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Japan passes stimulus package, commits to crypto tax reform

Proposed changes include taxing cryptocurrency at a 20% flat rate instead of the current variable ‘miscellaneous income’ rate. 

Japan will go ahead with a proposed stimulus package after Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba promised to engage in bipartisan discussions to enact sweeping tax reform. 

The economic stimulus package is expected to be approved before the end of 2024. According to a report from Bloomberg, the proposed tax reform measures include changes to income tax, corporate taxes and cryptocurrency taxes. This represents a shift in the governing party’s policy, which had previously called for higher taxes. 

Pundits have described the situation as being “stuck between a rock and a hard place.”

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South Korea sanctions 15 North Koreans for crypto heists and cyber theft

Donald Trump taps crypto advocate Lutnick as commerce secretary

The future commerce secretary is a billionaire whose Wall Street firm has ties to Tether.

United States President-elect Donald Trump has chosen Cantor Fitzgerald CEO Howard Lutnick to be his Secretary of Commerce, according to press reports on Nov. 19. Lutnick has a long record as a cryptocurrency proponent.

The Secretary of Commerce is charged with advancing US business both domestically and abroad. The secretary is a member of the Cabinet of the United States — the president’s closest advisers. Lutnick is currently the co-lead of the Trump transition team and was seen as the most likely candidate for the Cabinet position.

Lutnick has attracted attention in the crypto world for his ties to the stablecoin issuer Tether (USDT) and statements he has made about Bitcoin (BTC).

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South Korea sanctions 15 North Koreans for crypto heists and cyber theft

Helix mixer operator gets 3 years in prison for money laundering

Larry Harmon laundered 350,000 BTC, but he was treated leniently for his help in jailing Roman Sterlingov.

Larry Harmon, who was arrested in 2020 for helping criminals launder money through the Helix cryptocurrency mixer, has been sentenced to three years in prison. The sentence was a show of leniency due to his assistance in the Bitcoin Fog mixer case, District of Columbia District Court Judge Beryl Howell said.

Harmon faced a sentence of up to 20 years for the charges against him. The government had recommended a sentence of 75 months on Nov. 11. Harmon was fined $60 million by the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network in 2020.

Harmon helped prosecutors in the case against Bitcoin Fog operator Roman Sterlingov, who was sentenced to 12.5 years in prison on Nov. 8. Harmon expressed remorse at his sentencing. He had also shut down Helix two years before his arrest, the judge noted while passing sentence on him. “He turned himself around before he was arrested in this case,” she said.

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South Korea sanctions 15 North Koreans for crypto heists and cyber theft

Meme Coins Soar as Solana Hits $7 Billion Daily Trading Volume

Meme Coins Soar as Solana Hits  Billion Daily Trading VolumeThe bullish outlook of the crypto market along with recent meme coin listings has seen the Solana ecosystem register staggering trading volumes. Meme Coins Fuelling Solana’s Growth Solana (SOL) recently flipped BNB to become the fourth-largest cryptocurrency by market cap. This has resulted in a surge in trading volume on the blockchain known for its […]

South Korea sanctions 15 North Koreans for crypto heists and cyber theft

PancakeSwap launches Telegram Swap Bot for crypto trading access

PancakeSwap’s new Telegram bot lets users trade over 3,000 tokens from the app, highlighting DeFi’s growing accessibility.

PancakeSwap, one of the largest decentralized exchanges (DEXs) on the BNB Chain, has introduced a Telegram bot that enables users to trade cryptocurrencies directly from the messaging app.

The bot currently supports trading for over 3,000 tokens, making decentralized finance (DeFi) transactions potentially more accessible to a wider audience familiar with Telegram.

The Telegram Swap Bot will enable users to trade tokens on PancakeSwap v2, v3 and stableswap on the BNB Chain.

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South Korea sanctions 15 North Koreans for crypto heists and cyber theft

Crypto community hopeful about new Senate leader John Thune

Not endorsed by Donald Trump, Senator John Thune defeated the Elon Musk-supported Senator Rick Scott to become the new Senate majority leader.

The cryptocurrency industry has high hopes for regulatory clarity in the United States as the Republican Party elected Senator John Thune of South Dakota as the new Senate majority leader.

Thune won the Senate majority leader race on Nov. 13, defeating the Elon Musk-endorsed Senator Rick Scott of Florida.

“We will work to make America prosperous again by streamlining the bureaucratic machine and overturning costly Biden-Harris regulations,” Thune stated in a speech after winning.

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South Korea sanctions 15 North Koreans for crypto heists and cyber theft

MoonPay boosts self-custodial crypto spending with new solution

MoonPay Balance will support deposits and withdrawals in euros and British pounds, with future plans to expand to the US.

Cryptocurrency infrastructure firm MoonPay is moving to improve self-custodial spending by introducing a new payment solution allowing users to hold and spend fiat balances.

On Nov. 13, MoonPay officially introduced MoonPay Balance, a new payment tool enabling users to store and spend fiat balances on MoonPay and use it as an entry point to interact with decentralized finance (DeFi).

The new solution empowers users to spend balances through MoonPay’s direct integration with non-custodial or self-custodial wallets like MetaMask, Phantom and Bitcoin.com, according to an announcement shared with Cointelegraph.

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South Korea sanctions 15 North Koreans for crypto heists and cyber theft

Creators’ IP rights must be protected in the age of AI — Tracverse founder

Traverse founder Amos Thomas believes stories are the foundation of everything, and that humanity must do everything in its power to protect them.

Human stories and knowledge are the lifeblood of civilization and must protected at all costs in the age of artificial intelligence, according to Tracverse founder Amos Thomas.

Since their mainstream debut roughly two years ago, generative artificial intelligence solutions such as large language models (LLMs) have come under fierce criticism for reportedly sucking up the knowledge and creative outputs of humans, without credit or compensation, to train their algorithms.

The solution to this major issue lies in minting humanity’s stories on the blockchain, says Thomas.

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South Korea sanctions 15 North Koreans for crypto heists and cyber theft

Ex-Pimco, Millennium execs set up crypto advisory business

After leaving crypto liquidity firm GSR in 2023, former Millennium and Pimco executives are coming back to crypto by launching a dedicated advisory firm.

Two former executives at major American investment management firms, Millennium Management and Pacific Investment Management Co (Pimco), are reentering the cryptocurrency space amid a major market rally.

Millennium’s ex-portfolio manager Benoit Bosc and Pimco’s former executive vice president Michael Bressler left their posts to set up a new crypto consultancy firm, x2B, Bloomberg reported on Nov. 11.

Expected to launch in November 2024, x2B will advise crypto projects on sectors like fundraising, tokenomics and market-maker strategy, exchange listing and treasury management.

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South Korea sanctions 15 North Koreans for crypto heists and cyber theft

How a ‘No Questions Asked’ Crypto Scheme Became a Federal Target

How a ‘No Questions Asked’ Crypto Scheme Became a Federal TargetA Danvers, Massachusetts man, Trung Nguyen, was convicted of money laundering and operating an unlicensed cryptocurrency business that converted over $1 million in cash to bitcoin. Through his company, National Vending, Nguyen ran a “no questions asked” cash-to-bitcoin service from 2017 to 2020, knowingly processing funds for criminals, including a meth dealer and romance scam […]

South Korea sanctions 15 North Koreans for crypto heists and cyber theft