Germany Proposes Bill to Tax Bitcoin Gains Like Stocks
Replacing the long-term holding exemption with a flat capital gains tax removes the primary fiscal incentive for buy-and-hold crypto investing in Europe's largest economy.
Germany has drafted legislation to end its long-standing tax exemption for cryptocurrencies held for more than a year, replacing it with a flat 25 percent tax. Authored by Vice Chancellor and Finance Minister Lars Klingbeil, the bill would apply the Abgeltungsteuer regime to digital acquired on or after January 1, 2027. Under current rules, profits on sales become entirely tax-free after twelve months, while shorter-term sales face personal income tax rates reaching up to 45 percent. The proposed flat levy includes a 5.5 percent solidarity surcharge, bringing the effective rate to roughly 26.375 percent before any church tax. Assets bought before the 2027 cutoff will remain under the existing framework through grandfathering. Platforms and banks will have until 2028 to implement automatic withholding systems. The Ministry of Finance projects the measure will generate 160 million euros in during 2028, rising to 350 million euros annually by 2031.
Projected Crypto Tax Revenue (EUR Millions)
Projected tax revenue more than doubles between 2028 and 2031
Robinhood Expands Prediction-Market Push with Crypto.com and OG.com Tie-up
Equity stakes tied to exchange valuations allow retail brokerages to capture the clearinghouse margin generated by their own prediction-market order flow.
Robinhood has acquired minority stakes in .com and its prediction-market OG.com under a multi-year infrastructure agreement. Under the terms of the deal, Robinhood will route retail event contracts through OG.com's Trading Commission-regulated exchange and clearinghouse, with the rollout beginning for eligible U.S. customers. The equity stakes are priced against valuations established by an earlier Citadel Securities investment, which valued Crypto.com at $20 billion and OG.com at $5 billion. The partnership adds a third infrastructure supplier to Robinhood's prediction markets hub alongside Kalshi and Rothera, expanding the brokerage's event-contract supply ahead of the U.S. professional football season and midterm elections. Event-contract trading has surged as a driver for Robinhood, generating $156 million in the second quarter to outpace both equities and crypto transaction revenue. While the arrangement bypasses the need for Robinhood to build standalone derivatives infrastructure, it concentrates counterparty and operational risk in OG.com's clearing stack.
Robinhood Q2 Transaction Revenue ($M)
Event contracts generated $156 million in Q2, surpassing equities and crypto.
Circle to acquire cross-border payments firm Tazapay for $400 million
Buying existing local banking rails converts Circle from a pure stablecoin issuer into an end-to-end global payout network, bypassing individual country licensing bottlenecks.
Circle agreed to acquire Singapore-based cross-border payments firm Tazapay for $400 million in an all-stock transaction. Under the terms of the agreement, Circle will pay in Class A common stock, with the final consideration subject to adjustments for Tazapay's outstanding , transaction expenses, and cash position at closing. The transaction requires approval from the Monetary Authority of Singapore and is expected to close in 2027. Tazapay processes more than $25 billion in annualized payment volume and maintains payout rails across more than 100 markets, with already accounting for roughly 60% of its transaction volume. The gives Circle direct ownership of regulated last-mile banking infrastructure, bypassing the need to build local payment connections country by country. The deal marks Circle's largest acquisition since its purchase of exchange Poloniex in 2018.
Tazapay Annualized Payment Volume ($B)
Annualized payment volume doubled to 25 billion dollars.
Ledger CTO Issues Warning on AI Bug Hunter Vulnerability Disclosures
Compressing the window between code exploit discovery and hardware patch deployment forces wallet makers to absorb higher capital reserves against prospective user losses.
has erased the traditional advantage that security defenders held over attackers in the industry, according to Ledger Chief Technology Officer Charles Guillemet. In a public post, Guillemet warned that automated vulnerability discovery and phishing generation tools allow malicious actors to exploit code flaws faster than manufacturers can patch them. He criticized researchers who publish unpatched vulnerabilities for social media traction, describing the practice as attention farming with ordinary users bearing the risk. Ledger and fellow hardware wallet maker Trezor proposed a standard ninety-day disclosure window, giving vendors time to ship fixes before researchers publish technical details in full. The warnings arrive as hardware wallet security faces scrutiny following Coldcard thefts exceeding one hundred million dollars and customer data breaches at Trezor.
Tying token supply destruction to partisan election outcomes and targeted airdrops to a rival coin's bagholders turns memecoins into explicit, financialized political campaign instruments.
coindesk.com reports that Hunter Biden is launching a memecoin called LAPTOP on Base on Sept. 9. The token features a total supply of 1 billion, with founders holding a 30% allocation that remains locked for six months and vests over two years. Another 20% of the supply is designated for airdrops to wallets that lost money on the TRUMP token, Biden's Substack subscribers, and a mailing list operated by video journalist Andrew Callaghan. A further 30% of the token supply is earmarked for burning if 30 specified political and market outcomes occur, such as a Democratic win in the 2028 election or LAPTOP surpassing TRUMP in . TRUMP previously reached a $15 billion market cap at its 2025 launch before dropping to $2, sitting at a $600 million at the time of writing.
US Sanctions Xinbi Scam Marketplace and Restrains Crypto Assets
Targeting vendor-level wallets and messaging channels shifts enforcement from regulated exchanges directly to the operational communications and capital rails sustaining illicit crypto marketplaces.
United States authorities restrained more than $52 million in linked to the Xinbi Guarantee scam marketplace and its vendor network. On Wednesday, the Department designated Xinbi as a significant transnational criminal organization, alongside Singapore-based SafeW Technology and Cambodia-based Anwen Technology. The platform processed more than $24 billion in crypto and fiat transactions since starting around 2022. The Justice Department seized two vendor wallets containing about $12 million and sought restraints on 47 additional wallets connected to money laundering. Law enforcement also obtained a court order to seize Telegram channels used by vendors to advertise scam infrastructure.
Block Applies for US National Trust Bank Charter to Expand Crypto Services
Securing a non-depository national trust charter allows Block to centralize its Bitcoin custody under federal fiduciary law without assuming the capital requirements of a traditional lending bank.
Block has applied to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency to establish a national trust bank called Builders Bank and Trust. The proposed institution would operate as an uninsured national trust bank providing custody and related fiduciary services for and , while avoiding taking or issuing loans. Jack Dorsey's company submitted the application after market close on Tuesday to secure federal preemption and bypass state-level regulatory patchwork as its digital operations scale. Lee Woolley, who currently serves as Block's digital asset strategy lead and previously led the Department Federal Credit Union, is slated to take over as president and CEO of the new bank. The OCC aims to process charter applications within 120 days, though the filing has not yet been posted for public comment.
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