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The Indian government is reportedly set to levy taxes on cryptocurrency trading and gains.

Business Standard reported the news on Wednesday, citing an anonymous senior finance ministry official “privy to the development.” The official said both goods and services tax (GST) on the trading of cryptocurrencies and income tax (I-T) on crypto gains would be charged for the current financial year, April 2020 to March 2021.

“Bitcoins will be categorized as financial services attracting 18 percent GST on fee commission collected under this segment. Plus, tax (personal I-T) to be paid on the earnings from this,” said the official.

A government circular detailing the taxes is expected to be released soon, according to the official.

Reports that the government will levy GST on crypto trades have been circulating since last December. At the time, the finance ministry’s Central Economic Intelligence Bureau (CEIB) recommended to the Central Board of Indirect taxes and Customs (CBIC) that it collect 18% GST from crypto exchanges, CEIB director-general Mitali Madhusmita confirmed to The Block at the time.

Nischal Shetty, CEO of Binance-owned WazirX, at the time, told The Block that the exchange has been voluntarily paying 18% GST on trading fees collected from customers.

Levying a crypto tax, however, reportedly does not mean the Indian government will legalize cryptocurrencies. “Let it be clear that just because income-tax or GST has been charged on the transaction, it does not by itself make the transaction legitimate,” a senior finance ministry official told The Hindu Business Line on Wednesday. “Taxability and legality of transactions are independent of each other.”

Crypto investment activity in India will reportedly be banned via a new bill, as The Block reported last week. The ban, however, won’t be imposed overnight and the government will reportedly give existing investors a three-to-six-month transition period for liquidating their investments.

To be sure, the bill’s final text is not yet public. The bill is expected to be introduced in the ongoing budget session of Parliament, which concludes on April 8, with a recess taking between February 15 and March 8.

© 2021 The Block Crypto, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

Coinbase has hired a new chief compliance officer, according to a Tuesday announcement from the U.S. crypto exchange company.

Melissa Strait will spearhead Coinbase’s anti-money laundering and know-your-customer strategies. She previously worked for Stripe, serving as global head of financial crimes after a stint as its U.S.-focused compliance officer. Before that, she worked for Square’s compliance department.

“In her past roles, Melissa helped to build teams during the critical moments of growth and regulation within the traditional fintech industry. As we continue to move forward with the mainstream adoption of crypto, her experience will be vital in ensuring our innovative technology is aligned with global compliance standards,” Coinbase said in a statement.

Strait represents the latest senior hire for Coinbase, and one of a series related to legal matters. 

Coinbase took on Paul Grewal, a former U.S. Magistrate Judge and deputy general counsel to Facebook, as its chief legal officer in July 2020. In October 2020, Coinbase hired former Google product lawyer Milana McCullagh and Dyson’s litigation lawyer Katherine Minarik as vice presidents and deputy general counsels for product/commercial and litigation, respectively.

Strait’s hire comes as Coinbase prepares to go public in the coming weeks.

© 2021 The Block Crypto, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

Asset management giant BlackRock is taking notice of bitcoin as investors look for alternative stores of value, according to chief investment officer Rick Rieder. 

Rieder commented on BlackRock’s interest during an interview with CNBC’s Squawk Box Wednesday morning. He said the asset management giant “is starting to dabble” in the cryptocurrency, but did not elaborate further on what that means for its operations.

Rieder said that interest in bitcoin is growing as people look for alternative stores of value. “My sense is the technology has evolved and the regulation has evolved to the point where a number of people find it should be part of the portfolio, so that’s what’s driving the price up,” he commented.

BlackRock is not yet making any recommendations surrounding bitcoin, according to Rieder, but since many are holding more cash, allocating some portion to crypto “seems to make some sense.” However, he remained skeptical of the popular theory that everyone should put one percent of their assets into bitcoin.

“I wouldn’t put a number on the percentage allocation one should have, it depends on what the rest of your portfolio looks like,” he said.

As previously reported, regulatory filings indicated that certain funds it operates were on the cusp of buying bitcoin futures.

© 2021 The Block Crypto, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

Blockchain.com, the London-based crypto wallet and exchange operator, has raised $120 million from a group of macro investors.

American hedge fund manager Louis Bacon’s Moore Strategic Ventures, Hayman Capital Management founder Kyle Bass, Access Industries, Rovida Advisors, Lightspeed Venture Partners, GV, Lakestar and Eldridge all participated in the round.

The firm has now raised more than $190 million to date. 

Blockchain.com founder and chief executive told The Block the money would be used to “further credentialize the company to institutional clients around the world, and build further bridges and trust between the traditional finance sector and crypto.”

Exactly what those bridges are is not yet clear.

“What excites me most about this moment is the immense optimism about cryptocurrency from serious, institutional investors,” said Smith in a blog post that announced the raise.

“In fact, the current bull run is dominated by stories of Fortune 500 companies, investment funds, and institutions driving net inflows into crypto. The fact that the best macro investors in the world participated in our latest fundraise is further proof that institutions are taking a serious look at their crypto strategy.”

In the same blog post, Smith said that 28% of all bitcoin transactions since 2012 have taken place on Blockchain.com.

© 2021 The Block Crypto, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

Bitcoin miner operator Blockcap is the latest North American company poised to expand its hashing power amid bitcoin’s price rally.

The firm said in an announcement shared with The Block that it has purchased 10,000 additional AntMiner S19 made by Bitmain in a bid to double its proprietary computing power.

Founded in 2020 by former executives of U.S. mining farm operator Core Scientific, Blockcap said it already has 10,000 S19 miners up and running at Core Scientific’s facility.

These existing machines, providing about 950 petahashes per second (PH/s) of computing power in total, are able to produce about 5.5 BTC in 24 hours at bitcoin’s current mining difficulty. 

“This acquisition is an important step, not only for the trajectory of Blockcap … but for the future of securely settling bitcoin transactions with a robust and geographically diverse Bitcoin network,” said Blockcap CEO Clark Swanson.

Blockcap said the hardware delivery schedule spans from March to August, after which its total hashrate could increase to about 1,900 PH/s at full deployment.

As previously reported, at least ten North American institutional investors have announced bulk pre-orders for new-gen bitcoin mining hardware, with a total investment estimated at well above $500 million.

This level has caused severe supply shortages in a space already dealing with production capacity bottlenecks due to chip shortages from semiconductor companies.

As a result, the newest generation of equipment on the secondary market is being quoted at steep price premiums compared to their pre-order cost.

Darin Feinstein, executive chairman of Blockcap, told The Block in a call that his firm is committed to operating its hardware rather than engage in price speculation.

“We are bullish on bitcoin’s prospect in the long term,” Feinstein said. “We aren’t in the business of reselling machines.”

© 2021 The Block Crypto, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.