This Week in Crypto #7

Every Monday, Arweave News publishes a review of top news in the global crypto ecosystem from the previous week. This week kicked off with more countries targeting crypto with taxes, an indication that governments see the money making potential of digital assets.

Still on prospects in crypto, Coinbase’s CEO’s trip to India at a time players in the industry are criticising the government over an unfriendly tax policy has left some people wondering what the firm’s game plan is.

Beyond assets, the United Kingdom wants NFTs to be a symbol of its commitment to digital assets. Plus, the operation of one of the biggest darknet markets was burst,  Bitcoin conference 2022 ended on a high note and a summary of how the crypto market performed. 

Indonesia to tax crypto

The government of Indonesia announced a value added tax on cryptocurrency transactions  and a capital gains tax of 0.1% tax policy which will begin on May 1.

About 7.4 million Indonesians are estimated to trade crypto. The government defines crypto as a commodity and not an asset. The boom in cryptocurrency has spurred governments to impose taxes to get a slice of the big money flowing in the digital asset space. 

Crypto price performance for the week

DistrictOx, an Ethereum token, was the biggest gainer this week, rising 56.88% in price to $0.14 and 600 million circulating supply, according to data by Coinbase.

Joining top gainers’ list is Dogecoin, whose price hovered between $0.14 and $0.15 at the beginning of the week, before shooting to $0.18 in the wake of one of its most influential promoters – Elon Musk – becoming top holder of Twitter’s stock, and the announcement that he would be given a seat at the microblogging platform’s board of directors.

Market leaders in terms of capital, Bitcoin and Ethereum, were in the  losers’ corner this week. After briefly hitting a price tag of $47,469.40 early in the week, Bitcoin ended the week losing 8.01% in price.

Ethereum also lost 7.35% at the end of the week with its price declining to $3,241.74 as of the time of writing.

Coinbase’s CEO sees a “big future” in India’s crypto sector despite hefty tax

In India, the new tax regime which imposes 30% tax on crypto transactions and another one percent tax deducted at source, which many crypto holders have criticised as bad for the growth of the sector became effective during the week.

But the hefty tax did not discourage Coinbase’s CEO, Brian Armstrong from announcing more investments and a crypto event to hold in India. The company says it plans to hire more than 1,000 people in India this year.

Inverse Finance falls to economic exploit

Days after Ola Finance, a lending protocol, was exploited for $3.6 million and a gaming project, Ronin Network was lost $625 million in an attack – Inverse Finance, a lending protocol, suffered an economic exploit that resulted in the loss of $15.6 million. Targeting the Anchor money market, Inverse said that the attacker manipulated the token prices to borrow loans against really low collateral.

Darknet market burst by the German police

Hydra, a Russian language market platform and one of the biggest darknet markets in the world, was shut down by the authorities in Germany, confiscating 543 Bitcoin worth $25 million and securing the site’s servers.

The darknet marketplace which had been in operation since 2015, was accessible through Tor browser and had an in-built Bitcoin privacy mixer. Police said the market place was used mainly for narcotics and in 2020, it made a revenue of 1.23 billion euros ($1.35 billion).

Seventeen million customers’ data and 19 million sellers’ accounts were also found as a result of an investigation which lasted for eight months.     

Regulators working to split crypto oversight in the U.S.

The Securities and Exchange and Commission (SEC) and the Commodity and Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) are working to share oversight roles over the crypto industry, Gary Gensler, the SEC chair disclosed at an event hosted by the University of Pennslyvani’s law school. Gensler said commodities and securities on crypto platforms are “intertwined”. 

The UK is committing to crypto technology through NFTs

John Glen, the United Kingdom’s minister and economic secretary to the Treasury, said that the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rishi Sunak asked the Royal Mint to make an NFT. Glen said it would be an “emblem of the forward-looking approach we are determined to take.” The NFT is expected to be issued by summer.

UN refugee agency accepts first stablecoin donation from Binance

The humanitarian efforts of the United Nations in Ukraine got a boost with a $2.5 BUSD donation from Binance through Binance Charity. It’s the first stablecoin donation the global organisation is receiving.

The donation will provide humanitarian, legal, social assistance and emergency shelter for people in need.

Bitcoin conference 2022

Bitoin enthusiasts and maximalists across the world converged on Miami in Florida, during the week for a four-day event. Attendees and speakers discussed issues affecting Bitcoin as well as innovations in the ecosystem and what they perceive the future holds.

Organisers say it’s the world’s largest gathering for people seeking “greater freedom and individual sovereignty.” There were 35,000 attendees, over 450 speakers, 100 artists and 3,000 companies, organisers say.  

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