Another Crypto Tax Haven in Danger, Goldman’s & Nomura’s Moves, DEI Depegs, NFTs on Spotify + More News

Sumejja Muratagić-Tadić
Last updated: | 3 min read
Source: Adobe/Wilfried-R.

 

Get your daily, bite-sized digest of cryptoasset and blockchain-related news – investigating the stories flying under the radar of today’s crypto news.
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Taxes news

  • The new Portuguese Minister of Finance Fernando Medina confirmed that cryptoassets will be subject to taxation in the near future, according to Portugal.com. Currently, the country treats crypto like any other currency and not an asset, so it is not subject to VAT or Personal Income Tax for an individual holding it.

Investments news

  • Provider of “institutional-grade” access to digital asset markets and liquidity venues Elwood Technologies announced it has closed a USD 70m Series A funding round co-led by Dawn Capital and Goldman Sachs. The funds will be used to expand their current offering and to grow their global operations, they added.
  • Financial services group Nomura will launch a new company to help institutional clients diversify into crypto, DeFi, and NFTs, the Financial Times reported, citing undisclosed people familiar with the matter. The new subsidiary will have a staff of about 100 by the end of 2023, they added.
  • Crypto asset manager Grayscale Investments announced that its first European exchange-traded fund (ETF), Grayscale Future of Finance UCITS ETF, will list on the London Stock Exchange, Borsa Italiana, and Deutsche Börse Xetra. The product tracks the investment performance of the Bloomberg Grayscale Future of Finance Index and offers exposure to companies at the intersection of finance, technology, and digital assets, they added, and will be passported for sale across Europe.
  • Crypto platform Voyager Digital said it obtained subscription agreements for a private placement of common shares of the company for gross proceeds of approximately USD 60m. The company said it intends to use the proceeds for “general corporate purposes.”
  • Bitcoin (BTC) miner Celsius Mining, a mining arm of Celsius Network, has submitted a draft registration statement on Form S-1, which companies usually file in anticipation of their initial public offering, with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Stablecoins news

  • DeFi project DEUS Finance announced it is working to restore the dollar peg for their DEI stablecoin after its price fell to USD 0.52 today. “Mitigation measures were implemented immediately” and the team is developing solutions to ensure “long-term stability,” they added.

NFTs news

  • Streaming platform Spotify is testing a feature that will let artists promote their NFTs, which is currently only available to select users, according to Music Ally. The service is not taking a percentage from any sales but is deciding whether to roll out this service as a full feature for all artists, it added.

Adoption news

  • Three all-terrain vehicles (ATVs) for Ukrainian defenders were funded by crypto donations through the Aid for Ukraine charity organization, the Vice Prime Minister of Ukraine and Minister of Digital Transformation Mykhailo Fedorov tweeted. (Learn more: Ukraine’s New Fundraising Platform Supports Over 100 Cryptos)
  • Cryptocurrencies can lead to “dollarisation” of a part of the economy which would be against India’s sovereign interest, top officials of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) have told a parliamentary panel, the Economic Times reported, citing unnamed sources. “It will seriously undermine the RBI’s capacity to determine monetary policy and regulate the monetary system of the country,” per the report.

Regulation news

  • Nigeria’s SEC published the “New Rules on Issuance, Offering Platforms and Custody of Digital Assets”, a 54-page regulation for digital assets that sets the rules for issuing them and classifies them as securities to be regulated by the SEC. It also includes registration requirements for digital asset offerings and custodians, as well as rules for digital asset exchanges.
  • The UK Treasury wants to legalize stablecoins as a means of payment within the country, but this will not include algorithmic stablecoins, per The Telegraph.

Career news

  • The group of companies containing trading platforms Capital.com and Currency.com has appointed Peter Hetherington, formerly the CEO of wealth manager Schroders Personal Wealth, as its new Group CEO.