Cryptocurrency

Portuguese Tax Structure Highlights Custody Concerns

Published

2 years ago

February 13, 2022

A new CNBC article features a “Bitcoin family” which has decided to set up roots in Portugal due to the country’s tax rules on cryptocurrency. It has a 0% tax rate, including on capital gains, as long as the Bitcoin wasn’t earned for providing services in Portugal. That makes the country’s rules among the most enticing in the world for a family which sold nearly all of their earthly possessions to purchase Bitcoin when it was trading at $900.

“First, the story here intrigues the reader, thinking about the profit an ordinary family realized. Second, and perhaps less obvious, however, is that it highlights the extremely fractured nature of cryptocurrency regulations. In some ways, tax codes change from country to country, and that’s why we see lists of the most competitive countries to start a business and so forth. But, this isn’t even a question of capital gains or tax rates. It is really a question of how a country legally treats cryptocurrencies,” said Richard Gardner, CEO of Modulus, a US-based developer of ultra-high-performance trading and surveillance technology that powers global equities, derivatives, and digital asset exchanges.

“Absolutely, this has made Portugal a haven for cryptocurrency expats. But it really highlights just how differently countries see Bitcoin and other digital assets. The lens by which they view it just differs so dramatically. Some countries still hope it is a fad, others see it as a potential cash cow, others want to entice crypto-preneurs. Portugal is definitely among the friendliest locales,” said Gardner.

Modulus is known throughout the financial technology segment as a leader in the development of ultra-high frequency trading systems and blockchain technologies. Modulus has provided its exchange solution to some of the industry’s most profitable digital asset exchanges, including a well-known multi-billion-dollar cryptocurrency exchange. Over the past twenty years, the company has built technology for the world’s most notable institutions, with a client list which includes NASA, NASDAQ, Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch, JP Morgan Chase, Bank of America, Barclays, Siemens, Shell, Yahoo!, Microsoft, Cornell University, and the University of Chicago.

“However, it isn’t just in tax structure. The rules vary wildly from country to country in most aspects of cryptocurrencies. Right now, even though digital assets have become mainstream and accepted, even by institutional investors, regulators are still lagging behind the eight ball. That’s long created questions about how regulatory agencies will legally treat crypto. Now, it has even created custody questions,” said Gardner.

Fireblocks, which is among the best known providers, found itself embroiled in a lawsuit with StakeHound, which alleges the custody company lost roughly $70MM of Ethereum, after the key vanished. As a result, StakeHound could not access over 38,000 ETH.

“Custodial services just aren’t what they should be. Even the big players are having issues which need consideration, and, in order for cryptocurrencies to truly break out, the custody issue needs to be solved. The question is whether global regulators will find a way to develop commonsense guidelines for digital asset custody, or whether we will see a piecemeal approach that varies dramatically across jurisdictions,” said Gardner.

Up Next

Tens of Trillions of Dollars to be Unlocked by Blockchain’s Capital Revolution

Don't Miss

Shiba Inu Update: Shibarium Layer- 2 Private Testnet Goes Live

Samed Olukoya

Is the CEO/Founder of Investors King Limited. A proven foreign exchange research analyst and a published author on Yahoo Finance, Nasdaq, Entrepreneur.com, Investorplace, and many more. He has over two decades of experience in global financial markets.

Comments

Cryptocurrency

Dallas Mavericks Owner and Billionaire Tech Investor, Mark Cuban, Falls Victim to Phishing Attack, Losing $870,000 in Crypto Assets

Published

5 days ago

September 18, 2023

Samed Olukoya

Mark Cuban, owner of the Dallas Mavericks and a prominent billionaire technology investor, recently fell prey to a phishing attack, resulting in a loss of approximately $870,000 worth of tokens.

The incident occurred over the weekend after months of inactivity on Cuban’s crypto wallet.

Phishing attacks, a prevalent threat in the crypto industry, deceive users into revealing sensitive information, downloading malicious software, and exposing their private data.

These attacks exploit users’ trust, often causing them to overlook the authenticity of incoming requests on their crypto wallets or unwittingly download counterfeit applications designed solely to pilfer their assets.

Cuban’s crypto wallet was emptied of various assets, including U.S.-pegged stablecoins, staked ETH (stETH), SuperRare (RARE) tokens, and some Ethereum Name Service (ENS) domains, according to blockchain data.

The initial discovery of these suspicious transactions was made by the vigilant on-chain investigator @wazzcrypto.

Fortunately, Cuban was alerted to these transactions, and he managed to safeguard over $2.5 million worth of Polygon’s MATIC tokens.

He accomplished this by promptly logging into his wallet and transferring the tokens to a secure Coinbase exchange address.

Cuban revealed that the phishing attack was apparently initiated through a fraudulent MetaMask wallet application that he had unwittingly downloaded.

This incident marks the second high-profile phishing attack in as many weeks, following Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin’s experience in early September. Buterin’s X account was compromised in a phishing attack, although he did not appear to lose any of his own funds.

Nevertheless, unsuspecting users collectively suffered losses of up to $700,000 by sending tokens to a malicious link that falsely appeared to have Buterin’s endorsement.

As the crypto industry continues to thrive, it is crucial for users to exercise caution and remain vigilant to safeguard their digital assets from the ever-present threat of phishing attacks.

Ethereum

RxR Analysis Reveals: Ether’s True Worth 27% Higher than Market Price

Published

5 days ago

September 18, 2023

Samed Olukoya

RxR, a research-driven partnership between Republic Crypto and Re7 Capital, has revealed that Ether (ETH), the native token of the Ethereum blockchain, is currently trading at a 27% discount to its actual fair value.

This revelation comes as a result of RxR’s innovative approach to evaluating the worth of cryptocurrencies. Instead of relying solely on traditional metrics, RxR’s methodology incorporates a blended version of the Metcalfe law that takes into account both the active user base on the continuously expanding Ethereum scaling networks and the users on the Ethereum mainnet.

Ether, as a fundamental component of the Ethereum ecosystem, facilitates a wide range of activities, from simple transactions to participating in network security through staking, earning interest, and even storing non-fungible tokens. As such, the value of Ether has long been intertwined with Ethereum’s network usage.

Lewis Harland, an analyst at RxR, explained the significance of this approach, stating, “Ethereum’s network valuation exhibits a closer alignment with the updated Metcalfe law index when the active user base of Ethereum’s scaling networks is included in the model, in contrast to when it is omitted.”

Harland continued, “The updated model, which factors in these networks, places ETH’s valuation at $275 billion, indicating that the current market capitalization is trading at a substantial 27% discount.”

Ether’s market capitalization consistently tracks the blended Metcalfe law model more accurately than the traditional model, which fails to consider the growing activity on layer 2 networks or offchain solutions built atop the Ethereum mainnet.

In essence, this analysis challenges the perception that Ether might be overvalued, as suggested by the traditional Metcalfe law Model.

The emergence of Layer 2 technology has undoubtedly become one of the most dynamic and exciting developments in the crypto market. Key protocols, such as Coinbase’s BASE, Arbitrum, and Optimism, have found their unique niches within this landscape.

According to data from L2Beat, the total value locked in layer 2 protocols has surged more than threefold in just two years, reaching an impressive milestone of over $9 billion.

Cryptocurrency

Ripple Labs Objects to SEC’s Request for Appeal in Landmark Cryptocurrency Case

Published

3 weeks ago

September 2, 2023

Investors King

Ripple Labs, a leading player in the cryptocurrency industry, has voiced its strong objection to the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) recent request to appeal a pivotal federal judge’s ruling.

This ruling determined that cryptocurrency should not be classified as a security when offered to the public.

On Friday, Ripple submitted a request to US District Judge Analisa Torres in New York, urging her to reject the SEC’s appeal request.

The company argued that the SEC is hastily pursuing an appeal on what it deems a fundamental legal issue applicable to all cases involving digital assets.

Ripple contends that the procedural and legal circumstances in other SEC enforcement actions differ significantly.

To proceed with its appeal, the SEC requires Judge Torres’s permission, as her initial ruling was not a final judgment.

Also, the regulator is seeking to temporarily suspend its lawsuit against Ripple, which accuses the company of selling unregistered securities, pending the outcome of the appeal.

Judge Torres’s previous decision was widely celebrated by the cryptocurrency industry, which has been resisting efforts to classify digital assets as securities subject to regulatory oversight.

In her ruling on July 13, Torres distinguished between the sale of Ripple’s XRP token to institutional investors, which she deemed to meet the criteria for an investment contract under federal securities law, and sales to the general public on cryptocurrency exchanges.

The SEC argued that immediate review of the matter was imperative as the ultimate outcome could have implications for other cryptocurrency-related cases, including similar lawsuits filed by the regulator against Coinbase Global Inc. and Binance Holdings Ltd.

It is worth noting that another Manhattan federal judge, Jed Rakoff, explicitly rejected Judge Torres’s approach in the SEC’s case against Terraform Labs and its founder, Do Kwon. Rakoff concluded that the Terra USD token might indeed be considered a security when sold to retail investors.

In its Friday filing, Ripple emphasized that several critical issues remain unresolved in the case, including whether the sales of XRP to institutional investors fall outside the SEC’s jurisdiction. If the SEC’s request for an exceptional appeal is granted, Ripple indicated its intention to challenge the judge’s determination that these sales constituted securities transactions.

This development comes shortly after a significant legal victory for the cryptocurrency industry in another case. An appeals court in Washington recently overturned the SEC’s decision to block Grayscale Investments LLC’s proposed spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund.

Ripple’s CEO, Brad Garlinghouse, and Chairman, Christian Larsen, who are also named as defendants in the case, have joined the chorus opposing the SEC’s request. They maintain that Judge Torres’s ruling aligns with the best interests of the public and that the case should proceed to trial without further delay.

The case, known as SEC v. Ripple Labs Inc., 20-cv-10832, is currently pending in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York (Manhattan).