Bitcoin surged to its all-time high on Monday, shaking off a more than two-year rut that put the future of the entire crypto ecosystem in question.
Bitcoin, the world’s first and by-far largest digital currency, was trading at $68,791, topping the previous record of $68,789 reached on November 10, 2021.
Over the past several months, bitcoin’s rally has been turbocharged by US regulators’ approval of exchange-traded funds pegged to the digital asset, which created an on-ramp for more traditional investors to incorporate bitcoin into their portfolios.
That approval took years of lobbying by crypto firms, and was granted only grudgingly by the Securities and Exchange Commission after a court ruled the regulator’s reasons for rejecting bitcoin ETF applications were “arbitrary and capricious.”
The first 11 “spot” bitcoin ETFs — which track the real-time market price of the asset — launched in January.
After just a month, the ETFs had spurred more than $4.2 billion in net new flows, according to Bloomberg.
ETFs are investment tools that track a basket of assets but trade like a stock. Part of the appeal of a bitcoin ETF is that investors can get exposure to bitcoin through their usual brokerage firm, rather than having to set up a digital wallet through a cryptocurrency exchange.
Bitcoin is a bellwether for the broader $2 trillion crypto industry, whose reputation has been pummeled by a series of negative headline-making events: high-profile bankruptcies of exchanges and lenders, volatile price swings and the prosecution of Sam Bankman-Fried, a onetime crypto celebrity who was convicted in November of stealing billions of dollars from customers on his FTX exchange, which collapsed in late 2022.
Bitcoin, which accounts for more than half of all cryptos in circulation, is up more than 200% over the past 12 months, according to CoinMarketCap.
The bitcoin rally has also been fueled by the crypto faithful, who are anticipating even more gains this spring following an event known as the “halving.” Roughly every four years, the number of bitcoin entering circulation gets cut in half — a built-in feature of the cryptocurrency, which is finite by design. As bitcoin approaches scarcity, the value is expected to rise.
To ease the compliance burden, several exemptions and relief measures have been introduced. On June 1, 2023, the UAE implemented the Corporate Tax law, significantly transforming the tax landscape for
The total ratio of taxes and social contributions to GDP in the European Union in 2023 was 40%, down from 40.7% in the previous year, according to the EU Statistical Office. In the euro area, this figure
Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA), the largest sovereign wealth fund in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), is setting up a $4-5 billion fund to invest in India through a tax-neutral finance hub in
In a significant move to enhance the Internal Revenue Service’s (IRS) capabilities, President Joe Biden has proposed a $12.3 billion budget for the IRS in fiscal year 2025. This funding level matches