Crypto Financial News

Crypto trading platform CoinSwitch has completed its ESOP buyback worth $2.5 million (about Rs 19 crore) within 20 months of operations in India. This is the first-ever ESOP buyback by India's largest crypto unicorn. In less than two years, CoinSwitch has grown from 20 to 500 employees as it expanded its wealth-tech offering to build one of India's first Web3 teams. The company attributes this rapid growth to buoyancy in digital assets. The company now aims to become a wealth-tech major, onboarding into other asset classes and financial products.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has not proposed any mechanism for the trading of crypto assets, Minister of State for Finance Pankaj Chaudhary said in Parliament on March 21.

Herat, Afghanistan: In the middle of a bazaar in western Afghanistan, Arezo Akrimi takes out her smartphone and, after a few taps of the screen, changes some cryptocurrency for a bundle of hard cash. Arezo, 19, is one of a hundred students in Herat receiving around $200 a month in cryptocurrency since September thanks to an American NGO Code To Inspire. This sum, which she converts at a bureau de change into Afghanis, is crucial for the rent and to help feed her family of six.

crypto exchange by trading volume, has confirmed in an undertaking to the Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) that it would stop opening new accounts for users in the Canadian province, the regulator said on Thursday. The dispute between Binance and OSC started in June last year, when the exchange announced its decision to quit Ontario after a regulatory crackdown on crypto exchanges in the province for allegedly failing to meet securities laws. However, in December, Binance notified investors that it was allowed to continue its operations in Ontario while still being unregistered in the province, the OSC said.

Facebook owner Meta Platforms on Friday, alleging the social media giant failed to prevent scammers using its platform to promote fake ads featuring well-known people. The advertisements, which endorsed investment in cryptocurrency or money-making schemes, could have misled Facebook users into believing they were promoted by famous Australians, the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission (ACCC) said. The lawsuit filed in the Federal Court also alleges Facebook «aided and abetted or was knowingly concerned in false or misleading conduct and representations by the advertisers,» the ACCC said in a statement.

Central banks across the world should look at bringing cryptocurrencies in the regulated space though non-fungible tokens (NFT) or stable coins will not replace fiat currency, says DBS Bank Group CEO Piyush Gupta during an interaction. Gupta, who was speaking at The Economic Times Global Business Summit, said that there is a better use case of wholesale cross-border central bank digital currencies (CBDC). «I don't think that crypto currencies will become money as we know it, but it can be an alternative to gold and its value,» Gupta said. «The other big challenge is volatility in value. If you want to use this to pay for something, you don't know what it's costing you. Today cryptos are a potential source of speculated value, it's unlikely that this is a source of money as we know it.»

cryptoassets and could fall prey to scams, the European Union's securities, banking and insurance watchdogs said in a joint statement on Thursday. «Consumers face the very real possibility of losing all their invested money if they buy these assets,» the three EU authorities said in a statement. It marks a racheting up of direct warnings to consumers about cryptoassets by EU authorities, spelling out that consumers have no protections or recourse to compensation under existing EU financial services law.

ConsenSys, blockchain software technology player, has raised $450 million in its Series D funding round at valuation of $7 billion. The raised funds will be converted into Ethereum (ETH), the company said. The fundraising was led by ParaFi Capital, who took part in the previous fundraising too. It was joined by new investors, including Temasek, SoftBank Vision Fund 2, Microsoft, Anthos Capital, Sound Ventures, and C Ventures. Other Series C investors, including Third Point, Marshall Wace, True Capital Management, and UTA VC, United Talent Agency’s venture fund also participated in this round.

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.

crypto industry is looking at the latest Parliament session, which commenced on Monday, with high hopes. The industry is hoping to get clarity on multiple fronts after the Budget announcements. Market participants said that the ambit of virtual digital assets (VDAs) is very broad in the Finance Bill, 2022. The market participants would look forward to receiving clarity on important aspects, including definition, taxations, and calculation. Even the Supreme Court of India had recently asked the Centre to make its stand clear on whether cryptocurrency trade or virtual digital currencies is legal in India or not.

Bitcoin reached its highest at $42,000 on March 9th when US President Joe Biden signed the executive order. It is trading above $39,000 with dominance of nearly 42 per cent over the past day. The second-largest cryptocurrency, Ethereum, meanwhile, is trading at US$2,500. The fluctuations in the market may continue the next week too, due to the inflation due to war.

Bitcoin buffs who were questioned by skeptics about the value of the cryptocurrency would respond by saying: Just wait. Wait until inflation hits, and people look to park their savings in a stable digital asset that won't lose its value. Wait until war breaks out, and authoritarians start seizing assets and imposing capital controls on their citizens. Wait until big banks and tech companies start censoring dissidents for their political views. Then you'll see why we need a stateless, decentralized, anonymous digital currency. More than most cryptocurrencies, Bitcoin was seen by many of its libertarian-leaning fans as a kind of doomsday insurance, a form of «digital gold, that would be a source of stability as the world grew more chaotic and unpredictable.

digital dollar, as well as other cryptocurrency issues, the White House said.Bitcoin surged on the news as the administration's holistic and deliberative approach calmed market fears about an immediate regulatory crackdown on cryptocurrencies. In midday trading, bitcoin rose 9.1% to $42,280, on track for its largest percentage gain since Feb. 28. Biden's order will require the Treasury Department, the Commerce Department and other key agencies to prepare reports on «the future of money» and the role cryptocurrencies will play.

crypto players are extremely bullish on the bright future of the industry. That said, the crypto market has not been able to shrug off its correlation with other asset classes such as equities and gold. Experts believe that the market will mature in the longer term and segregated crypto themes will come into play, individually. They seem optimistic on Defi, Metaverse and NFTs, followed by smart contracts and utility tokens.

IPL) is around the corner and crypto industry players are likely to target potential investors. Market experts said that crypto platforms will go all guns blazing. However, the 15th edition of the cricket extravaganza will be the first major event after the announcement of the Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) new guidelines for the advertising of virtual digital assets (VDAs). Anupam Shukla, Partner, Pioneer Legal said that the announcement of taxation on crypto income left investors jittery and now platforms will aim to increase ad expenditure during the IPL and recreate the buzz over cryptos.

cryptocurrency this week that will mark the first step toward regulating how digital currency is traded. The move comes as administration officials have raised concerns in recent weeks about Russia's use of cryptocurrency to evade the impact of crushing sanctions in response to its invasion of Ukraine. The sanctions have sent the ruble to historic lows and have closed the country's stock market. Two people familiar with the process said the executive order on cryptocurrency was expected to be issued this week and it had been in the works long before the war. Both people spoke on condition of anonymity to preview the order.

CBDC) to be rolled out this year, the Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said. In the union budget 2022, tabled on February 1, Sitharaman had announced that India will launch its own CBDC, backed by the Reserve Bank of India. While speaking at the India Global Forum 2022 in Bengaluru, Sitharaman said, «The government had a lot of consultation with the RBI over the digital currency. We expect the currency to come out from the apex banker this year itself.»

The government will state its position on cryptocurrencies after completing the ongoing consultation process, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman said.

Fantom (FTM) has fallen 22 per cent in the last 24 after key personnel associated with its project announced departure. Fantom has been under severe pressure following a tweet from Anton Nell, a senior solutions architect and his colleague Andre Cronje, a prolific developer, that they are leaving Fantom Foundation, without citing a reason. Fantom dropped about 22 per cent to hit lows of $1.32 on Monday, according to the data from Coinmarketcap. The token has dropped about 60 per cent of its value from its peak of $3.3, scaled on January 16, 2022.

crypto crowd in India will be caught in a 'valuation' conundrum as they receive 'airdropped' coins and swap one crypto for another. Until now, almost everyone in the crypto universe has been oblivious of the need to value the virtual digital assets as free coins doled out in promotional drives by offshore entities landed up in their wallets, or when they traded a slice of their crypto holdings to own a different coin in cashless deals. Not any more. Almost every fortnight, developers and blockchain-based projects, from across the world, send out tokens, as part of marketing efforts, to crypto investors who are randomly picked from their public addresses that exist on the blockchain. Now, for local investors to cough up tax on such 'gifts' — which they are required to pay as per the new tax laws proposed in the last Union Budget — they have to first figure out the value of the free, airdropped coins.

Lugano plans to make Bitcoin, Tether and the city’s own LVGA token legal tender. The city has formed a partnership with stablecoin issuer Tether. The move will allow citizens and companies to use cryptocurrencies to pay their annual taxes, parking tickets, public services and student tuition fees. The move goes beyond the actions of a number of other Swiss localities that for some time have been accepting crypto for tax payments.