Today in Crypto: Nexo Plans to Buy Vauld; UK Explores DeFi Taxation

Nexo, the cryptocurrency lender, said it plans to buy troubled fellow lender Vauld, showing how a consolidated crypto industry might look, Reuters wrote Tuesday (July 5).

Nexo will be buying 100% of Singapore-based Vauld and would “reorganize its future operations with the aim to accelerate its deeper presence in Asia.”

While there was no time frame on when the deal would close, Nexo has said it would be providing “immediate assistance” and undoing the withdrawal limits Vauld had put in place amid widespread crypto market chaos.

Meanwhile, the U.K. government will be looking into views on taxing crypto asset loans and “staking” for decentralized finance, or DeFi, a government post said.

The government particularly wants to look into whether administrative burdens and costs might be cut down for taxpayers engaging in the activity. The government also wants to determine if it could have a tax treatment that is better-aligned to the economics of the transactions.

Meanwhile, the Central African Republic, which adopted bitcoin as legal tender in April, will roll out its own digital currency as part of a plan to develop its financial industry, Bloomberg reported.

President Faustin-Archange Touadera said it will be called “Sango Coin” and would be a “currency for the next generation.”

The digital money might debut in the third quarter, he said.

In other news, the U.K. Financial Conduct Authority has added six new directors, including the head of a new digital assets unit.

Matthew Long was named director of payments and digital assets, overseeing the e-money, payment and crypto asset markets. Long is director of the National Economic Crime Command for the U.K. National Crime Agency. He joins FCA in October.

In more crypto-related news, India is seeing lagging crypto trading volumes after digital asset tax laws becoming applicable in April, a report from Seeking Alpha says — with tanking prices and less liquidity contributing, too.

The report notes that exchanges like WazirX, ZebPay, CoinDCX and BitBNS have seen their trading volumes falling between 10% and 70% in the past week, according to CoinGecko data.

Finally, two execs from two prominent crypto venture capital firms from Asia, Spartan Capital and DeFiance, have debuted a new fund to specifically target promising Web3 projects needing help through the current bear market cycle, a report from Bloomberg said.

Jason Choi and Darryl Wang, who are both 27, have founded Tangent, which they say won’t take outside capital or charge fees.

It will work with “three to five” early-stage crypto projects per quarter. Wang has said the idea for the project comes from their assessment that Web3 is not going anywhere — so they want to support companies struggling in the current volatile, depressed market.

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