New episode of the streaming war, taxation in the metaverse and what matters in the market

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New episode in the streaming war

Disney+ overtook Netflix for the first time in terms of new subscribers in a quarter. The milestone kicks off a new phase in the streaming war, with the segment leader increasingly threatened by rivals.

In numbers:

• Disney+, which also considers ESPN+ and Hulu services in the subscriber base, added 11.8 million of new users from October to December 2021. In total, it reached 129.8 million of subscribers.
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• Netflix is ​​still leading the way with its 222 million of subscribers, but saw its base grow 8.3 million in the last quarter and even lowered its forecasts, which made its shares fall after the result.

why it matters: this is another episode in a war that has heated up a lot in recent years, when streaming services began to invest heavily in new productions and in mergers and acquisitions.

Is here? The streaming war also has its effects in Brazil, with platforms taking stars from Globo to strengthen themselves in the country.

Taxation in the metaverse

The metaverse may still be far from becoming popular, but people are already making money from it. Among the most sought after assets are virtual lands. How is the taxation for these cases?

Understand: in an environment that mixes physical and virtual realities, digital “properties” have attracted the attention of users and brands alike.

Trading through cryptocurrencies – mainly ether, from the ethereum platform – the appreciation of these assets is subject to the IR, even if the investor sells a crypto to buy another.

For now, the IRS has a uniform rule for declaring and taxing capital gain with crypto assets, which applies to both bitcoins and NFTs, for example: the profit obtained is taxed as capital gain, according to progressive rates, when the total sold exceeds the monthly exemption limit of BRL 35 thousand.

The lands in the metaverse: these assets work like NFTs, which certify the ownership of a certain asset to the user. These “properties” have already sold for millions of dollars. Today, the main environments of the metaverse are The Sandbox, Decentraland, CryptoVoxels and Somnium Space.

Among the companies, McDonalds recently asked for registrations of its brands to create virtual restaurants in the metaverse. The idea, according to Insider, is that the user can order the snack in the virtual environment and receive it at home.

More about crypto world:

Cryptocouple and the ‘heist of the century’

On Tuesday (8), the couple Heather Morgan, 31, and Ilya Lichtenstein, 34, were arrested on charges of trying to launder more than $3.6 billion (R$19 billion) in stolen bitcoins.

See what is known so far about the duo suspected of being involved in what is being characterized as the “heist of the century”, a story that is expected to become a Netflix production.

The case: In 2016, hackers broke into Bitfinex platform systems and stole around 120,000 bitcoins, which at the time were worth $71 million. With the appreciation of crypto, today that amount is worth more than $4.5 billion (R$ 23.6 billion).

• According to US authorities, the couple converted about $2.9 million worth of bitcoins into fiat currency, but 80% of the cryptocurrencies are in accounts associated with them.
• The specific allegations of money laundering made by the government involve small amounts, including the purchase of a $500 gift card from Walmart.

Who is who:

• Heather Morgan: she calls herself a “serial entrepreneur, investor [em software] and surrealist artist/rapper” and has authored columns for American Forbes. In rap, she sings under the name Razzlekhan.
• Ilya Lichtenstein: a devoted Morgan fan, made the marriage proposal with the purchase of several Razzlekhan billboards in Times Square. It is on him that the allegations of money laundering are concentrated.

Samson Enzer, the couple’s lawyer, argued in a document on Wednesday that there are “significant holes in the government’s case against them.” He also asked for bail claiming that the couple was not at risk of flight because their frozen embryos were in a New York hospital.

Is it time to buy dollar?

The dollar exchange rate in real reached the lowest in five months last week, when it closed in BRL 5,226 on Thursday (10).

The recent appreciation of the Brazilian currency resurfaces with the doubt of those who have a trip abroad scheduled: is it time to buy dollars?

It depends. The recommendation is that the traveler plans to purchase equal amounts at regular intervals from the time of purchase of the ticket until boarding, in order to reach the so-called average price. In this way, he does not run the risk of acquiring the currency when it is at its maximum for a certain period.

• The indications go this way because it is very difficult to predict the dollar exchange rate, especially in the short term. The exchange rate is affected by many variables, from political and fiscal uncertainties in Brazil to external crises.
• An example was the US alert about the risk of an imminent Russian invasion of Ukraine, last Friday (11), which made the dollar go from a price of R$ 5.18 to close the day in a few hours. BRL 5.24.

What explains: the recent appreciation of the real was driven by the large flow of dollars into the country by international investors, with a view that the Brazilian stock market is cheap, especially the shares of commodity companies and banks.

But the movement is analyzed with reservation by market agents, who see it as a flow in search of short-term profit while the stock exchanges out there are in the red.

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