Japan is preparing a sweeping overhaul of its cryptocurrency tax rules, shifting from one of the world’s harshest regimes to a more investor-friendly framework. Currently, crypto gains are taxed progressively at rates up to 55%, far higher than the flat 20% rate applied to equities. Under the new proposal, starting in fiscal year 2026, crypto trading profits would be taxed at a uniform 20% rate, aligning digital assets more closely with traditional investments like stocks.

The long-anticipated GOP crypto bill has run into political headwinds after Senator John Kennedy (R-La.) warned that lawmakers are “not ready” to move forward. The bill, designed to establish a regulatory framework for digital assets in the U.S., aimed to clarify oversight between the SEC and CFTC, while also providing guidelines around stablecoins and consumer protections.

The Polygon network successfully implemented a hard fork to resolve a critical software bug that caused several nodes to fall out of sync with the blockchain. This disruption briefly halted consensus and transaction validation, raising concerns about reliability on the popular Ethereum scaling solution.