Morning Post - October 5

headlines

▌European Parliament votes in favor of using blockchain technology to modernize taxation

The European Parliament has voted in favor of a resolution to use blockchain technology to modernize the EU's tax procedures, while the resolution calls for streamlining rules for taxing crypto assets. The resolution seeks to determine what constitutes a taxable event, with switching from cryptocurrency to fiat currency seen as the most viable option. The European Commission has yet to clearly define this and other possible taxable events. The policy also calls for "simplified tax treatment" of small transactions. Blockchain technology is also being advanced as a tax tool, according to a European Parliament announcement, identifying the technology's potential to "automate taxation, limit corruption, better identify ownership of tangible and intangible assets, and thus better tax mobile taxpayers".

▌McDonald’s Starts Accepting Bitcoin Payments in Lugano, Switzerland

McDonald's in the Swiss city of Lugano has started accepting Bitcoin as a payment method. Bitcoin Magazine shared a video on Twitter of ordering food at a local McDonald's, showing signs of Bitcoin and Tether symbols on the payment machine at the checkout. In March 2022, the city signed a memorandum of understanding with Tether Operations Limited to launch a "Plan B" project. According to this plan, Tether created two funds. The first is $106 million for an investment pool of cryptocurrency startups, and the second is about $3 million in an attempt to encourage cryptocurrency adoption at stores and businesses across the city.

policy

▌U.S. Treasury Department: Encrypted asset activities may pose a risk to the stability of the U.S. financial system

The U.S. Treasury Department warned on Monday that unregulated cryptocurrencies could pose risks to the U.S. financial system. The warning is part of the first major public report on digital assets issued by the Treasury Department’s Financial Stability Oversight Board. The committee identified digital or "crypto" assets such as stablecoins, as well as lending on the industry's trading platforms, as "significant emerging vulnerabilities." The report concluded that crypto asset activity could pose a risk to the stability of the U.S. financial system and emphasized the importance of proper regulation, including enforcement of existing laws. U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said government stakeholders must work together to make progress on the recommendations.

cryptocurrency

▌MasterCard will launch crypto fraud identification tool Crypto Secure

Mastercard (MA.N) will launch a new tool called Crypto Secure on Tuesday that will help the bank identify criminal activity related to crypto exchanges on its payments network. Crypto Secure was developed by blockchain intelligence firm CipherTrace, which was acquired by Mastercard in 2021. CipherTrace will use sophisticated artificial intelligence algorithms to assess the risk of crypto fraud based on data such as blockchains and public records of encrypted transactions. CipherTrace, headquartered in Menlo Park, California, mainly helps companies and authorities investigate illegal transactions involving cryptocurrencies. Its main competitors are Chainalysis and Elliptic.

▌a16z led the investment in Golden and completed the B round of financing of US$40 million

Cryptocurrency company Golden completed a $40 million Series B round of financing, bringing its total funding to date to $60 million. This round of financing was led by a16z, with participation from Solana co-founder Raj Gokal, Dropbox co-founder Arash Ferdowsi, Postmates founder Bastian Lehmann, and Muse vocalist Matt Bellamy. The new funds will be used to build a Web3 data platform, which is currently in the test network stage and is expected to be launched on the main network in the second quarter of 2023.

▌BNB Chain announced the shortlist of the fifth batch of Web3 Accelerator Program, 27 projects covering DeFi, music, NFT and other fields

BNB Chain announced the fifth batch of the most valuable builders of the fifth batch of Web3 Accelerator Program, with a total of 27 shortlisted projects, covering DeFi, music and NFT, games and metaverse, infrastructure and tools, security and other fields, of which 7 The project will receive investment from Binance Labs.