Assets Financial News

The Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) is unlikely to directly list a cryptocurrency on its exchange but could consider an “appropriately-backed” tokenized real-world asset such as gold.

Ethereum users have been given another way to create nonfungible tokens (NFTs) and other digital assets on the blockchain with the launch of a new protocol.

Tokenization is one of the biggest trends in blockchain, following decentralized finance (DeFi) or nonfungible tokens (NFTs). The transition of real-world assets to the blockchain, including equity and debt, can change financial markets by bringing more liquidity and making the trading process cheaper and more automated.

Venture capital firm Animoca Brands released an interim financial report laying out its key unaudited financial positions as of April 30, 2023. The company revealed around $3.4 billion in assets, claiming it remains financially strong despite recent reports of its valuation plummeting. 

The chief executive officer of peer-to-peer crypto marketplace Paxful has announced the unfreezing of 88% of previously frozen user accounts more than a week after suspending operations.

Wakweli, a web3 infrastructure protocol that issues certificates of authenticity for non-fungible tokens (NFT) has officially collaborated with Polygon, a blockchain platform that enables blockchain networks to connect and scale to make NFT authentication possible.

The debtors for defunct crypto exchange FTX have approved an agreement that would sell its preferred stock in Mysten Labs, the company behind the Sui blockchain.

Crypto.com announced it has obtained a minimal viable product (MVP) preparatory license from Dubai’s Virtual Asset Regulatory Authority (VARA).

The merger between decentralized finance (DeFi) and traditional assets, has been held back by lack of infrastructure and regulatory standards worldwide, sources recently told Cointelegraph. 

The debtors in FTX’s bankruptcy case hreported the various company silos had more than $4 billion in scheduled assets as of November 2022, but said they were still investigating the firm's crypto holdings.

Signum Digital, a joint venture of Coinstreet and Somerley, has announced that it has received an approval-in-principle from the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) for its security token offering (STO) and subscription platform.

A team of former Jane Street and PIMCO traders have raised $15 million to produce a proof-of-solvency protocol for centralized exchanges, stablecoin issuers and other asset managers in the crypto space, according to a press release from the team shown to Cointelegraph. Called “Proven,” the new protocol allegedly uses zero-knowledge proofs to reveal an institution’s assets and liabilities without revealing the personal data of customers.

Crypto lending firm BlockFi has announced it will disclose information on its assets and liabilities as well as payments received prior to its bankruptcy filing in November.

An amendment to the Financial Services and Markets Bill now before the United Kingdom's Parliament would extend the law’s powers to regulate financial promotion and other activities to crypto assets. The amendment was written by Member of Parliament and Financial Secretary to the Treasury Andrew Griffith. 

crypto community, in reaction to central bank governor Shaktikanta Das' statement that private cryptocurrencies are a big threat to India's financial and macroeconomic stability, has said crypto assets could help unlock the country's innovation, job-creation and economic potential. Also, the exchanges said they praised the stance of the central bank and the government that customer protection is a priority. «The good thing is that the government and regulators have been very consultative in their approach to the industry, and there is broad understanding that customer protection is of utmost importance. It is encouraging to see India thinking progressively about crypto at par with global counterparts like the US, Dubai, and Singapore,» said Ashish Singhal, founder and CEO, CoinSwitch.

cryptocurrencies or other digital assets such as NFTs from crypto exchanges as part of their compensation package will face 30% tax on these as they will be defined as a «gift» under the new tax law and not salary or employee stock options (esops), say experts Many exchanges have rolled out their own tokens and offered these as part of their employees' annual income-along the lines of esops. In some cases, it was also linked to employee performance and employees' achieving certain targets. Tax experts say even if the employee hasn't sold such coins, she will be required to cough up the tax during the assessment year. «Unlike the esops tax regime where employees can first vest and then pay taxes on exercise, this beneficial regime is not available for cryptos received by employees. This will also mean that the employee will be required to pay 30% tax on the fair value of crypto assets she received from her employer even if she hasn't sold them,» said Amit Maheshwari, tax partner at tax consultancy firm AKM Global.

India's digital currency market was worth $6.6 billion in May 2021, according to Chainalysis.