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- 10/7/24: Bye-Bye VAT Tax 👋💸📜
10/7/24: Bye-Bye VAT Tax 👋💸📜
Top News
UAE eliminates 5% value-added tax on crypto transactions
Coinbase to delist unauthorized stablecoins in the EU by December
Ethereum devs propose EIP-7781 to increase throughput by 50%

Specs’ Insights
1. UAE eliminates 5% value-added tax on crypto transactions
JUST IN:
UAE eliminates value added tax (VAT) on #Bitcoin transfers and conversions.
— Bitcoin Archive (@BTC_Archive)
12:11 PM • Oct 6, 2024
⌐◪-◪ → Bye-bye crypto taxes. The UAE just gave virtual assets an exception from the country’s value-added tax (VAT). Better yet, the rule change applies retroactively all the way back to transactions in 2018.
For those who don’t know, VAT is a consumption tax levied on the value added at each stage of product production. It’s similar to sales tax but paid by various parties, not 100% by the consumer.
Some say this isn’t actually a big deal as VAT was only 5%, and the UAE already has zero capital gains for crypto, but I disagree.
Ideologically, this underscores a significant shift from thinking of crypto as an investment/asset to thinking of it as a currency, like fiat.
That, and 5% is significant in the context of all your cryptocurrency transactions today, let alone the growing number of transactions as DeFi displaces TradFi.
I wonder what countries will follow suit. Let me know in Specs.Chat!
.@coinbase plans to delist unauthorized stablecoins in the European Union by December. @camomileshumba reports
— CoinDesk (@CoinDesk)
2:32 PM • Oct 4, 2024
⌐◪-◪ → Stablecoin purge incoming. Coinbase just announced it will delist non-compliant stablecoins in the EU by December as the EU prepares to fully enforce its new MiCA (Markets in Crypto-Assets) regulations.
Coinbase plans to provide more details next month on its approach, and will also provide easy ways for users to swap non-compliant stablecoins for MiCA-compliant stablecoins — like USDC.
Speaking of which, given Coinbase’s relationship with Circle (a minority ownership stake), it does feel like they’re pumping their bags, but at the same time — they’re playing by the MiCA rules, and Circle’s USDC (by design) fits the mold.
While USDC is safe, its biggest competitor, USDT, is not. Given Coinbase’s dominance and influence, a move like this could help USDC start to close the gap on the stablecoin leaderboard and give USDT a real run for its money.
As of today, USDT’s market cap is $119.6B, a strong 3.37x larger than USDC’s $35.5B market cap. Remind me to check in on this in a year.
3. Ethereum devs propose EIP-7781 to increase throughput by 50%
🤖 New EIP: 7781
By:
- Ben Adams🔗
EIP-7781 proposes reducing Ethereum's slot time from 12 seconds to 9 seconds to increase transaction throughput by approximately 33%. This change aims to distribute bandwidth usage over time, lowering peak bandwidth… x.com/i/web/status/1…
— ethresearchbot (@ethresearchbot)
2:52 AM • Oct 5, 2024
⌐◪-◪ → Make Ethereum great again! Ben Adams just proposed EIP-7781, which would reduce slot times to lower latency for base rollups and boost overall transaction throughput by an estimated 33%.
The effective changes, as nicely outlined by BREAD, are:
Decrease block times from 12 → 8 sec
Increase blob limit per block from 6 → 9
Increase gas limit from 30M → 45M
Reduce confirmation times by 33%
If approved, this would be a huge performance increase to Ethereum’s layer 1 network and could generate some much-needed optimism amid growing Ethereum FUD.
With changes like this on the horizon, Wall Street products like Bitwise’s upcoming Bitcoin + Ethereum ETF, and Ethereum’s relatively poor performance vs. Bitcoin this year — it’s starting to feel like a good time to buy ETH. Not financial advice.
What do you think of ETH vs. BTC right now? Let me know in Specs.Chat!

Everything Else
⛓️ Crypto & DeFi
Memecoin creator who lit himself on fire quits DARE project
Bitcoin whales transfer $3.6M of Bitcoin mined in 2009
EigenLayer investigates suspicious wallet that sold $5.5M locked EIGEN
Polymarket sees 42% more traders in September than August, new high
Kalshi’s regulated election markets go live, tiny compared to Polymarket
Solana sees over $100M bridged from other chains last week
Vitalik Buterin sells 10B Moo Deng, then donates 260 ETH to charity
🏦 Wallstreet & VC
IcomTech founder, a mining and trading firm, sentenced to 10 years for Ponzi
Sol Strategies holding company likely to reinvest FTX windfall into Solana
Coinbase analyst says crypto market stable after volatile start to October
🏛️ Legal & Regulatory
Trump’s lead on Polymarket grows to 3% as registration deadlines loom
Mark Cuban tells Harris team FTX could have been avoided
US to seize $2.7M from Lazarus hacks traced through Tornado Cash
Coinbase seeks early appeal in case against SEC amid Ripple ruling
Binance playing offense with crypto crime, says head of Financial Investigations
🌎 Rest Of The World
Russia “Evil Corp” sanctioned by the US, UK, and Australia
Metaplanet buys another $6.7M BTC, brings total holdings over $40M
Arbitrum Foundation to double down on Asia with Road to Devcon campaign
🖼️ NFTs & Metaverse
Anduro unveils tokenization platform, starts with rare whiskey
Lens Sassaman memecoins appear as people guess HBO’s Satoshi
Ubisoft and Magic Eden release Captain Laserhawk anime NFT collection
FWOG becomes the largest memecoin launched on PumpFun
Ordinals up across the board, with BTC wizards leading the charge
NFTs surge, with Project Aeon up 3.5x in 1 week
