Amid the growing opposition to the new cryptocurrency tax regime in South Korea, finance minister Hong Nam-ki confirmed that the government will begin taxing capital gains from crypto trading starting next year. “It’s inevitable, we will need to impose taxes on gains from trading of virtual assets,” the minister said when asked whether the tax should be delayed until the state has proper industry oversight in place, Reuters reported Tuesday. Hong emphasized that cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (BTC) will be taxed as “intangible assets,” noting that it was a “misunderstanding” to view them as currencies. The minister also warned that crypto …

Korean Financial Services Commission Chairman Eun Sung-soo has ordered FSC officials who hold crypto to file reports on their investments by May 7. The FSC employees subject to reporting are those who manage virtual currency tech developments, those responsible for drafting and applying digital currency laws and those who report on and manage crypto exchanges. An article from the Korea Times notes the comparative lack of regulation surrounding FSC officials’ investments in crypto when compared with traditional financial products. While FSC employees are expected to notify Chairman Sung-soo if they have speculated on crypto and are prohibited from making investments …

Following major sell-offs in cryptocurrency markets amid reports of United States President Joe Biden's capital gains tax rise proposal last week, the Biden administration defended nearly doubling tax levies for only the “very, very richest.” A senior Biden administration official claimed that only 0.3% of taxpayers in the U.S. would be affected by higher levies on their investments under the new capital tax plan. “There’s increasing evidence that over recent years in fact many, many of the returns at the very top are what they call above-market rates of return, rents and so on. Taxing the people who are doing …

Kim Boo-kyum, who was recently nominated as prime minister by South Korea’s President, Moon Jae-in, has said he will look into the country’s crypto tax law. According to a report by KBS World, the prime minister nominee is keen to ensure that there are no victims of the crypto tax law coming into effect in January 2022. Kim’s comments come amid growing opposition to the incoming crypto tax regime. Tensions were further stoked after Eun Sung-soo, chairman of South Korea’s Financial Services Commission, argued that cryptocurrencies did not have any intrinsic value. Eun’s comments, a common refrain among crypto critics, …

Ethereum software company ConsenSys has formed a technical partnership with Kakao’s Klaytn blockchain, with a goal to develop a private platform for the issuance of a South Korean central bank digital currency, or CBDC. Klaytn is a public blockchain developed by Ground X, a blockchain affiliate of the South Korean internet company Kakao. Best known for its Kakao Talk mobile messaging app, Kakao has since branched out into the shopping and travel industries, among others. In 2019, the company commenced work on the Klaytn blockchain, which by the time of publication has the 25th-largest market capitalization in the cryptocurrency space. …

As central bank digital currencies, or CBDCs, continue to garner mainstream traction across the global financial landscape in recent years, almost all central banks are actively researching the benefits and risks of offering a digital currency to the public. In its most basic sense, a CBDC is a digital form of fiat money, backed by a suitable amount of monetary reserves like gold or foreign currency reserves. Each CBDC unit acts as a secure digital instrument equivalent and can be used as a way of payment, a store of value and an official unit of account. What distinguishes them from …

Seems like we now all have stories starting with, “What I did during the pandemic...” Most begin with cleaning out the closet and, hey, guess what? That’s where my story starts, but I bet you can’t guess where it ends! Let’s start with what I found in that closet: family photos before the days of digital. I know — memories of boring trips with the kids and people who I either owe money to or who don’t talk to me anymore! And all of these are nicely arranged in photo albums. You know, photo albums. Big, bulky books with strange …

The United States’ largest cryptocurrency exchange, Coinbase, is listing Tether (USDT) on its professional trading platform. According to a Thursday announcement, Coinbase Pro has enabled USDT deposits ahead of the trading launch scheduled for Monday. The company said that trading will begin if liquidity conditions are met, stressing that Coinbase only supports the ERC-20 version of USDT running on the Ethereum blockchain. “Once sufficient supply of USDT is established on the platform, trading on our BTC-USDT, ETH-USDT, USDT-EUR, USDT-GBP, USDT-USD and USDT-USDC, order books will launch in three phases, post-only, limit-only and full trading,” Coinbase wrote. Coinbase emphasized that USDT …

Jackson, Tennessee is the latest city in the United States moving to adopt Bitcoin (BTC) payments and mining, following recent crypto developments in Florida. Jackson Mayor Scott Conger announced Wednesday that the city is actively exploring the option to pay its employees in cryptocurrency in addition to mining Bitcoin and adding it on the city’s balance sheet. The mayor hinted that the city is looking to enable payrolls in several digital assets, mentioning coins like Bitcoin, Ether (ETH), and Litecoin (LTC). “Local government will lead the way in #Bitcoin adoption, and along with it, usher in a new industrial revolution …

Coinbase, a major cryptocurrency exchange that went public on Nasdaq earlier this month, continues to actively expand in India with a new hire. The cryptocurrency exchange has hired Pankaj Gupta, a former Google Pay engineering lead in India and Asia Pacific, as the vice president of engineering and site lead for India. Announcing the news on Tuesday, Gupta said that he will be responsible for “leading and building from scratch the company’s technology hub in India.” He also noted that Coinbase has started hiring in India, posting several job applications. Coinbase officially announced plans to establish a business presence in …

The United Kingdom Chancellor of the Exchequer announced the launch of a CBDC task force this week, bringing together the Bank of England and Her Majesty’s Treasury to coordinate the exploration of a potential central bank digital currency. Depending on the feedback received from various areas of industry, academia, and civil society, the task force will advise the Bank of England on the future rollout (or not) of what would be a digital version of the pound. Antony Welfare, executive director of enterprise at NEM, is a member of the Whitechapel Think Tank and the Finance Payments Working Group, both …

A Republican lawmaker from Ohio is preparing legislation that would reportedly be aimed at preventing U.S. citizens from evading taxes on their crypto earnings. In an interview with CNBC’s Squawk Box today, Senator Rob Portman said he hoped to introduce a bill with bipartisan support after the next congressional recess which would address the problem of many crypto users in the U.S. not paying taxes. The senator said lawmakers “don’t have the final bill yet” and were “still pulling in information” on the subject. However, he claimed both Republicans and Democrats were interested in pursuing closing the tax gap with …