South Korea Delays Crypto Tax; Worldcoin Token Soars; Ethena Labs Raises $14M for Ethereum Project
Summary:
South Korea's ruling People Power Party plans to suspend crypto taxation for two more years. Worldcoin's token has witnessed a 141% surge over a week following the launch of Sora and its World App reaching one million users. Meanwhile, tech startup Ethena Labs has received $14 million funding for its Ethereum-based synthetic dollar project.
In their bid to woo voters during the upcoming general elections, South Korea's reigning People Power Party has expressed intentions to postpone taxation on cryptocurrency earnings for a further two years. They are of the opinion that a robust framework should be implemented before any attempts to tax digital assets are made.
Crypto taxation took center stage in January 2021 when it was asserted that cryptocurrency investors garnering annual gains beyond 2.5 million won (approximately $1,900) would be obligated to pay a 20% tax. This threshold, however, is significantly lower compared to stock investments, for which taxation is only imposed on earnings exceeding 50 million won (around $37,400).
In another development, Worldcoin's (WLD) token, the brainchild of OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, has soared more than 140% within a week, concurrent with its user base tipping over 1 million. A stalwart growth from a mere 100,000 daily active users in November of the previous year was witnessed.
Debuted by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Alex Blania in July 2023, Worldcoin emphasizes privacy-preservation through its digital identity verification system that rewards users with their native cryptocurrency in return for iris scans.
Consequent to a series of significant updates from OpenAI, Worldcoin's value skyrocketed over the last seven days. While the new text-to-video generator, Sora, was introduced by OpenAI on Feb. 16, Altman expressed intentions to raise a whopping $7 trillion a week earlier to fund and upscale the firm's semiconductor chip efforts.
Simultaneously, tech entrepreneur, Ethena Labs, managed to secure an additional $14 million in funding for their undertaking of building the USDe, an Ethereum-based synthetic dollar. The fundraising, which was primarily supported by venture capital establishment, Dragonfly, followed an earlier round where they had raised $6 million through backers like Binance Labs, Gemini, and Bybit.
Ethena Labs envisions the development of a synthetic dollar, USDe, supported by delta-hedging strategies that primarily use Ether (ETH) as collateral. It is noteworthy that USDe has managed to secure more than $200 million in total locked value since its inception in December.
The proposition from Ethena Labs is to create a stablecoin that doesn't rely on the traditional banking system, with a view to capitalize on the widespread success of this form of digital asset. According to Coincodex, the total valuation of the stablecoin market presently stands at a staggering $138 billion.
Note: Investing and trading in cryptocurrencies are fraught with risks. Prospective investors and traders should conduct independent, thorough research prior to making investment decisions.
This news report is based on contributions from Geraint Price, Sam Bourgi and Felix Ng.
Published At
2/19/2024 4:00:30 PM
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