Decentral Block Post

Despite the Chinese government banning all kinds of cryptocurrency transactions last year, some firms apparently still use stablecoins like Tether (USDT) to pay their employees.

Beijing’s Chaoyang District People’s Court has ruled that stablecoins like USDT cannot be used for salary payments, the local news agency Beijing Daily reported on July 6.

The Chinese court stated that virtual currencies like USDT cannot circulate in the market as a currency, which requires all employers to only pay their workers using the official currency, renminbi (RMB).

The ruling came as part of a court case involving a staff member at a local blockchain firm suing his employer for not agreeing to pay his wages in RMB. The plaintiff argued that instead of paying him in RMB, the firm had paid his salary and bonuses in the USDT stablecoin.

Citing China’s blanket ban on crypto enforced in September 2021, the court pointed out that digital currencies like USDT do not have the same legal status as legal tender. The court noted that the plaintiff's request to pay wages and bonuses in the form of RMB fully complies with local laws and the court supports it.

An average crypto asset holder in Great Britain would be young, male and hodler. And they would consider crypto to be a ‘fun investment.’ Such are the findings from the fresh research, conducted by Her Majesty Revenue and Customs (HMRC) with the help of research agency Kantar UK and published on Tuesday. 

Taking a quantitative approach, the research sought to establish the prevalence of owning crypto assets, the types and amounts held, and the platforms individuals use to buy crypto assets. It consisted of a survey with a representative sample of 5,916 United Kingdom adults, including 713 crypto asset owners.

The report revealed that 10% of the U.K. citizens hold or have held crypto, with 55% never having sold any (equivalent to 5% of the adult population). Only 7% are currently holding more than £5,000 (almost $6000 by press time) in value, while 52% of current owners have holdings of up to £1,000 ($1200).

Related: UK government seeks public input on DeFi taxation

Other significant findings come as no surprise — crypto owners tend to be younger than the general population with 76% of them 45 years, and mostly they are male (69%). A vast majority of them hold cryptocurrencies (79%), while the second most popular type of asset is utility tokens (20%).

The implications of what anti-crypto regulations can do to a thriving economy can be seen first-hand unfolding in India. Supporting the massive decline in trading volumes across all Indian crypto exchanges, a report from WazirX reveals a change in investor sentiment as the Indian government imposed its second crypto law — a 1% tax deduction at source (TDS) on every crypto transaction.

Trading volumes on Indian crypto exchanges saw an eventual reduction of 90-95% ever since the country introduced a law that would tax investors 30% on unrealized gains. With two consecutive taxes ready to eat away at their holdings, most Indian investors have seemed to have opted for hibernation amid an unforgiving bear market.

Prominent Indian crypto exchanges WazirX and Zebpay surveyed around 9,500 active traders from the region to better understand investor sentiment. Unsurprisingly, the survey revealed that 83% of traders were forced to reduce their trading frequency owing to the TDS deductions.

Another method investors in India avoided paying TDS was by selling their holdings before the taxation was signed into law. Over 27% of the investors, the majority comprised of millennials, ended up selling 50% of their portfolio before April 1 whereas 57% sold under 10%. In this regard, Rajagopal Menon, VP of WazirX stated:

“The survey results stipulate the need to reform certain conditions to aid the growth of crypto investors in the country which will result in economic prosperity. The tax regime needs to be balanced to encourage participation and revive trading volumes.”

Bitcoin (BTC) approached the July 6 Wall Street open near $20,000 as a fresh battle between support and resistance loomed.

Whale levels close by

Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView showed BTC/USD wedged in a tight trading range with liquidity creeping closer to spot on the day.

After recovering 6% losses from the day before, order book data confirmed that support and resistance was now almost shoulder-to-shoulder.

According to on-chain monitoring resource Whalemap, a cluster of whale positions between $20,546 and $21,327 meant that this large area was now the zone to beat.

Buyer interest, meanwhile, stayed at around $19,200, this also formed of whale bids which formed after BTC/USD dipped to multi-year lows of $17,600 in Q2.

A new strain of crypto-malware is being spread via YouTube, tricking users to download software that’s designed to steal data from 30 crypto wallets and crypto-browser extensions.

Cyber intelligence company Cyble in a June 30 blog post said it had been tracking the malware known as “PennyWise” — likely named after the monster in Stephen King's horror novel “It” — since it was first identified in May.

“Our investigation indicates that the stealer is an emerging threat,” wrote Cyble in a blog post on June 30.

“In its current iteration, this stealer can target over 30 browsers and cryptocurrency applications such as cold crypto wallets, crypto-browser extensions, etc.”

Data stolen from the victim's system comes in the form of Chromium and Mozilla browser information, including cryptocurrency extension data and login data. It can also take screenshots and steal sessions of chat applications such as Discord and Telegram.