The Iranian National Tax Administration (INTA) is pushing to establish a legal framework for the taxation of crypto trading platforms operating in the country, according to a new proposal by the country’s tax authority. Two months after Iranian President Hassan Rouhani’s call for a legal framework for crypto trading, INTA reportedly detailed the necessity of legalizing digital asset exchanges in a proposal quoted by the local media. Reminding Iranian regulators that a legal framework is required for levying taxes, INTA said that the government should only allow authorized exchanges to convert currency while keeping track of transactions. The tax authority …

Debates regarding the amount of energy required to mine Bitcoin (BTC) have been ongoing. While tech pioneers such as Elon Musk have recently mentioned that the crypto industry is headed toward a greener future, some academic researchers have noted that mining BTC consumes more power than that of small countries. While these arguments are still hotly debated, it has become clear that awareness of green crypto initiatives has been on the rise. For instance, some Bitcoin miners are now looking at nuclear power as a solution to remove carbon emission from the electricity leveraged to mine BTC. At the same …

The fight for lawmakers to clear up the language used to define brokers in the crypto space may be moving to the United States House of Representatives soon after a failed attempt in the Senate. In a 69-30 vote, the Senate passed HR 3684 this morning, a bipartisan bill that proposes roughly $1 trillion in funding for roads, bridges and major infrastructure projects. However, the bill also suggests implementing tighter rules on businesses handling cryptocurrencies and expanding reporting requirements for brokers, mandating that digital asset transactions worth more than $10,000 are reported to the IRS. Though initially split on the …

The price of Bitcoin (BTC) soared to a three-month high at $46,293 after bulls confirmed that they intended to take full control of the market. While crypto traders may have returned to the green and pro traders are looking to add larger leveraged positions, not every class of investors has obtained direct exposure to Bitcoin. For institutional investors, a fund administrator sets the rules for what percentage of a portfolio is invested in various asset classes, and different companies have varying appetites for risk. The reasons that investors may be piling into these assets versus simply holding BTC include the …

A compromise that proposed amending provisions in the bipartisan infrastructure deal on crypto failed to meet the requirements of a unanimous consent request in the United States Senate, making the bill likely to go to a full vote without additional changes. This afternoon, Senator Tom Carper put forth the compromise amendment agreed upon earlier today by senators Pat Toomey, Cynthia Lummis, Rob Portman, Mark Warner, Kyrsten Sinema and Ron Wyden on providing clarity for what defines a crypto broker. However, Alabama Senator Richard Shelby objected when Carper disagreed to add Shelby’s own unrelated amendment to the bill — a proposal …

United States Senators putting forth differing amendments for provisions in the infrastructure deal that apply to crypto have reached a compromise after a legislative setback. In a press conference on Monday, Senator Pat Toomey said there was now a bipartisan agreement on an amendment to infrastructure bill HR 3684, backed by Cynthia Lummis, Rob Portman, Mark Warner, Kyrsten Sinema and Ron Wyden. The Pennsylvania lawmaker said the new amendment would exempt software developers, transaction validators and node operators, while tax reporting requirements “should only apply to the intermediaries.” “We came together to provide greater clarity on the rules for who …

The regulatory scrutiny of blockchains and cryptocurrencies is increasing. From the cryptocurrency mining ban in China to President Joe Biden’s Working Group on Financial Markets, convened by Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, the economic activities that support and are enabled by blockchains have become a significant concern for policymakers. Most recently, a provision in the proposed 2021 infrastructure bill amends the definition of a broker to expressly include “any person who [...] is responsible for regularly providing any service effectuating transfers of digital assets on behalf of another person.” The stated goal of this “miner-as-broker” policy change is to improve the …

The provisions aim to raise $28 billion for infrastructure funding through expanded digital asset taxation and will impose broad third-party reporting requirements on any crypto firm deemed to be a “broker.” On Monday, Jake Chervinsky, general counsel to Compound Labs, tweeted that the United States Senate had voted 68 in favor to 29 against ending the debate surrounding the provisions, halting discussions until Tuesday’s final vote. However, Chervinsky emphasized that the Senate could still pass an amendment to the bill by unanimous consent before the final vote. Senate talks over the controversial cryptocurrency tax provisions to the U.S. infrastructure bill …

The White House has formally backed the much more limited of two competing amendments to the infrastructure deal in a late Thursday statement. The statement by White House deputy press secretary Andrew Bates says that “the Administration believes this provision will strengthen tax compliance in this emerging area of finance and ensure that high income taxpayers are contributing what they owe under the law.” He continued: “We are grateful to Chairman Wyden for his leadership in pushing the Senate to address this issue, however we believe that the alternative amendment put forward by Senators Warner, Portman, and Sinema strikes the …

Multinational financial services firm, Fidelity Investments, has announced the purchase of a 7.4% stake of major North American mining company, Marathon Digital Holdings. Marathon currently operates 19,000 miners, with a further 100,000 machines slated for deployment over the next 12 months. With $4.9 trillion in assets under management Fidelity is one of the world’s largest financial service companies and has serviced more than 35 million clients worldwide. The deal was finalized for $20 million on July 22, with the shares set to be spread across four index-based funds — Fidelity Extended Market Index Fund (FSMAX), Fidelity Nasdaq Composite Index Fund …

Lawmakers have written an amendment to an infrastructure bill in the United States Senate which proposes excluding certain crypto companies from the reporting requirements for brokers. In an amendment from Oregon Senator Ron Wyden on behalf of himself and Wyoming Senator Cynthia Lummis, with the support of Pennsylvania Senator Pat Toomey, the U.S. lawmakers suggested that some of the provisions in the bipartisan infrastructure deal shouldn't apply to developers, miners, or blockchain firms in the crypto space. Specifically, the amendment proposes that the definition of a broker does not include anyone in the business of “validating distributed ledger transactions,” “developing …

Lawmakers in the United States have called for caution regarding implementing a proposed tax policy that could have significant implications for America’s crypto space. As previously reported by Cointelegraph, an expanded crypto taxation regime was a last-minute addition to the $1-trillion infrastructure deal currently being debated in Congress. According to the proposed amendments, tighter rules on crypto reporting requirements could provide $28 billion in additional funding for the government. However, Senator Patrick Toomey is among a group of senators who have warned of the broad language used in the expanded crypto tax policy. According to a Washington Post article, Toomey …