☕Senate passes $1.2T infrastructure bill
Recently one of the most important topics in the crypto space is the Infrastructure bill. As I noted in some of the previous episodes the reason this is to be part of our conversation is the proposal for crypto taxations that are expected to raise $28M.
The bill broadens current tax reporting requirements for businesses acting as “brokers”. This could be applied to crypto exchanges and other businesses that sell digital assets. In addition, under “brokers” could be understood also crypto miners, validation, and software developers.
Some of the pro-crypto senators tried to change the bill but the move failed.
What we can state is that the senators want to regulate a sector they don’t even understand.
On the other hand, the senators’ noise didn’t affect the price of cryptocurrencies. Bitcoin is trading at $45K and Ethereum above $3K. Even though this is just the very first step of the regulations that are coming. Senators like Elizabeth Warren are keeping a close eye on DeFi and NFT as well.
☕Coinbase with record profits of $1.6B for Q2
The crypto exchange that went public via direct listing in April posted its results for Q2 2021. The profit of over $1.6B is nearly doubled compared to the results from Q1. Coinbase also announced revenue of $2.03B and noted that the active users grew to 8.8 million. Currently, the exchange has 68 million users verified.
The transaction fees still take a significant piece of the profits. $1.9M comes from transaction fees. However, Coinbase is aiming to reduce this trend - the company registered $100 million in subscriptions and services.
☕Venmo adds Bitcoin and Ethereum credit card chargebacks
PayPal’s app Venmo added credit cards and allowed users to buy and sell crypto services last year. Now Venmo combined these two in one and every user would receive a chargeback every time he swipes his credit card. The rewards will be paid in one of the four cryptocurrencies the app supports: Bitcoin, Ethereum, Bitcoin Cash, and Litecoin. Users can receive up to 3% chargeback and enjoy saving while spending.