Korea crypto tax postponed; CoinDCX looks to IPO

Transcript

Why are Korean crypto investors breathing a sigh of relief today? And how might that influence policymakers beyond Korea? You’re about to find out.

Welcome to The Daily Forkast November 30, 2021. I’m Angie Lau, Editor-in-Chief of Forkast.News covering all things blockchain.

Well, after much debate, Korea’s National Assembly has finally agreed to postpone the imposition of a tax on crypto gains. We’re going to take a look at how big a deal that is for investors in the country and a whole lot more coming up.

Let’s get you up to speed from Asia to the world.

Let’s kick off with some of the top stories coming out of Asia today.

First up, one of South Korea’s largest banks is getting ready to invite clients into their virtual branch in the metaverse.

KB Kookmin Bank says its K.B. Metaverse VR branch test bed will allow customers to experiment with getting their banking errands done in a metaverse branch using a virtual reality headset.

Simple transactions like doing remittances can be undertaken at the personal window, while an employee avatar at the VIP lounge can help analyze risk return profiles or even design an investment portfolio.

Meanwhile, if you’re looking to borrow a cool US$100 million to buy some crypto, Huobi Lending says they’re open for business.

Launched by Hong Kong listed Huobi Tech, the platform allows institutions and high net worth individuals to use their existing crypto assets as collateral to buy other digital currencies, and that would boost the liquidity pool for investors as they can buy into other crypto assets without having to cash out of existing holdings.

You can find those stories and a whole lot more at Forkast.News.

Meanwhile, interesting developments out of Korea that no doubt other democracies may be paying attention to. A victory for those who push to delay the crypto gains tax.

Now, the ruling and opposing political parties of the country have officially agreed to postpone the start date for the new tax from 2022 to 2023. What’s more interesting, perhaps, is that this seemed like a sure thing until younger voters made it an election issue. What does it mean for the country?

Forkast.News Danny Park has more.

The tax plans initial announcement earlier this year was met by a severe backlash. With investors further angered by remarks from the financial regulator at the time, saying the younger generation was headed the wrong way by investing in cryptocurrencies.

The resulting online petition gained the 200,000 signatures required for the government to be obliged to respond after just 25 of the allowed 30 days.

Investors in their twenties and thirties continued to voice their disapproval by submitting more petitions, leading to several lawmakers proposing a delay in implementing the tax.

Local media has suggested those calls were an attempt to secure the votes of younger investors for next year’s presidential election.

However, while the delay in implementation was approved at the National Assembly meeting, an amendment to the tax threshold was not.

For crypto gains that level is 2.5 million won, or about US$2,100. While for stock gains, it is US$42,000, which many see as unfair.

Lawmaker Noh Woong-Rae of the Democratic Party who proposed a delay bill says he will continue pushing on the tax threshold now there is one more year.

One expert told Forkast.News that while this is a good start, there are many more issues surrounding the crypto tax that need to be ironed out, including transactions that authorities are currently unable to track.

“When [crypto] is no longer traded on the exchanges, and all transactions move to P2P (peer-to-peer), how the tax authority can spot those transactions is the problem. And the tax authority is not yet prepared for that problem.”

As other countries look to establish their own crypto tax legislation. This is one example of what can happen when investors push back.

For Forkast.News, I’m Danny Park.

Meanwhile, over in India, the country’s first crypto unicorn is looking to launch an IPO, but it’s not entirely up to them, per se.

In an interview with Bloomberg, CoinDesk’s co-founder Neeraj Khandelwal says the company would do so as soon as legislation permits. However, with India’s crypto bill still to be discussed in Parliament, a precise timeline for an IPO is kind of unclear right now.

Forkast.News Monika Ghosh has more from Pune, India.

India’s crypto bill, which seeks to prohibit all private cryptocurrencies while laying the framework for a CBDC, is listed on the parliamentary agenda for the winter session, which started this week. However, the bill is yet to be called for discussion.

Moreover, a draft of the bill is yet to be publicly available, which has left the Indian investor community on edge about what it might entail.

However, Khandelwal was optimistic over the proposed legislation, saying it will provide clarity for companies such as CoinDCX as well as investors.

He went on to say that an IPO gives legitimacy to the industry, much like the Coinbase IPO earlier this year helped boost investor confidence.

However, shortly after the interview, CoinDCX clarified in a statement to local media that while the company is exploring an IPO as an avenue for growth, like many startups would, there is no definitive route or clause as to when it will go public, and there are no immediate plans for the IPO.

For Forkast.News, I’m Monika Ghosh, Pune, India.

And that’s The Daily Forkast from our vantage point right here in Asia. And we surely would appreciate it if you like this. Hit like, hit subscribe, hit that alert button because we do fresh content Monday to Friday.

Appreciate it always. And it helps us reach our goal to reach more of you. For more, visit Forkast.News. I’m Editor-in-Chief Angie Lau. Until the next time.