Taxes don’t mean crypto trading automatically becomes legal, Indian tax official says

  • India’s Finance Minister had announced a 30% tax on all crypto income, including NFTs

  • Tax chief JB Mohapatra says the step doesn’t equate to legalizing crypto trading in the country.

Tuesday’s budget speech by India’s Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman included a provision for a 30% tax on crypto income, prompting reactions from across the crypto community that the country had signaled recognition for crypto assets.

But in a statement made after the budget speech, Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) chairman JB Mohapatra looked to clarify that this view could be wrong.

According to the CBDT boss, the finance ministry’s move to tax cryptocurrencies should not be taken to mean that trading in these digital assets is officially legal.

He said that taxing crypto trades under the new laws has no connection whatsoever with their legality.

Crypto “do not ipso facto become legal or regular just because you have paid taxes on that,” Mohapatra noted in the interview.

He added that while the move to introduce the taxes widens the tax bracket and gives the taxman an extra net to target potential cheats and other illegal activities.

Despite this obvious benefit, he explained, only a proper regulatory framework on cryptocurrencies could spell the legality or otherwise of trading of the asset class.

India will launch its central bank digital currency in the next one or two years, even as it looks to bring private cryptocurrencies under government regulation.

The post Taxes don’t mean crypto trading automatically becomes legal, Indian tax official says appeared first on Coin Journal.

Market highlights February 2: Cryptos mostly in the green, cruise stocks push US indices up

The crypto markets were in the green this morning, with the majority of the top 10 cryptos registering gains over the past 24 hours.

US indices put a poor January behind them to finish higher yesterday. Cruise stocks Carnival Corp (+5.51%), Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings (+3.7%), and Royal Caribbean (+4.24%) made waves amid changing investor sentiment towards the sector.

The UK100 (+0.35%) finished up yesterday as sentiment turned bullish ahead of the Bank of England’s latest interest rate decision on Thursday.

Top cryptos

Bitcoin remained flat, trading above $38,000 at time of writing. Ethereum and XRP were up around 1% each, and Cardano registered gains of around 2%. Solana and Polkadot were also higher, climbing around 3% and 4%, respectively.

Top movers

Most cryptos outside the top 20 gained or lost 2-4% in the last 24 h. Notable gainers include Internet Computer, which is rallying again, Ethereum Classic, and UNUS SED LEO. Each added 8% to its value today. Render token also continues its rally. It gained 9% in the last 24 h.

Quant is easily the biggest winner of the day. The network launched in June 2018 with the goal of connecting blockchains and networks on a global scale without reducing the efficiency and interoperability of the network. Its native token is up 23% today.

Trending

The cryptocurrency Adventure Gold is rallying today, riding the success of the NFT market and metaverse tokens like MANA and SAND. The native ERC-20 token of the Loot non-fungible token (NFT) project gained 112% in 24 hours.

Another popular coin today is IDEX, which describes itself as the first hybrid liquidity DEX that combines an order book model with an automated market maker. It added around 33% to its value.

The post Market highlights February 2: Cryptos mostly in the green, cruise stocks push US indices up appeared first on Coin Journal.

Here is the reason why QuickSwap (QUICK) has been rallying for the last two days

QuickSwap price has been rallying for the last two days. This bullish trend is a good start for the month and it is still green.

On January 31, the QUICK price jumped 50%. Yesterday (February 1) it went ahead to register another surge of 168% from $166.40 to a daily high of $250.

At the time of writing, QuickSwap is trading at $194.50 and is up 10.73%. It has hit a high of $231.92 and a low of $175.56 in the last 24 hours; after a slight retracement from yesterday’s high.

But why is the QuickSwap rallying? Let’s see what the rally is all about.

What is QuickSwap (QUICK)?

Before we take a deep dive into the current QuickSwap price movement, it’s important to first explain what it is for those who are coming across it for the first time.

QuickSwap is a decentralized exchange that runs on the Polygon Network to provide cheaper and fast transactions. Its native token is referred to as QUICK.

Why is QuickSwap rallying?

The huge QUICK price surge started immediately after QuickSwap’s partnership with CelsiusX.

The partnership aimed at bridging the gap between centralized finance (CeFi) and decentralized finance (DeFi). It will enable users to have control over their assets in the cryptocurrency ecosystem.

CelsiusX and QuickSwap partnership

The announcement of this partnership was the most significant on the recent development on QuickSwap. The CelciusX banking and financial service platform will help QuickSwap in bridging DeFi and CeFi.

The partnership will also allow for the creation of wrapped versions of the Dogecoin (DOGE) and Cardano’s ADA together with well-funded liquidity pools for assets for users, institutions, arbitrageurs, and bots to easily access the tokens.

ADA and DOGE holders will also be able to use their assets in DeFi to earn yields.

New high yield liquidity pools and NFT projects

The launch of new liquidity pools is also another factor attributed to the surge in QUICK’s price.

The high yield liquidity pools come after several integrated bridges and projects were launched in January on the Polygon Network.

Besides the additional high yield liquidity pools, QuickSwap has also seen additional support for NFT projects which have been gaining momentum amid the weak crypto market.

Some of the newly supported NFTs are OneRare, UniArts, Blockchain Monsters Hunt, and Dogira.

The post Here is the reason why QuickSwap (QUICK) has been rallying for the last two days appeared first on Coin Journal.