Kumar Gaurav News

In a recent interview with ETMarkets, Kumar Gaurav, Founder and CEO of Cashaa, shared his insights on the current challenges and opportunities within the cryptocurrency market. Gaurav discussed how events such as escalating crude oil prices and potential interest rate cuts/hikes by the Federal Reserve could impact Bitcoin and other speculative assets. He emphasized the potential of Bitcoin as a long-term investment and highlighted Cashaa's growth trajectory and future plans, including expanding its services to new regions. Edited excerpts: How do you perceive the current challenges and opportunities within the cryptocurrency market, particularly in light of factors like escalating crude oil prices and potential interest rate cuts/hikes by the Federal Reserve? Kumar Gaurav: Events like escalating crude oil prices and rate hikes by the Fed typically can have a dampening effect on Bitcoin as well as stock prices, basically the prices of all speculative assets, as the rise in costs due to increasing costs of fuel and servicing household loans decreases the dispensable or investable income in the hands of the retail consumers.

crypto tokens found their mojo back on Tuesday as the total market capitalization of the digital assets topped the $1 trillion mark once again. According to the data from Coingecko, the total market cap of digital tokens was recorded at around $1.01 trillion as of 13.30 hours IST on Tuesday, after rising more than 6 per cent in the last 24 hours.Bitcoin surged 7 per cent to regain the $20,000 mark, whereas Ethereum jumped on similar lines, flirting with $1,400 levels. These two tokens contribute over 55 per cent to the total crypto m-cap. Meanwhile, altcoins, including Terra' Luna Classic zoomed about 50 per cent, whereas Uniswap rallied 18 per cent. Stepn, Polkadot, and Aave also gained up to 14 per cent.

While Indian exchanges have been hit, trading volumes globally have edged higher.

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.

crypto assets, particularly Elon Musk's favorite Dogecoin. The top memecoin has tumbled sharply, about 10 per cent in the last 24 hours, slipping down to 12th position in the terms of market capitalization from 10th earlier. Not only memecoins, other major tokens and altcoins have fallen sharply in the last 24 hours, thanks to the rising geopolitical worries and inflationary concerns.

investments, crypto platforms are introducing new products. They are looking to earn interest on their crypto deposits or draw loans against cryptocurrencies, without attracting the new tax. The Budget proposed a 30% tax on returns from digital currencies and a 1% Tax Deducted at Source (TDS) on digital assets. The government has not used the term «cryptocurrency» in the budget, but rather «virtual digital assets». This means there will not be any tax on crypto-based products, investors said. «The way the regulations are today, investors who invest in crypto-based products should not be covered either under the 1% TDS, or 30% tax on income. However, we have sought clarity on this from the government and will be approaching them in this regard,» said Darshan Bathija, cofounder of Vauld, a Singapore-based cryptocurrency exchange. Crypto platform executives say if there is no tax incidence on crypto-based products, it could lead to greater demand from investors. «It (tax) will increase our operations as people will prefer to take out a loan on their crypto holding, instead of selling it to avoid the tax implications,» said Kumar Gaurav, founder and CEO of Cashaa.