City Mumbai Financial News

Mumbai: Indian retail investors are not the only ones weathering the impact of the breakdown of Terra, a blockchain that ran “algorithmic” stable coins Luna and UST. Indian venture capital firms that had exposure to the Terra ecosystem have also taken a hit amid a broader crash in the cryptocurrency market.UST has lost over 80% in value over the last one week.

Mumbai: Ashwin Nadar, a 25-year-old software engineer based in the country’s commercial capital, is still shocked by the sudden collapse of Luna, a popular cryptocurrency, last week. “It was a disturbing event. I bought Luna at $73 and got out at 24 cents,” he said. “I had a small investment, but as someone who believed in ‘smart contract’ cryptos, it was painful to watch the event unfold.” After the plunge, Nadar sold some of the altcoins he held—Avalanche, Near and Algorand—and moved money to Bitcoin and Ethereum for some time.

Mumbai: Some cryptocurrency exchanges that have either moved or are looking to move out of India have reached out to their tax advisors to figure out if they are required to still comply with the 1% TDS regulation. Many tax experts have said that if an exchange sets up an office outside the country, the taxman may find it tough to collect the 1% tax on transactions. The government in this budget introduced a 1% tax deducted at source or TDS on every transaction, along with a30% tax on returns of investors and traders.

Mumbai: In a strongly worded reaction to its recent run-in with the Indian central bank, Brian Armstrong, CEO and cofounder of Nasdaq-listed Coinbase said the company disabled its Unified Payments Interface (UPI) services because of “informal pressure” from the Reserve

Mumbai: Indian investors who jumped on to the cryptocurrency bandwagon in droves in 2021 are extending their losses in the continuing meltdown in digital currencies as the bears tighten their grip on the market. At 5 PM IST, on CoinMarketCap, the global crypto market cap stood at $1.45 trillion, a 3.56 % decrease over the last 24 hours. The world’s most dominant cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, dropped below $30,000 and touched a 52-week low on Monday. It was trading at $31,350 at 5 pm IST on Tuesday. Bitcoin has been dropping ever since it touched an all-time high of $68,789.63 in November. Similarly, altcoins popular with Indian investors declined sharply.

The National Securities Depository (NSDL), India's central securities depository based in Mumbai, launched blockchain-based security and covenant monitoring platform. 

Mumbai: The crypto market declined, mirroring the US stocks sell-off, after the US Federal Reserve announced raising interest rates by half a percentage point to restrain inflation. At 5 PM on Friday, on Coinmarketcap, the global crypto market cap stood at $1.66T, a 7.73 % decrease over the last day. Following the US Federal Reserve meeting statement on Wednesday, the world's largest digital currency by value climbed sharply to challenge the $40K resistance, but has since dropped 9.40 percent to $36,200 levels, the biggest drop in the previous four months.

Mumbai: A recent drop in the prices of high-value non-fungible tokens (NFTs), coupled with ambiguity in the recently established tax framework, will lead to tax scrutiny for Indian investors in the coming months, as asset valuation norms for digital assets remain unclear, according to tax experts. The tax department is sure to question the sharp drop in the valuation of these virtual digital assets, they said. The department would scrutinise NFT transactions on suspicion that some of the money may have been accepted in cash to reduce the tax outgo.

Mumbai: Questioning the `shadow ban’ on cryptocurrencies, leading banks have asked the umbrella institution National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) to spell out in a formal directive the curbs on the use of the popular money transfer tool ‘Unified Payment Interface’ to buy and sell the virtual digital assets (VDAs). Several banks have grudgingly blocked UPI for trading of cryptos following “verbal instructions” from NPCI which operates retail payments and settlement systems in the country. The banks, some of which are shareholders of NPCI, raised the issue at a recent meeting after the payments body expressed its reservations a few weeks ago on the fund flows through UPI for crypto trades, two persons aware of the discussions in the meeting told ET.

Cryptocurrencies' trading volumes in Indian exchanges fall after new tax rules

Mumbai: Crypto trading exchange CoinDCX has raised $135.9 million (about Rs 1,000 crore) from investors led by Pantera Capital and Steadview Capital, doubling its valuation to $2.15 billion in less than a year to become the most valued crypto trading platform in India. The funding comes in the backdrop of crypto exchanges facingnewly introduced taxation rules in India. CoinDCX and its peers, like WazirX and CoinSwitch Kuber, have seen their volumes plummet to new lows this month due to restricted access to modes of depositing money for users. According to the company, Pantera Capital and Steadview Capital infused about half of the funds in the latest round, which also saw participation from Kingsway Capital, DraperDragon, Republic, and Kindred Ventures.

Crypto exchange CoinDCX became India’s first crypto business to complete a Series D funding round, raising $135 million in support of various Web3 and crypto initiatives in the country. 

If there was one recurring theme that cut across multiple Web3 meetups held in Bengaluru, New Delhi and Mumbai in the last month, it was Dubai. A city that has almost become an emotion and a panacea for entrepreneurs building on the Web3 platform—the so-called next version of the Internet, which will be decentralised and run on blockchain—even as they grapple with an uncertain regulatory landscape and hefty taxes in India. Every second founder we met at these meetups has either moved to Dubai or is in transition.

Mumbai: Several cryptocurrency exchanges are facilitating peer-to-peer (P2P) deals while some platforms are directly accepting deposits from coin buyers to overcome the curbs imposed by banks and payment companies amid the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) voicing its reservations on these virtual digital assets. In a P2P transaction, the exchange, after receiving an order from a buyer, shares the seller’s bank account details with the buyer. The buyer then directly transfers funds to the seller using any of the regular online payment options while the seller moves the cryptocurrency lying in her wallet with the exchange to the buyer’s crypto wallet.Also Read: Crypto investors may switch to peer-to-peer transfer in case of ban

Mumbai: Trading volumes on crypto exchanges WazirX, ZebPay and Giottus hit a six-month low on April 10 due to the uncertainty surrounding crypto regulations in the country WazirX, one the largest cryptocurrency exchanges in India, estimatedly saw 65-90% of its business erode after e-wallet Mobikwik disabled its services on the platform over the last few days. ET was the first to report on April 9 that due to a lack of clarity on the usage of the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) for processing transactions. US-based Coinbase, which announced its India entry last week, has also hit the UPI roadblock and disabled the service.

Mumbai | Bengaluru: US-based crypto trading firm Coinbase has temporarily disabled the option to buy cryptocurrencies using the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) in India. «Purchases with this payment method are temporarily unavailable,» Coinbase's mobile application said on Sunday.

Chennai/Mumbai: Indian companies across sectors have started experimenting with various options — especially non-fungible tokens (NFTs) — as a marketing tool to expand their presence in the relatively new digital domain of metaverse. These companies range from Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M), Ceat & MG Motor in the automobile space to jewellery brand Tanishq from the Tata Group, to travel aggregator MakeMyTrip. They have introduced their own NFTs. NFTs are digital assets that allow a very limited number of owners a digital experience and also bragging rights. Their ownership is validated by a long alphanumeric code that’s nearly impossible to hack. NFTs, for all practical purposes, are digital arts. To attract new customers who are more tuned to the real world and may not be comfortable with a fully digital experience, companies are mixing in some real-life experience too for NFT owners. Last week, Tanishq launched its new ‘Romance of Polki’ wedding collection in the metaverse, allowing guests to get a 3D experience of the launch and the jewellery pieces as well as to try on a showstopper piece using QR codes from their mobiles. According to Titan CEO (jewellery division) Ajoy Chawla, the company is trying to discover the metaverse and explore its potential. Presented ByDid you Know?DeFi is enablin

Mumbai | Bengaluru: The launch of Coinbase Global Inc’s crypto trading platform in the country may have already hit a roadblock. The US-based company’s decision to allow clients to use the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) – a key digital payments railroad – for buying cryptocurrencies in India is under regulatory scrutiny, said sources directly briefed on the matter. Coinbase, which began offering its trading services in India on Thursday, said it was using UPI, which is managed by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), to enable rupee deposits on its platform. NPCI, however, denied any knowledge of “any crypto exchange using UPI”, in a statement issued on Thursday.

Mumbai: Retail investors and crypto trading exchanges are bracing for sluggish growth as the new tax regime governing virtual digital assets (VDAs) comes into effect from Friday, April 1. Retail investors also squared off their positions to set off any losses they may have incurred during the previous financial year, industry executives told ET. The Finance Bill 2022, which comes into effect on April 1, also requires traders to pay a flat 30% tax on gains made on VDAs. Further, unlike in other asset classes, retail investors will not be able to set off losses incurred against crypto coins, claim expenses or acquisition costs, or benefit from a reduced slab for long-term capital gains under the new tax regime. Once the new norms are fully in force, it will likely “impact volumes by at least 20-50%,” said a crypto industry player on the condition of anonymity.

Mumbai: The Central Goods and Services Tax (CGST) authority recovered Rs 95.86 crore from 11 crypto exchanges that collectively evaded Rs 81.54 crore in GST, said Minister of State for Finance Pankaj Chaudhary, in a written response to a question in the Lok Sabha on March 28. Chaudhary said while the government does not collect any data on cryptocurrency exchanges, a few “cases of evasion of Goods and Services Tax (GST) by cryptocurrency exchanges have been detected by Central GST formations.” The CGST had detected GST evasion to the tune of Rs 81.54 crore. With penalties, these exchanges paid Rs 95.86 crore, Chaudhary said.

Marwadi Financial Services has launched Crypto Connect, a dedicated research desk, designed to apprise Indians on virtual digital assets. Through its new product launch, the Mumbai-based brokerage will provide a platform where individuals will have easy access to information and research on cryptos. Keeping knowledge at the focus, the brokerage has clarified that it will not give any recommendations for buying or selling particular crypto and the concerned platform will focus on research and in-depth information only.