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

moneycontrol.com:

The global cryptocurrency market capitalisation dipped 5.66 percent over the last 24 hours to $1.65 trillion, while the trading volumes were up 29.45 percent to $82.63 billion.

While decentralised finance (DeFi) accounted for 14.47 percent of the 24-hour cryptocurrency trading volume at $11.96 billion, stablecoins constituted 69.03 percent at $83.54 billion. Bitcoin's market dominance rose 0.43 percent to 41.96 percent and the currency was trading at $38,584.91 in the morning on February 2.

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.

Acknowledging that a large segment of the population is involved in crypto-related transactions, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharama in her Budget speech  yesterday pulled crypto taxation from the shadows of ambiguity.

The government has decided to bring virtual digital assets under the tax scanner by levying a 30 percent tax on their sale and purchase online.

The FM also specified that an additional 1 percent TDS will also be levied on such crypto transactions that exceed a certain threshold, thereby establishing a trail of details. The subsequent amount or the virtual digital asset gift will be taxable in the hands of the recipient.

Additionally, losses incurred during the transfer of such assets could not be written off against any other income,