Today in Crypto: Singapore’s Temasek Bows Out of Coinbase; Investors Search for Answers in IRA Financial Hack

India cryptocurrency industry representatives met with policymakers from the Finance Ministry to rework parts of the new crypto tax policy, according to a CoinDesk report.

The industry wants to review the 1% tax deducted at the source on every crypto transaction. This, according to industry reps, is not feasible and tough to comply with.

The meeting was held Thursday, and on Monday (Feb. 14), reports say representatives from one major exchange had an “unofficial consultation” with a senior official, a source said.

In other news, the Russian government is having differences of opinion with the central bank over crypto, with the government wanting to permit it, Bloomberg wrote.

The central bank is reticent, though, saying cryptocurrencies could be used for illegal activity.

But Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said in a letter that legalizing crypto could cut down on illicit operations and instead allow more government scrutiny.

Meanwhile, Temasek, the Singapore investment fund, has sold its position in the cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase, according to SEC filings, CoinDesk reported.

The fund listed ownership of 8,168 Coinbase shares that were worth around $2.1 million in its third-quarter filing. The company didn’t list those holdings in its fourth-quarter filing, though.

In addition, UBS, Switzerland’s largest bank, expects the U.S. Congress to take a long time to pass crypto legislation, in spite of increasing interest in crypto, Bitcoin.com reported.

UBS published its view Friday (Feb. 11), saying it hoped Congress would develop legislation to regulate stablecoin issuers as banks.

The U.S. Federal Reserve has recently also said it wants direction from Congress before going forward with a central bank digital currency (CBDC).

Finally, victims of a security breach of the IRA Financial Trust have been left reeling as their retirement accounts were drained, frozen and locked, according to CoinDesk.

There’s been no full explanation from either IRA Financial or Gemini, which was the custodian of the digital currency.

In the absence of that, users have begun reaching out to the media and regulators to figure out how they lost their money.

The incident started Feb. 8 when, apparently, a hacker began withdrawing funds from Gemini, which IRA Financial Trust runs its retirement account services on.