Cryptocurrency Prices Today: Bitcoin, Ethereum trade in green; Budget brings crypto in 30% tax ambit

In rupee terms, Bitcoin rose 1.26 percent to trade at Rs 30,74,481, while Ethereum rose 3.31 percent to Rs 2,20,994.5. Cardano rose 4.07 percent to Rs 86.79 and Avalanche gained 6.89 percent to Rs 5,891.8. Polkadot gained 4.63 percent to Rs 1,597.27 and Litecoin was up 4.9 percent to Rs 9,080.6 in the last 24 hours. Tether was also up 0.52 percent to Rs 79.9. Memecoin SHIB rose 2.25 percent, while Dogecoin rose 1.26 percent to trade at Rs 11.38. Terra (LUNA) increased by 1.69 percent to Rs 4,187.77. Read more here.

'Budget 2022: Crypto gets a backdoor entry in India

On February 1, while announcing the Budget 2022, Finance Minister Nirmala Sithraman announced that income from 'virtual assets' will be taxed at 30% and one percent TDS (tax deducted at source) will be deducted on these investments. The government defines virtual assets as any instrument, generated through cryptographic means providing a digital representation. In simple words, it includes all private cryptocurrencies. Unlike gains from equities held for a certain period, gains from crypto trades will not attract different tax slabs based on how long they are held. This will be applicable starting April 1, 2023, and the taxes will be levied from the assessment year FY24. Read more here.

OpenSea Hits Record $5B in Monthly Sales as Ethereum NFT Market Swells

Leading NFT marketplace OpenSea generated more than $5 billion in total trading volume in January between Ethereum and Polygon sales, breaking the previous record from August 2021. Public blockchain data collected by Dune Analytics shows that OpenSea had more than $4.95 billion of Ethereum trading volume in January, plus over $79 million on Polygon, a sidechain scaling solution for Ethereum. Both are single-month records for each respective platform. Read here.

El Salvador Taps AlphaPoint to Fix State-Sponsored Bitcoin Wallet Chivo

El Salvador's government today announced it contracted US software company AlphaPoint to fix its buggy state-sponsored Bitcoin wallet—and implement the Lightning Network. New York-based AlphaPoint started improving the Chivo wallet in December, the company confirmed today to Decrypt. It improved the wallet’s user interface, fixed various bugs, and installed a feature so it can handle the Lightning Network. Read more here.