Daily Crypto News | July 13th, 2022

Welcome to Barmy’s Daily Crypto News – July 13th, 2022

1. US Treasury Wants Public Opinions On Crypto Policies

A call for opinions on President Joe Biden’s Executive Order on digital assets was made public by the US Department of the Treasury on Tuesday. The U.S. Treasury and the Biden Administration are soliciting public feedback on Executive Order 14067 issued by Biden in an effort to tap into the wisdom of the crowd.

The March 9 signing of the “Ensuring Responsible Development of Digital Assets” order set forth U.S. policy goals for virtual currencies like Bitcoin, Ethereum, and stablecoins. With a view to regulating cryptocurrency and safeguarding consumers, it urged various government organizations to coordinate their efforts.

According to the Treasury’s notice published on Tuesday, this phase offers an opportunity for all interested parties to offer pertinent suggestions and comments on “the implications of development and adoption of digital assets and changes in the financial market and payment infrastructures for United States consumers, investors, businesses, and for equitable economic growth.”

2. Celsius Recovers $400M stETH Colletaral From Aave

After receiving 400,000 collateralized Staked Ethereum (stETH) from a loan on Aave, the struggling crypto lending platform Celsius has almost paid off all of its outstanding DeFi debt.

Nearly a tenth of the asset’s $4.4 billion market cap—or $415 million—in crypto has been withheld from the possibility of liquidation as a result of the withdrawal.

The company paid $81.6 million in Circle’s USDC stablecoin to Aave on Tuesday, as seen by the Nansen Portfolio tracker. Its remaining obligation to the protocol was therefore decreased from $90 million to just $8.5 million.

The recovered asset, stETH (staked ETH), is a cryptocurrency derivative token kept by Lido. Its value typically follows that of ETH, which was trading for roughly $1,044 at the time of writing, despite the fact that the two are not formally “pegged” in any way.

3. Kazakhstan President Signs Law To Increase Crypto Miners’ Taxes

Kazakhstan’s President Tokayev has signed a new bill amending the country’s statute “On Taxes and Other Mandatory Payments to the Budget” and a supplementary law improving the application of the Tax Code. Differentiated tax rates for mining cryptocurrencies are now included in the changes.

Based on the typical cost of the electricity used to make coins for a certain tax period, the exact taxes will be calculated. When a miner paid 25 tenge or more ($0.053) per kWh, they start at 1 Kazakhstani tenge (about $0.002 at the time of writing), and they can go up to 10 tenges if the electricity cost was between 5 and 10 tenge ($0.011–$0.02).

No matter how expensive the electricity is, crypto farms using it will pay the lowest tax rate of 1 tenge per kWh. After the nation of Central Asia experienced a growing power deficit the entire previous year, that fee became effective on January 1, 2022. The surge of cryptocurrency miners that came after China’s move to crack down on the industry in May 2021 was cited as the cause of the shortages.

4. Berkshire Hathaway’s Charlie Munger Advices Everyone Against Crypto

The right-hand man of Warren Buffett, Charlie Munger, vice chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, has advice for investors thinking about cryptocurrency. He emphasized, “Never touch it,” and urged everyone to follow his lead and steer clear of crypto “as if it were an open sewer, full of malicious organisms.”

In a Tuesday interview with The Australian Financial Review, Charlie Munger continued to disparage cryptocurrencies. Munger earlier referred to bitcoin as “rat poison” and claimed that he detested BTC’s rise to fame.

He informed the publication that the “crypto craze” is a “mass folly” and stated: “I think anybody that sells this stuff is either delusional or evil. I won’t touch the crypto.”

5. Lightspeed Brings In $7B From Fundings, Creates ‘Crypto-Native’ Team

The most recent investment round for Lightspeed Venture Partners, which raised more than $7 billion for four funds that target early- and growth-stage businesses, has now been closed, the company reported today.

Additionally, the private equity company introduced Lightspeed Faction, which it defined as “an independent team dedicated to building on Lightspeed’s nine-year history of backing exceptional founders in blockchain infrastructure.” The new team will be led by Banafsheh Fathieh and Sam Harrison.

The increase took place in the midst of a brutal bear market that has seen some cryptocurrency companies terminate their operations, lay off employees, or receive bailout money. The $108.5 billion raised across 7,651 venture deals in the second quarter of 2022 decreased 23% from the first quarter, according to a separate report published on Tuesday by business analytics firm CB Insights, making it “the biggest quarterly percentage drop in deals (and the second-largest drop in funding) in a decade.”