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Japan’s New Laws Will Put Limits on Cryptocurrency Taxes

Japan has just established a new level of clarity for its crypto tax agenda. Up until this point, all unrealized gains from crypto assets were subject to the country’s current 30% corporate tax rate, though this now appears to be coming to an end.

Japan Is Ending Some Crypto Fees

The news came from the Japan National Tax Agency (NTA). The agency explained in a statement that crypto assets will be excluded from any company’s asset valuation based on market value if certain conditions are met. For example, a company is required to hold crypto assets for certain periods after obtaining them, in case tax breaks occur. Furthermore, it has been said that all crypto transfers are subject to specific restrictions.

Soto Watanabe – CEO of web development company3 Stake Technologies Pte. – believes that the new tax laws will open all kinds of doors for innovation in Japan, and he believes that he will do wonders to prevent Japanese cryptocurrency companies from exiting. At the same time, he also says that the rules could be extended a bit to ensure that cryptocurrency companies in other regions also benefit. He stated:

   For now, whoever wants to do something... can do it without leaving the country. I would like to continue constructive discussions with politicians and authorities. Next, I would like to do something about taxation at the end of the term of having tokens issued by other companies as a corporation, since it is an obstacle to the national expansion of national projects and projects.

While crypto taxes have not been rendered null and void in Japan, the current rules are seen as much less stringent and a solid step forward for the Asian country, which until this stage was considered one of the harshest with its currency laws. digital, due to this. it was home to the Mt. Gox and Coincheck disasters. Both are considered among the best cryptocurrency exchange hacks ever.

The first, which took place in 2014, saw more than $400 million in BTC disappear overnight, while the second (which took place four years later) saw more than half a billion in various crypto funds disappear. The situation surrounding Japan and crypto taxes begs the question: “If a country that is home to not one, but two of the biggest crypto mishaps can facilitate the industry, why can’t the US?”

The United States is currently using a regulation-by-app attitude when it comes to crypto. Agencies like the SEC are harassing the industry with everything they have, and lawsuits are being filed against some of the biggest cryptocurrency companies, including Coinbase.

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Securitization of companies beyond the US, extends tokenized coins to the UK

Securitize, a US-based blockchain company known for its expertise in tokenizing real-world assets, has expanded its operations to Europe.

The company entered the specialized sandbox of the General Secretariat of the Treasury and International Finance of Spain for digital asset values. Consequently, Securitize began issuing tokens representing shares in Mancipi Partners, a Spanish real estate investment fund.

Tokenization involves converting conventional financial assets, such as stocks and bonds, into digital tokens and issuing them on a blockchain platform.

This marks its first European trial, allowing Securitize to demonstrate its capabilities in the European market. Carlos Domingo, co-founder of Securitize, stated:

   Securitize is now the first company to be able to issue and trade tokenized securities in the US and Europe, and is the first company to do so under the new EU pilot regime for digital assets.

Securitize considers Spain’s sandbox environment key

Under supervised conditions, the Spanish General Secretariat of the Treasury and International Finance has approved the company to implement digital asset securities for a select group of companies and investors. According to the press release, this approval represents a recent achievement for Securitize in the European market.

Securitize views the Spain sandbox as a crucial milestone, allowing the company to conduct real-world testing before acquiring the necessary licenses.

After a period of six months, the company obtains the approval of the European Union Pilot Regime, which allows Securitize to proceed with the issuance, management and trading of tokenized securities in Spain and the EU in general.

The shares have been tokenized on the Avalanche blockchain, and secondary trading of these tokenized shares is expected to begin in September.

In May, the firm partnered with asset management firm Hamilton Lane to increase investor exposure by offering tokenized securities.

Amparo García Flores, CEO of Securitize Europe Brokerage And Markets, mentioned:

   This is not just theoretical work; we are showing that what we have in the US is viable in Europe. This means we can open up our market on both sides of the Atlantic, effectively doubling the size of our business and the opportunities for issuers in Europe that previously did not have the same opportunities as their US peers.

In the US, the company offers a range of services that cover the entire lifecycle of a security token. These services include issuance, capital increase, dividend distribution, shareholder meetings, redemptions and facilitation of securities trading in the secondary market.

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Worldcoin (WLD) could face UK regulatory investigations

The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), a body that focuses on data protection in the United Kingdom, has revealed that it plans to investigate the Worldcoin project, according to a Reuters report on July 25.

Worldcoin, launched on Monday, July 24th, has faced criticism mainly due to its iris scanning feature.

The project offers WLD coins to people who scan their irises. As stated on their website, the new orbs will be available in over 35 cities in over 20 countries, with London among one of those cities.

“We take note of the launch of WorldCoin in the UK and will be carrying out further investigations,” the Information Commissioner’s Office said.

Meanwhile, Worldcoin’s native WLD token, which is listed on several cryptocurrency exchanges including Binance, Huobi and OKX, will not be available to US residents or US residents or incorporated companies, nor will they be able to access them, meaning that the token is not listed on Coinbase.

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The high difficulty levels of the Bitcoin network are about to drop amid longer block wait times.

Hitting an all-time high on July 11, 2023, reaching a staggering 53.91 trillion, Bitcoin’s difficulty is about to decline to an estimated range of 3.9% to 4.04% on July 26, 2023.

The high level of difficulty of Bitcoin on the verge of halving

The next Bitcoin difficulty recalibration is scheduled for July 26. After a notable increase of 6.45% on July 11, it is projected that there could be a downward adjustment ranging between 3.9% and 4.04%. The generation of Bitcoin blocks occurs approximately every ten minutes and every 2016 blocks, a drop in mining difficulty occurs if the discovery process of these blocks extends for more than two weeks. On the other hand, the difficulty level increases if the mining of the 2016 blocks is completed in less than two weeks.

The lockdown breaks on July 21 and 22 were longer than the usual ten minutes, lasting between 11 and more than 12 minutes. While the hashrate peaked on July 8, it has been lower with an average of 371.1 exhash per second (EH/s) in the last few blocks of 2016. Over the last three days, Foundry USA controlled 30.08% of the global hashrate with 111.75 EH/s, followed by Antpool with 86.92 EH/s or 23.39% of the total hashrate. F2pool, Binance Pool and Viabtc follow the two mining pool leaders.

Currently, as of July 24, block times have shown signs of improvement, falling marginally below the ten minute average, and sometimes leveling off slightly above ten minutes and 24 seconds. Monday at 8:00 a.m. At m. Eastern Standard Time (EST), the order book is filled with 265,000 to 280,000 transactions in a holding pattern, waiting for their turn to be confirmed.

Miners are still struggling with the problem of clearing the backlog that has been bogging down the blockchain for months. To untangle the heap of unconfirmed transactions, 95 blocks need to be removed. An imminent difficulty reduction in a few days should pave the way for mining participants in their quest to discover these blocks.

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UK financial regulator announces launch of permanent Digital Sandbox in August

According to the FCA, the sandbox will be open to companies, startups and data providers, including those involved in banking, investing, lending and payments.

The UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has announced the launch of its Digital Sandbox, which aims to support technology companies in the early stages of product development.

In a July 20 announcement, the FCA said the Digital Sandbox will be permanently available starting August 1. The financial watchdog has run two pilot programs of the initiative, which will be open to companies, startups and data providers, including those involved in banking, investing, lending and payments.

A sandbox allows projects to operate in a test environment to test their products and services largely without unwanted side effects that affect the real world. According to the FCA, the Digital Sandbox aims to help innovative companies in their efforts to launch new products and services, in addition to supporting economic growth and international competitiveness.

The UK Department of Treasury and Finance proposed a “financial market infrastructure sandbox” in April 2022 alongside its plans for a regulatory framework for payment stablecoins. HM Treasury also opened an investigation into a digital securities sandbox that could include crypto products in July.

On July 3, the European Commission announced that 20 projects had been selected for an EU regulatory sandbox. Those who qualified for the initiative included companies in financial and capital markets, telecommunications and information technology, and global trade.