South Korea to end crypto tax breaks
South Korea revealed plans to end crypto exchanges’ tax breaks. The news caused major cryptocurrency prices, including Bitcoin’s (BTC-USD) to tumble on Tuesday. The authorities used the excuse that even though the crypto market is growing rapidly, trading platforms are not offering enough security to end users. so therefore they should take more money from them.
Meanwhile, Cameron and Tylor Winklevoss proposed an exchange-traded fund to track Bitcoin, however, the U.S Securities and Exchange Commission did not clear it for trading.
Reports claim that some financial and forex settlement firms are plotting on adopting applications based on blockchain. CLS, IBM (NYSE:IBM), and nine other companies are planning on testing blockchain-based Ledger Connect. The app will be used to provide services from different vendors while underpinning Bitcoin transactions. The app will be launched once tests are successful.
Separately, the launch of a new crypto exchange, Blocktrade.com has been drawing attention in Europe. The exchange promises to adhere to the MiFID II framework. Blocktrade.com’s CEO said that the regulators should recognize cryptos as a new asset class by putting in a regulatory structure.
In spite of July seeing a rise in crypto prices, the last few days have seen prices dropping. Bitcoin dropped by 0.91% to a trading price of $8,142.3 on the Bitfinex exchange at 10:44 PM ET (02:44 GMT) in the last 24 hours.
Ethereum (ETH-USD) went down by 2.95% to $453.64 on the Bitfinex exchange.
Ripple (XRP-USD) slipped 2.84% to $0.443 on the Poloniex exchange, while Litecoin decreased to $82.064, down by 3.04% in the last 24 hours.
Stellar Lumens dipped 10.11% on Monday, making it the greatest percentage loss in a single day since July 20, 2018. This lowered the crypto’s market cap $5.36 billion signifying 1.87% of the total digital currency market cap.
Similarly, EOS also experienced a 10.56% drop in sell-off. This resulted in the token’s market capitalization dropping to $6.81 billion making it 2.37% of the crypto market cap.
Meanwhile, Cardano’s price fell by 10.2% pushing down its market cap to $3.84 billion realizing 1.33% of the total digital currency market capitalization.
A sell-off in internet and technology firms spilled over into other risky assets. Thus, on Monday, Bitcoin dropped slightly below $8,000 as investors mitigated their exposure to digital currencies.
Even though the above prices show a decline, cryptocurrency prices have been on the upward trend through July. However, Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) predicts that the turnaround in cryptos including Bitcoin will not last. The firm stated that they expect a further decline since cryptos are neither a medium of exchange, unit of measurement, nor a store of value in their opinion.
A different survey also seems to put a damper on cryptocurrency. A survey by Gallup and Wells Fargo (NYSE:WFC) revealed that 72% of people are not interested in buying Bitcoin. The results suggest that even though Bitcoin is becoming more popular, it is still facing challenges in its wider adoption.
The survey found out that out of 96% of respondents who knew about Bitcoin, only 2% own it while 72% have no interest in owning it. It also revealed that only 3% of those earning no less than $90,000 own Bitcoin compared to less than 1% of those who earn lower incomes.
