Countdown to Ethereum merge begins; EU votes against Bitcoin ban, and more: All that's happening in crypto markets

Countdown to Ethereum merge begins as the Klin testnet goes live

Ethereum developer Tim Beiko on Monday announced on Twitter that the Kiln testnet has gone live and is ready to merge with the Beacon chain.

Kiln is expected to be the final public testnet before the Ethereum network switches from proof-of-work (PoW) to proof-of-stake (PoS). The Ethereum Foundation requested the network stakeholders to run tests using Kiln for better results. 

“We strongly recommend that developers run through a full testing and deployment cycle on Kiln and report any issues with tools or dependencies to those projects’ maintainers," the foundation said.

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Countdown to Ethereum merge begins as the final public testnet goes live

EU votes to create crypto regulatory framework MiCA

The European Union on Monday voted to create a regulatory framework for cryptocurrencies called the Market in Crypto Assets (MiCA).

Initially, MiCA had held a proposal that would ban cryptocurrencies based on proof-of-work blockchains consuming too much energy by EU standards.

Both Bitcoin and Ethereum are based on proof-of-work blockchains, and Bitcoin, in particular, is famous for its energy consumption. Bitcoin mining takes up more energy than the entire nation of The Netherlands.

However, the committee voting on MiCA drew the distinction between their financial framework and the energy needs that should be a larger conversation in the EU Parliament and voted to pass MiCA without the controversial proposal. For now, Bitcoin continues to be a part of European portfolios.

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Visa is hiring college students for its crypto programme

Financial giant Visa has posted jobs to hire college students to help build its crypto departments. Visa plans to train these students in-house and build a knowledge buffer within its company before the cryptocurrency world explodes into mainstream global financial infrastructure.

According to a hiring post, Visa’s Crypto Development Programme is an 18-month opportunity “designed to build a fully fluent cryptocurrency team now and for the future”.

Hires will experience three distinct business rotations — crypto product, crypto solutions, and digital partnerships — that will provide practical experience of different areas within the emerging cryptocurrency ecosystem at Visa.

Income tax department to issue 700 crypto-related notices

The IT department is investigating 700 high-value crypto transactions, and it has proposed to issue notices against the offending parties. These individuals could face a 30 percent tax, penalties, and interest deductions.

Officials said these cases were largely about individuals who either did not mention crypto in their income tax returns or who haven't filed returns at all.

Interestingly, besides high network individuals, non-resident Indians (NRIs), and startups, a few housewives and students are also included among the offending parties, the officials said.

The IT department told Economic Times that it is investigating if some investments were made in another person's name to evade tax.