- India to Give Clarity on Tax Provision Within Two Months
The Indian government will provide “procedural clarities” on tax deducted at source (TDS) within two months, said two people familiar with the matter.
The 1% tax deducted at source (TDS) liability – which will take effect on July 1 – is the most controversial provision of India’s recently introduced crypto tax law. Another provision, which enforces a 30% capital gains tax on all transactions, took effect on April 1.
TDS is a liability enforced against the exchanges that deposit tax on behalf of sellers on the platform. It will be calculated at 1% of the transaction value. The seller would be able to set off this 1% TDS from their total tax liability of 30%.
The TDS mechanism is used to trace transactions and prevent tax evasion, according to the government.
Crypto businesses have repeatedly said the TDS is the biggest pain point in the new crypto tax legislation, with some even considering a legal challenge against the law.
- Deutsche Bank Predicts Major US Recession Next Year
Deutsche Bank has predicted a deeper downturn than its previous forecast for the U.S. economy in a report to clients, published Tuesday.
The bank’s economists, including David Folkerts-Landau, group chief economist and head of research, explained in the report why the coming recession will be worse than expected. They described:
We will get a major recession, but our strongly held view is that the sooner and the more aggressively the Fed acts, the less longer-term damage to the economy there will be.
The report explains that it will take a long time before inflation falls back to the Fed’s goal of 2%. The authors warned that the central bank will likely engage in the most aggressive monetary tightening since the 1980s, which “will push the economy into a significant recession by late next year.”
https://news.bitcoin.com/deutsche-bank-predicts-major-us-recession-next-year/
- Coinbase Lists Competitor Binance’s Stablecoin BUSD
Coinbase has listed Binance USD (BUSD), the crypto exchange’s U.S. dollar-backed stablecoin, for trading on the Ethereum network.
That makes it the eighth stablecoin to be offered by Coinbase, joining Tether (USDT), USD Coin (USDC), TerraUSD (UST), Dai (DAI), Paxos Standard (PAX), Rai Reflex Index (RAI), and mStable USD (MUSD).
BUSD is Binance’s stablecoin project, created in partnership with Paxos, which custodies the coin’s reserves. At the time of this writing, BUSD was the 10th most popular of the 172 assets on Coinbase, according to the exchange’s dashboard.
But the launch wasn’t without a small hiccup. The Coinbase Exchange Status dashboard reported that the BUSD-USDT trading pair “failed to meet the metrics” needed to continue trading and had to be paused. In plain terms, that means there wasn’t enough liquidity to allow trading. Trading only lapsed for six minutes before the issue was resolved.
https://decrypt.co/98872/coinbase-lists-competitor-binances-stablecoin-busd
- Goldman Sachs says it is exploring the tokenization of real assets
Goldman Sachs said it is examining non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and particularly the “tokenization of real assets,” as the investment bank dives deeper into the crypto space.
The metaverse where real world assets like real estate are bought and sold as NFTs has been garnering the attention of big names in financial services and a range of other industries.
“We are actually exploring NFTs in the context of financial instruments, and actually there the power is actually quite powerful. So we work on a number of things,” Mathew McDermott, global head of digital assets at Goldman Sachs, said at the Financial Times Crypto and Digital Assets Summit on Wednesday.
The bank has dived into crypto. It started offering bitcoin derivatives to investors in 2021 and conducted its first over the counter crypto trade with the digital-asset financial company Galaxy Digital in March this year.
https://www.binance.com/en/news/top/7100678
- Colorful billionaire’s Dubai real estate firm now accepts BTC and ETH
“Offering yet another transactional mode is exciting, and we are glad to recognize the value this technology brings to our customers,” said DAMAC Properties’ general manager of operations Ali Sajwani
Multi-billion dollar Dubai-based real estate developer DAMAC Properties has started accepting Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) payments for its luxury abodes.
DAMAC Properties was founded by colorful billionaire Hussain Sajwani in 2002, and the firm has conducted business throughout the middle east, Canada and the United Kingdom. It also owns high-end fashion and jewelry brands Roberto Cavalli and De-Grisgono.
Sajwani is known for extravagant marketing tactics such as giving away free Lamborghinis to property buyers. He also teamed up with Donald Trump in 2013 to launch multiple Trump-branded golf courses in Dubai.
https://cointelegraph.com/news/colorful-billionaire-s-dubai-real-estate-firm-now-accepts-btc-and-eth
- Argent Raises $40M to Make Crypto Wallets Easier to Use
“Not your keys, not your coins,” goes the saying, but non-custodial crypto wallets require their owners to either memorize or otherwise securely store a 12- or 24-word seed phrase in order to properly hold and transfer their digital assets.
Argent offers an Ethereum mobile crypto wallet app that promises the security and user freedom of a non-custodial wallet without the need to learn and guard a seed phrase. The company has now raised $40 million in a Series B funding round co-led by early-stage venture capital firms Fabric Ventures and Metaplanet.
“Noncustodial crypto was really about users having some kind of secret. If they lose their secret, they lose their money. And if I find your secret, you lose your money. That’s really how any wallet works,” Itamar Lesuisse, co-Founder & CEO of Argent, explained to CoinDesk during an interview. “That’s way too scary. It’s the most stressful experience.”
https://www.coindesk.com/business/2022/04/28/argent-raises-40m-to-make-crypto-wallets-easier-to-use/
- Report: $1.3 Billion in Crypto Stolen in Q1 2022, 97% Stemmed From Defi Exploits
2022 is already breaking records in terms of stolen cryptocurrencies from hacks and exploits. Last year, $3.2 billion in digital currencies were stolen and so far, 2022 has recorded over 40% of 2021’s aggregate during the first quarter alone. The recorded stolen crypto data stems from a report published by cryptomonday.de and the study’s author, Elizabeth Kerr. The report’s author says “the numbers signify a major spike.”
For instance, out of the $1.3 billion in digital currencies stolen this year, 97% of the funds were taken from defi protocols. In Q1 2021, only 72% of the stolen funds derived from defi and in 2020, the number was as low as 30%. Moreover, most of the theft in 2022 came from faulty code exploits where smart contract errors have been used to siphon stolen money from defi protocols. The author says that because the defi environment is open source, anyone can search for vulnerabilities and errors within a defi project’s codebase.
https://news.bitcoin.com/report-1-3-billion-in-crypto-stolen-in-q1-97-stemmed-from-defi-exploits/
- BlackRock Launches Its First Crypto-Exposed ETF With Sizable Coinbase Allocation
BlackRock, the world’s biggest asset manager, has listed its iShares exchange-traded fund (ETF) to allow investors to gain exposure to the blockchain and cryptocurrency market without directly investing in crypto.
An application for the iShares Blockchain and Tech ETF (IBLC) ETF was filed to the SEC in January and “seeks to track the investment results of an index composed of U.S. and non-U.S. companies that are involved in the development, innovation, and utilization of blockchain and crypto technologies.”
An ETF is a popular investment product that lets people buy shares that represent an asset—be it real estate, foreign currencies, or even Bitcoin.
https://decrypt.co/98863/blackrock-crypto-etf-coinbase
- New York Mayor urges state to abandon ‘stifling’ BitLicense scheme
New York City Mayor Eric Adams has hit out at his state’s BitLicensing regime, claiming that it stifles innovation and economic growth.
In a closing keynote interview at the Crypto and Digital Assets Summit in London on Wednesday, Adams suggested his state legislature counterparts in Albany “listen to those who are in the industry” adding:
“It’s about thinking not only outside the box, but on this one, we may have to destroy the box.”
Adams is a crypto advocate who ran for mayor, planning to turn New York City into the “center of the cryptocurrency industry,” and took his first three paychecks in Bitcoin (BTC). In the interview, he said cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology are the “next chapters in the future,” and the opportunity shouldn’t be squandered.
“New York State is the only state to require a license for crypto companies. That’s a high barrier, and it just makes us less competitive. We have to continue to be competitive.”
https://cointelegraph.com/news/new-york-mayor-urges-state-to-abandon-stifling-bitlicense-scheme
- New York State Assembly Passed Moratorium Bill Targeted at Carbon-Based PoW Mining Sites
Bill A7389C, sponsored by Democratic Assemblymember Anna Kelles, was passed to regulate further PoW miners that use carbon-based energy to mine cryptocurrencies. According to it, no new permits will be issued to such miners for two years; meanwhile, facilities already powered by carbon won’t be able to renew their licenses if they decide to increase the amount of energy they need for mining.
The bill also tasks the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) with conducting a comprehensive review of all the crypto mining sites in the state, ensuring that they meet the environmental requirements set by the state.
The moratorium that only targets “electric generating facilities” – like power plants – requiring a DEC permit does not impact individuals mining cryptocurrencies like bitcoin. An earlier version of the bill, which called for a three-year moratorium on a broader scope of mining facilities, did not get passed by the Assembly in June 2021.
Kelles celebrated the bill being passed as part of the “Earthday package,” clarifying that the moratorium is not a crypto ban nor a restriction on crypto mining.
