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PANews, December 17 — According to CoinDesk, Japanese political sources have indicated that the country's cryptocurrency tax reform—specifically the shift to a “separate self-assessment taxation” scheme—may not be officially implemented until January 2028. Previously, the market generally expected that, since the amendment to include cryptocurrency under the regulation of the Financial Instruments and Exchange Act is almost certain to pass in next year's parliament, the new tax regime could be introduced in 2027 alongside this law. However, according to political insiders, the actual process may be slower than anticipated. One source stated: “Currently, there is a lack of grounds to accelerate the (tax reform) process. The government is more focused on investor protection measures and needs to observe the situation after the implementation of the Financial Instruments and Exchange Act before launching the new tax system. Based on the normal process, it is expected to take effect from January 1, 2028.” Under Japan's current tax system, profits from cryptocurrency trading are classified as “miscellaneous income,” which must be combined with salary and other income for comprehensive taxation, with a maximum marginal tax rate of up to 55% (including local resident tax). The industry and investors have long called for the adoption of a separate self-assessment taxation system, similar to stock investment, with a unified tax rate of 20% for cryptocurrency, in order to reduce the tax burden and promote market development.

According to TechFlow, on December 17, Decrypt reported that two former Theta Labs executives, Jerry Kowal and Andrea Berry, filed a whistleblower lawsuit in California, accusing company CEO Mitch Liu and Theta Labs of fraud, token market manipulation, and retaliation against whistleblowing employees. The lawsuit alleges that Liu used Theta Labs as a personal trading tool, inflating the price of THETA tokens through misleading partnerships (including exaggerating ties with Google), undisclosed internal token sales, and NFT market manipulation. The plaintiffs described a long-term pattern of self-dealing, claiming that Liu carried out a "deliberate pump-and-dump scheme," harming the interests of investors and employees. As of press time, Liu and Theta Labs have not commented on the matter.