Fumio Kishida, the Prime Minister of Japan, has come out in support of blockchain as a potential solution for technological issues facing the country. In response to questioning from Liberal Democratic Party member Masaaki Taira before the Budget Committee of Japan’s House of Representatives on Feb. 1, Kishida said there were “various possibilities for using Web3” in Japan. He added that the Japanese government could use aspects including nonfungible tokens (NFTs) and decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) in efforts to revitalize regions and promote ‘Cool Japan’ — a national strategy aimed at showing off the country’s innovations and culture to the …

In this week’s episode of Market Talks, Cointelegraph welcomes Budd White, chief product officer and co-founder of Tacen, a United States-based software company developing compliance software for a well-regulated crypto space. To kick things off, we get to know Budd a little better and find out his background and what drew him to the space. We also find out what he's looking forward to the most this year in the crypto market and how 2023 is going to differ from 2022. The big question on everyone's minds is what will be the catalyst that brings institutional investors back into the …

South Carolina Senator Tim Scott, the Republican ranking member on the United States Senate Banking Committee, reportedly plans to develop “a bipartisan regulatory framework" for cryptocurrencies. According to a Feb. 2 report from Politico, Scott included the crypto framework as one of his priorities for the 118th Congress. He reportedly was skeptical of some aspects of crypto, alluding to the collapse of exchanges like FTX — "high-profile failures resulted in lost consumer assets" — and potential uses for illicit finance. Scott recently took over the ranking member position from former Senator Pat Toomey, who served out his term without seeking …

The cryptocurrency community has ridiculed well-known Bitcoin (BTC) critic Charlie Munger for calling the United States to follow in the footsteps of China in banning crypto. In an op-ed article on The Wall Street Journal, the 99-year-old investment veteran has once again slammed crypto, calling a cryptocurrency a “gambling contract with a nearly 100% edge for the house.” Munger also said that a cryptocurrency is “not a currency, not a commodity, and not a security,” adding that “obviously” the U.S. should now enact a new federal law that would ban crypto. According to Munger, the best way to approach crypto …

Crypto tax planning can help optimize taxes by identifying opportunities to minimize tax liability on cryptocurrency transactions. For instance, donating cryptocurrency to a charitable organization can provide a tax deduction and also avoid capital gains tax on the donated assets. Crypto tax-loss harvesting is another strategy that cryptocurrency investors use to reduce their overall tax liabilities. This article will discuss the concept of tax-loss harvesting strategy, how it works and the challenges involved. What is crypto tax-loss harvesting? Crypto-tax loss harvesting is a tax strategy that involves selling a cryptocurrency at a loss in order to offset any capital gains …

Filing taxes for cryptocurrency can be a confusing and daunting task for many individuals. The United States Internal Revenue Service (IRS) treats cryptocurrency as property subject to capital gains taxes. Knowing this appears to make filing crypto taxes simple, but crypto’s unique nature means there are many unanswered questions. Accurately reporting gains and losses can be a nightmare. While everyone concerned about tax season knows that keeping accurate records of every crypto transaction is a must, there are other things to keep in mind. There is a difference between short-term and long-term capital gains taxes, with tax rates varying depending …

Stablecoins have been under much scrutiny after the implosion of the third-largest stablecoin by market cap, TerraUSD (UST), in May 2022. The UST saga led to a lot of skepticism that caused consumers to question the safety of stablecoins. In the seventh episode of Hashing It Out, Cointelegraph's Elisha Owusu Akyaw (GhCryptoGuy) interviewed Paolo Ardoino, Tether's chief technology officer, about how stablecoins work alongside a discussion on frequently asked questions about stable tokens. Fear, uncertainty and doubt (FUD) rocked the boats of stablecoin issuers after the third most popular stablecoin, TerraUSD, depegged in 2022. Tether was one of such issuers …

One of India’s biggest retail chains, Reliance Retail, announced that they have started accepting the digital rupee at one of its store lines and plans to extend the rollout to all its businesses. In a report by Tech Crunch, the company said that CBDC support is already rolled out at Freshpik, its gourmet store line. In addition, the firm also noted that it will be expanding support for the digital rupee to all of its properties, a move that could potentially push adoption forward for the country’s CBDC. V Subramaniam, an executive at Reliance Retail, pointed out that the acceptance …

The idea of lifting the cryptocurrency ban has started floating in China as a former central bank official has called the country to review its stringent crypto restrictions. Huang Yiping, a former member of the monetary policy committee at the People’s Bank of China (PBoC), believes that the Chinese government should think again about whether the ban on cryptocurrency trading is sustainable in the long run. Huang voiced his concerns about the future of fintech in China in a speech in December, according to a transcript published by the local financial website Sina Finance on Jan. 29. The former official …

A Voyager creditor and finance lawyer wants to see a chapter 11 trustee appointed in crypto brokerage Voyager Digital’s bankruptcy trial, which would see Voyager lose control of its estate. In a Feb. 1 motion, Voyager creditor Michelle DiVita accused Voyager of having a “history of financial statement inaccuracies and public misrepresentations that were known, or reasonably discoverable, at the beginning of the bankruptcy proceeding." Due to this pre-bankruptcy conduct, DiVita believes that an examiner or trustee should have been requested, and is now doing so herself. The filing alleges that Voyager “concealed the true nature of its lending activities …

Recent charges brought against Mango Markets exploiter Avraham Eisenberg will have a positive impact on the decentralized finance (DeFi) space, according to credit rating firm Moody’s. In a Jan. 31 note from Moody’s Investor Service, AVP of decentralized finance Cristiano Ventricelli stated that enforcement actions brought by the two leading U.S. market regulators in January mean that DeFi is moving towards a “safer and more welcoming environment.” “The fact that both the SEC and CFTC took action against market manipulation by an alleged rogue trader is a credit positive for the industry as a whole. Ventricelli stated that these actions …

The total crypto market cap jumped nearly 4% following a speech from United States Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell in which he suggested the economy’s disinflationary process has started. “We can now say, I think for the first time, that the disinflationary process has started […] we see it really in goods prices,” said Powell during a Feb. 1 Federal Open Market Committee press briefing shortly after announcing a federal interest rate hike of 0.25%. The interest rate hike and remarks appeared to have gone down well in the crypto markets, which had been trading sideways in the lead-up to …