Crypto Journalist

Amin Ayan

Crypto Journalist

Amin Ayan

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Amin Ayan is a crypto journalist with over four years of experience in the industry. He has contributed to leading publications such as Cryptonews, Investing.com, 99Bitcoins, and 24/7 Wall St. He has…

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August 23, 2025

Trish Turner has stepped down as head of the United States Internal Revenue Service’s (IRS) digital assets division, leaving the role after just three months.

Turner announced her departure in a LinkedIn post on Friday, reflecting on her two-decade career at the agency.

“After more than 20 years with the IRS, I have closed an extraordinary chapter of my career with deep appreciation for those who shaped my journey and made the work so meaningful,” she wrote.

Turner Vows to Bridge Gap Between Industry and Regulators

Turner added that she looked forward to “building bridges between industry and regulators” from a new position outside the agency.

Bloomberg Tax later reported that Turner will join Crypto Tax Girl, a private tax advisory firm, as its new tax director.

Founder Laura Walter confirmed the appointment, saying Turner’s expertise will help clients navigate the growing list of compliance challenges.

“With all of the big crypto tax and compliance changes on the horizon, we are excited to have Trish on board,” Walter said.

Her resignation comes at a critical moment for U.S. crypto taxation. The IRS has been under increasing pressure to modernize its digital asset strategy, following repeated criticism from lawmakers and watchdog agencies over its handling of crypto-related investigations.

Turner herself was only appointed in May, following the departures of Sulolit “Raj” Mukherjee and Seth Wilks, who left the division after roughly a year.

The shake-up coincides with heightened congressional scrutiny. Last month, the House Committee on Ways and Means announced a hearing on how to establish a clear tax framework for digital assets.

Earlier in July, the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration recommended reforms to the IRS’s criminal investigation unit, citing failures to follow protocols in crypto cases.

Meanwhile, the broader regulatory environment has shifted under the Trump administration.

In April, the president signed a resolution overturning a Biden-era rule that would have required decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols to report user transactions to the IRS.

Turner’s move to the private sector highlights the ongoing migration of senior government officials into crypto-focused firms, as the industry braces for sweeping changes in U.S. tax and compliance policy.

IRS Ramps Up Crypto Tax Crackdown With Surge in Warning Letters

As reported, the IRS has intensified its scrutiny of crypto investors in the United States, sending out a wave of warning letters over the past two months.

Tax experts say the letters point to growing enforcement efforts after the agency flagged discrepancies in filings linked to digital asset transactions.

CoinLedger, a crypto tax filing platform, said it received nearly 800 customer support queries about IRS letters between May and June, nine times more than the same period in 2024.

Tax attorneys have also seen a spike in outreach, with some firms now fielding multiple calls each week from concerned clients, compared to little or no activity last year.

The campaign recalls earlier IRS crackdowns in 2020 and 2021, when the agency issued widespread compliance letters after obtaining exchange data, including records from Coinbase.

No topic was off limits at the Paris Blockchain Week 2025, including recent memecoin launches and rug pulls. Messari CEO Eric Turner thinks memecoins are fun. “I really like the concept. Early on, building a community and everything made a lot of sense to me.”

“But when you think about it in terms of gambling, I feel we got to the point where yes, it was gambling, but the dice were rigged,” he added. “And you look at a lot of memecoin launches, and they were just, rigged against people buying them in the first place.”

Since the market has seen “that wash out,” Turner thinks it’s very healthy for “where we are as an industry.” Referring to a certain memecoin launch and the subsequent rug pull, he said he thinks “it will get us back to the point where we are building meaningful things.”

“And I think everything we do in this industry is a lesson learned,” he added. “You see how people are going to interact with the technology, see the demand just to launch new assets, the platforms that you can do it on. And I think, if anything, that experience was great.”

There are still going to be quality assets in that sector, but again, I think the wash out that we’ve seen over the past, let’s call it three months or so, has been good.

Explore: Messari CEO Eric Turner Thinks Q2 May Be Muted, But Q3 And Q4 Will Be Exciting!

“But if the market wants it, then there is probably a right for it to exist”

Meanwhile, Thomas Eichenberger, CSO and deputy Group CEO of Sygnum Bank said, “I personally believe there are more meaningful things we can do with this technology than issue meme coins. But if the market wants it, then there is probably a right for it to exist.”

“Then hopefully there is more to it than pure speculation and gambling,” he continued, “because there are users involved that may not be aware of the potential risks they enter into in case they buy and trade meme coins. But yes, they are a phenomenon of our industry at this point in time, so it’s going to be exciting to see where it takes us.”

DISCOVER: 20+ Next Crypto to Explode in 2025 

“Classic crypto, we got really ahead of ourselves in the hype cycle there,” said Messari CEO, referring to the hype around AI

We’ve spent the past year and a half building an infrastructure for AI agents to leverage cryptos leading market intelligence platform

Excited to bring our insights to @CoinbaseDev and power the next generation of builders https://t.co/NyHXAuLqBE

— Eric Turner (@ericturnr) April 9, 2025

Turner said, “For us at Messari, AI has really changed the way that we work on a day-to-day basis.

Talking about the increasing impact of Artificial Intelligence (AI), especially at Messari, Turner said, “It is so deeply ingrained in everything that we do and in our products as well. We have an AI co-pilot, we’ve done some really interesting things with AI.”

“I think when I look at where AI and crypto overlap today, I’ve been somewhat underwhelmed,” said Turner. “There are really interesting things where AI infrastructure can be done better. I’m still waiting to see something that really blows my mind live in action.”

Furthermore, Messari CEO said “we work in a space where Messari provides research, data, information. And when we think about what’s going to move things forward on the regulatory side – it’s transparency and it’s consumer education.”

Great day of meetings in DC

I’m incredibly excited about what Q3/Q4 hold for the industry pic.twitter.com/VhXYDsjlSJ

— Eric Turner (@ericturnr) April 10, 2025

DISCOVER: Best New Cryptocurrencies to Invest in 2025

“A lot of Memecoin Launches Were Rigged Against People,” Says Messari CEO Eric Turner

“But when we think about it from a gambling perspective, we were yes, gambling, but the dice was equipped,” he added. “And you’re watching a lot of Memecoin launches, but they were equipped to those who bought them in the first place.”

The market has seen “that wash,” so Turner considers it to be extremely healthy for “where we are the industry.” Referring to the launch of a particular memocoin and the subsequent lagpur, he said he thinks “back to the point where we’re building something meaningful.”

“And I think everything we do in this industry is a lesson we’ve learned,” he added. “You can see how people interact with technology, the demand just for launching new assets, the platforms you can do that, and if there is, I think the experience is great.”

The sector still has quality assets, but again, let’s call the bathrooms we’ve seen in the past three months.

Exploration: Messari CEO Eric Turner thinks Q2 might be muted, but Q3 and Q4 are exciting!

“But if the market wants it, then there’s probably a right to it.”

Meanwhile, CSO Thomas Eichenberger and Sygnum Bank’s associate group CEO said, “I personally believe that there is something more meaningful about this technology than issuing meme coins.

“And hopefully there’s more to it than pure speculation and gambling,” he continued.

Discover: 20+ Next Cryptographs to Explode in 2025

“Classic cryptography, we really took ourselves ahead of ourselves in the hype cycle there,” he said, referring to the hype around AI.

Over the past year and a half, AI agents have built their infrastructure to leverage crypto, which leads market intelligence platforms

I was excited to bring our insights @coinbasedev And powers the next generation builder https://t.co/nyhxaulqbe

– Eric Turner (@ericturnr) April 9, 2025

Turner said: “For us at Messari, AI has really changed the way we work on a daily basis.

Speaking specifically in Messari about the increased impact of artificial intelligence (AI), Turner said:

“I think I’ve been somewhat overwhelmed by seeing where today’s AI and Crypto overlap today,” Turner said. “There’s something really interesting that can make AI infrastructure even better. I’m still waiting to see what my mind actually blows away what’s in motion.”

Additionally, the CEO of Messari said, “We work in a space where Messari provides research, data and information. And when we think about what will move things forward on the regulatory side, it’s transparency and consumer education.”

A great day for meetings in DC

I’m very excited that Q3/Q4 holds in the industry pic.twitter.com/vhxydsjlsj

– Eric Turner (@ericturnr) April 10, 2025

Discover: Best New Cryptocurrencies to Invest in 2025

The post “Many Memocoin launches were equipped to people,” says Messari CEO Eric Turner, who first appeared in 99bitcoins.

Coin Bureau’s Guy Turner is turning bearish on Ethereum (ETH) as the second-largest crypto asset hovers around 58% below the all-time high price reached in November of 2021.

In a new video, Turner tells 2.66 million subscribers of the Coin Bureau YouTube channel that Ethereum has underperformed Bitcoin (BTC) over the past couple of months, despite expectations that ETH would follow the flagship crypto asset’s lead and rally.

“Ethereum’s performance has been so poor that it’s basically become a meme while BTC has rallied to new all-time highs…

ETH has yet to reclaim its 2021 high of around $4,900. In fact, Ethereum is one of the only major altcoins yet to experience any price movements for us to get excited about. During this cycle, ETH’s price has struggled to break above the key resistance level of $4,000, significantly lower than its previous all-time high…

You only have to take a look at ETH’s price against BTC to see that Ethereum has been bleeding against Bitcoin since September 2022, with no signs of that slowing down. All in all, then, it’s not looking good, bro.”

Ethereum is trading at $2,066 at time of writing.

According to Turner, the competition both within and outside the ecosystem is one of the reasons Ethereum is underperforming.

“In the eyes of many, the biggest thing hurting ETH’s price is the massive number of layer-2s within Ethereum’s ecosystem…

…many believe that liquidity fragmentation is the biggest reason why ETH’s price has underperformed. And layer-2s have arguably stolen some of the venture capitalist mind share…

…another challenge for Ethereum – and that’s the growing competition from those aforementioned Ethereum killers. For anyone unaware, these are smart contract blockchains that threaten Ethereum’s dominance by effectively offering an alternative to Ethereum. Now, some of the leading Ethereum-killers by market cap include Solana, BNB Chain, Aptos, Avalanche and Sui, among many others.”

Turner further says that the macroeconomic landscape is also negatively impacting Ethereum’s price.

“Another major challenge comes from the macro environment, specifically high interest rates. That’s because higher interest rates are reflected in government bonds, which are popular among institutional investors…

…the yield on US government bonds is 4.28%. Meanwhile, ETH staking offers a yield of just 3%. This means that institutional investors who love earning a consistent yield are much more inclined to stick with government bonds as a result.”

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