the protests reached a meaningful scale in a country of 1.4 billion people, or whether a wide demographic participated.

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The CEO and other senior leaders at Adidas discussed the potential fallout from its relationship with Kanye West as far back as four years ago, according to a report from The Wall Street Journal.
A 2018 presentation included a number of mitigation strategies that included cutting ties with the Yeezy creator, the report said.

Gilbert Carrasquillo | Getty

The chief executive and other senior leaders at Adidas discussed the potential fallout from its relationship with Kanye West as far back as four years ago, according to a report from The Wall Street Journal.
During a 2018 presentation to the Adidas executive board, a group of employees reportedly outlined the risks that they faced by interacting with West, who has legally changed his name to Ye. The presentation included a number of mitigation strategies that included cutting ties with the Yeezy creator, the report said.

But Adidas executives did not sever ties when these concerns were raised, and instead continued to meet with Ye to try and hold onto the partnership, which made nearly $2 billion a year for Adidas, or 10% of its revenue, according to Morningstar analyst David Swartz. During one meeting in September of this year, the report said, Ye accused Adidas executives of stealing his designs and showed them a clip of an adult video.
The German sportswear giant officially terminated its partnership with Ye in October after the musician made a series of offensive and antisemitic comments.
“Adidas does not tolerate antisemitism and any other sort of hate speech,” the company said in a statement. “Ye’s recent comments and actions have been unacceptable, hateful and dangerous, and they violate the company’s values of diversity and inclusion, mutual respect and fairness.”
A month later, Adidas announced that it is investigating accusations made by staff relating to Ye’s conduct after an anonymous letter alleged years of abuse.
Ye’s alleged behavior was not new, according to employees who spoke to the Journal. Some of them had raised concerns about Ye to leaders and human resources at Adidas as far back as 2018.
“It is currently not clear whether the accusations made in an anonymous letter are true,” Adidas said in a statement Thursday. “However, we take these allegations very seriously and have taken the decision to launch an independent investigation of the matter immediately to address the allegations.”

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