Argentinian Authorities Introduce Bill to Drop Crypto Tax Opportunities

Hi NoRamp Community,

Daily News:

1) Argentinian Authorities Introduce Bill to Drop Crypto Tax Opportunities

2) Animoca Brands and Layer-2 LightLink Team Up

3) Portal Raises $34M For Atomic Swaps

4) Fintech Ramp Acquires Another AI-powered Startup 

5) YouLend Secures £4bn Private Securitisation Deal With JP Morgan

Argentina Introduces Bill to Drop Crypto Tax Opportunities:

• Argentina's government has introduced a bill, "Law of Bases and Starting Points for the Freedom of Argentines," aiming to reform personal taxes, education, and justice administration, but excluding cryptocurrencies and other assets from tax benefits for undeclared assets.

• Previously, Argentine citizens could declare ownership of undeclared assets, including cryptocurrencies, without paying taxes on the first $100,000 and only 15% tax on the remainder. The new bill removes this provision, requiring full tax payments for declaring previously undeclared digital assets.

• The bill reflects Argentina's mixed stance on cryptocurrencies: while the tax window for crypto was removed due to lack of political support, the government has expressed support for the crypto sector in other areas. Argentina's tax office recognizes cryptocurrencies as an asset class, with varying taxes based on the asset's use and location.

Animoca Brands and Layer-2 LightLink Team Up:

• Animoca Brands, a crypto game publisher and metaverse investor, has partnered with Ethereum scaling protocol LightLink to integrate gasless transactions into its games.

• LightLink, a layer-2 network, enables decentralized applications to offer instant transactions without gas fees. Animoca will implement LightLink's technology into select games and advise on tokenomics and marketing.

• LightLink's co-founder and CEO Roy Hui sees this partnership as key to making blockchain accessible and user-friendly globally. Animoca co-founder Yat Siu views it as a step toward a frictionless Web3 world. LightLink is already used by over 25 companies, including blockchain games Grapes and The Red Village. The collaboration aims to enhance interconnectivity in blockchain applications and boost mainstream adoption. Animoca publishes games like The Sandbox and invests in crypto startups like OpenSea and Dapper Labs.

Portal Raises $34M For Atomic Swaps:

• Portal, a Bitcoin-focused DeFi project, announced a $34 million seed funding round, following a previous $8.5 million raise in September 2021. This is the second-largest Web3 space funding in 2024, totaling $42.5 million for Portal.

• The funding focuses on Portal's development of a decentralized exchange (DEX) for atomic swaps, facilitating direct asset exchanges between blockchains without intermediaries. However, Portal's DEX is still in testnet after two years, causing frustration among community members and investors.

• Portal co-founder and CEO Chandra Duggirala acknowledged development delays but remains optimistic about launching the mainnet-ready platform by Q2. The project prioritizes atomic swaps for more secure, intermediary-free trading. Key investors include Coinbase Ventures, OKX Ventures, Gate.io, and Arrington Capital, who are supportive of Portal's long-term vision.

Fintech Ramp Acquires Another AI-Powered Startup:

• Ramp, a spend management startup, has acquired Venue, an AI-powered startup founded in 2022. Venue, which raised $1.2 million in funding, specializes in simplifying business processes for reviewing, approving, and managing vendor costs. Ramp acquired Venue last August but announced it recently, appointing Venue founder TK Kong as Ramp's head of procurement.

• The acquisition aligns with Ramp's expansion into the procurement space, aiming to automate and implement AI in back-end business processes like procurement. Ramp's CEO Eric Glyman emphasizes the goal of transforming clunky processes into efficient, organized ones, positioning Ramp as a one-stop-shop for financial operations.

• Ramp, which oversees over $10 billion in accounts payable spend yearly, has been active in acquisitions. It previously acquired Buyer, a negotiation-as-a-service platform, and Cohere.io, an AI-powered customer support tool. Ramp's latest funding round in August 2022 raised $300 million, valuing the company at $5.8 billion.

YouLend Secures £4bn Private Securitisation Deal With JP Morgan:

• YouLend, a UK-based embedded financing platform, has finalized a private securitization deal with JP Morgan. This agreement will provide an additional £4 billion in revenue-based financing to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

• The financing will be accessible to SMEs through partnered e-commerce sites, tech companies, and payment service providers, including Amazon, Dojo, and eBay. YouLend's AI-driven decision-making model is designed to enhance financial inclusion by accurately assessing a business's health, thereby facilitating financing opportunities for underserved SMEs.

• The deal is expected to lower YouLend's cost of capital, enabling it to offer competitive rates to its global partners and their merchants. JP Morgan is the senior lender in the transaction, with Castlelake providing subordinate debt. Since its inception in 2015, YouLend has provided funding in over 150,000 instances to SMEs across the UK, EU, and the US.

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