🌐 India May Introduce Double Taxation Of Cryptocurrencies Until They Are Completely Banned
Prior to the introduction of a ban on cryptocurrencies, the Indian government plans to establish an income tax and a goods and services tax (GST, analogous to VAT) on the purchase or sale of crypto assets.
Local media reported that the Indian authorities intend to increase budget revenues through double taxation of digital assets. Bitcoin will fall into the category of financial services. The commissions that traders pay to trading platforms to execute trades will be charged 18% GST. In addition, tax on income from cryptocurrency transactions must be paid.
The government did not disclose how the income from cryptocurrencies will be calculated. The authorities are aiming to "collect" both taxes for the period from April 2020 to March 2021. The Indian Ministry of Finance is expected to publish an official document regarding the taxation of cryptocurrencies in India soon. Given that the Indian government is preparing to ban cryptocurrencies, these measures will be temporary.
Indian lawmakers are planning to present a bill to ban private cryptocurrencies at the current session of parliament. In addition, the possibility of issuing a digital rupee by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) will be discussed. However, the content of the bill is still unknown, and the government has not yet indicated what constitutes "private cryptocurrencies". Indian Finance Minister Anurag Thakur believes that the upcoming bill will fill the gaps in the country's domestic policy.
WazirX CEO Nischal Shetty said that profits from cryptocurrencies are taxed like any other income and must be reported on the income tax return. Shetty added that WazirX regularly pays GST on commissions paid by customers on transactions. However, the Indian Ministry of Finance believes that even if income tax or GST was paid for a transaction, it still does not make the transaction legal. Taxation and legality of transactions are independent of each other.
Many players in the cryptocurrency industry perceived a possible ban on digital assets with bewilderment, comparing it to a massive ban on the Internet.
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🌐 Elliptic Announces Growing Interest of Banks in Bitcoin
According to the British analytical firm Elliptic, the number of banks and financial institutions showing interest in cryptocurrencies is constantly growing.
Elliptic was founded in 2013. The analyst firm works with government agencies and cryptocurrency exchanges, and also liaises with the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). Elliptic co-founder Tom Robinson said that in recent months, global financial institutions have become increasingly interested in Bitcoin, as it constantly strives for new highs.
Bitcoin hit the $ 50,000 mark yesterday , and is still trading above that mark. The catalyst for its growth was the tweets of Tesla CEO Elon Musk about Bitcoin, as well as information about the purchase of BTC by Tesla for $ 1.5 billion.
Several large banks in the US have begun to seriously consider launching cryptocurrency services, Robinson said, but UK banks are still showing restraint with regard to crypto assets. Megan Prendergast Millard, Managing Director of Guidepost Solutions, also noted the increased interest of traditional financial companies in the first cryptocurrency. Guidepost Solutions specializes in risk management and regulatory compliance.
Millard said this trend is entirely natural amid the growing adoption of bitcoin. It would be logical for banks to become open to digital assets and start working with cryptocurrency exchanges to keep millennials on board. Financial institutions are looking to retain their customers, so they need to think about who these people are and what they are interested in.
Last week, New York-based bank BNY Mellon announced its intention to develop a platform to manage cryptoassets on behalf of its clients. BNY Mellon Digital Leader Roman Regelman believes that the full implementation of digital assets into traditional banking infrastructure can take three to five years.
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🌐 Polkadot developers updated the project roadmap
The developers of the Polkadot project have posted a plan to deploy parachains and slot auctions, which should mark the launch of the protocol's main network.
According to the published roadmap , the launch of Polkadot's main network is preceded by three major milestones. The current stage is the Rococo testnet, where developers can test mechanisms for interoperability between the various Polkadot parachains. The platform uses the Cross-Chain Message Passing-lite or XCMP-lite mechanism to allow parachains to exchange cryptoassets and data through the relay chain of Polkadot, the central coordinator of the network. The Rococo testnet launched in August 2020, but the functionality of its components has yet to be fully rolled out.
The next step is a vote for the inclusion of paracheynov an experimental network for research and development Kusama . This network is the middle ground between test and mainnet. After the stability of the parachains in Kusama has been achieved and all audits are completed, an online vote will be held on Polkadot to activate the parachain auctions.
The exact timing of the deployment of the development stages is unknown. However, community members anticipate that the deployment of parachains will occur in the first quarter of 2021.
However, stability issues remain with the Rococo testnet. For example, one of her parachains is stuck at block 1036 with a time stamp on February 15 at about 00:00 Moscow time. According to the pull request on GitHub, a major stability incident has occurred on the testnet.
Meanwhile, the DOT network cryptocurrency has surged to new highs. According to CoinMarketCap data , DOT is trading for $ 30, showing growth of 25% in a week and more than 40% in a month. Polkadot is currently ranked fourth in the TOP 10 cryptocurrencies by market capitalization.
Recall that at the beginning of the month, 21Shares launched the world's first exchange-traded product (ETP) on Polkadot on the SIX Swiss Stock Exchange.
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🌐 Gartner: 5% of top managers plan to invest corporate funds in bitcoin
According to a Gartner survey, 5% of CFOs plan to invest corporate funds in BTC this year, and 11% of those surveyed are considering such an investment by 2024.
In total, 77 top managers of various companies were interviewed, of which 50 people held the position of financial director. The majority of respondents (84%) noted the risks of investing in cryptocurrencies due to the high volatility of the asset, therefore, mainly among top managers, the position of monitoring Bitcoin was chosen. Also among the reasons for the wait-and-see attitude were the rejection of risky investments by boards of directors (39%), misunderstanding of the asset (30%), the risks of hacking (25%) and the complicated accounting process (18%).
Interestingly, the leadership of companies operating in the technology sector is much more positive about the first cryptocurrency. Half of the surveyed top managers of such companies said they plan to invest in bitcoin in the future. Moreover, the size of the organization does not affect the plans of the management.
About 70% of those surveyed said they would be interested to know what companies that have already invested in Bitcoin are doing with Bitcoin. About the same number of respondents would like a clearer position of regulators in relation to bitcoin.
“Financial top managers, on whom the financial stability of the company depends, are not inclined to suddenly invest in an unknown asset. It is important to remember that investing in bitcoin is just an emerging trend in the corporate environment, "said Alexander Bant, head of research at Gartner.
A Bitwise poll of 1,000 financial advisors found that over the past year, professionals and firms in the finance and consulting industry have become much more interested in digital assets, and 17% are considering investing in bitcoin.
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🌐 Mary's hard fork on Cardano blockchain is scheduled for March 1st
The development team of the Cardano cryptocurrency has announced the activation date for the Mary hard fork - the update will be launched on March 1.
According to the founder of IOHK Charles Hoskinson (Charles Hoskinson), the developers should complete all preliminary work and checks by February 24. And on March 1, a hard fork will be activated on the blockchain. Network users will have to update the Daedalus software in order to access the updated blockchain.
“We tested the update for over a month on the testnet and everything went well. The exchanges that took part in the testing are just happy, ”Hoskinson said.
With the Mary update, the Cardano network will be able to create custom tokens without having to deploy smart contracts. The token logic will work directly on the blockchain. In addition, the Daedalus Flight cryptocurrency wallet with support for various assets will be launched in the first week of March.
Recall that at the end of July last year, the Shelley update was launched on the Cardano network , adding the ability to stake. Since then, more than half of ADA cryptocurrency holders have delegated their coins for staking.
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🌐 MicroStrategy will issue bonds for another $ 690 million to buy bitcoins
The American company MicroStrategy, which has invested more than $ 1 billion in bitcoin, plans to issue bonds again, the proceeds of which will be used to buy the first cryptocurrency.
In December last year, MicroStrategy issued a convertible bond loan in the amount of $ 650 million. The funds received were used to buy bitcoins.
The company is now planning a similar issue of bonds. Interest on them will be paid every six months - February 15 and August 15. The bonds are scheduled to expire in February 2027.
Note that the rate of the first cryptocurrency has grown significantly since the last purchase of MicroStrategy bitcoins. Currently, 71,800 BTC are stored on the company's wallets, and the average purchase price was $ 16,110.
Recently it was revealed that MicroStrategy, a software developer, plans to create an analytical platform to track Bitcoin data. For this, the company is recruiting blockchain specialists.
