Rude wake-up call for crypto, Facebook’s public Wi-Fi flop

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Editor's note: Akanksha here. On Tuesday, the government in its finance bill proposed a 30% tax on gains from the sale or transfer of “virtual digital assets”.  The Indian crypto community’s reaction see-sawed from excitement to dread. At first, the introduction of a tax spurred many to think that crypto investments and trading had effectively been legalized, resulting in a massive spike in registrations on crypto exchanges on budget day. But once it dawned that this isn’t necessarily the case—the legality of cryptocurrencies as assets or stores of value will depend on a separate legislation—worries began to set in over the high tax rate.  An online petition, now signed by over 50,000 people, claims that the announced tax could have a “devastating impact not only on the Industry per se but the economy as a whole”. Exchanges and crypto publications too have joined in on the call for a slash.  A call for reducing the 30% tax rate is likely to fall on deaf ears. The only asset class that gets special treatment in India is listed stocks, given that the government …