Cryptocurrency intelligence firm Glassnode has said it’s dropping crypto tax-related projects to focus on new solutions targeting institutional investors and decentralized finance (DeFi).
Glassnode, on Nov. 6, announced the sale of its crypto-focused tax platform known as Accointing to the European crypto compliance provider Blockpit. The firms declined to disclose the size of the deal to Cointelegraph, only revealing that the transaction was a “multimillion-dollar deal.”
“Glassnode will exit the crypto tax space with the sale of Accointing to Blockpit,” a spokesperson said, adding that the deal enables the firm to deepen its focus on delivering new Digital Asset Intelligence Solutions to its institutional clients.
“We have used the last months to reshape our infrastructure, enabling our move into DeFi data solutions and expansions into other digital asset ecosystem areas in the future,” Glassnode representative noted, adding:
“After having built the leading on-chain data platform for Bitcoin and Ethereum, we are currently expanding our product offering into DeFi. Our aim is to equip Institutions with DeFi data and tools that help them to trade in and navigate the DeFi space.”
The transaction came just a year after Glassnode acquired Accointing to introduce tax-reporting compliance tools into its platform in October 2022.
The acquisition of Accointing marks another foray by Blockpit into merging with competitors, as the platform previously merged with the German rival platform Cryptotax in 2020. With the latest acquisition, Blockpit reiterated its ambition and vision for a consolidated and unified crypto tax platform for Europe.
“Due to the very similar nature of the Blockpit and Accointing platform, the acquisition really is a perfect opportunity,” Blockpit co-founder and CEO Florian Wimmer told Cointelegraph.
Wimmer said that Accointing users could “easily migrate their profiles and data” to a new Blockpit account, which he promised would take just a few minutes. The account migration will allow Blockpit to focus all their joint resources on developing a unified platform, deliver more features and offer a better customer experience, the CEO said, adding:
“At the same time, Blockpit is doubling its revenue without increasing the cost — as we will shut down the Accointing infrastructure in the short term — massively increasing our cash flow.”
“Starting 2026, all crypto asset service providers, including custodians, exchanges, brokerages and others, will be forced to report user Know Your Customer data alongside transaction data to tax authorities,” Wimmer noted. According to the exec, the upcoming regulations will “massively increase the enforcement and prosecution of tax fraudsters.”
Formally adopted in October 2023, DAC8 aims to grant tax collectors the jurisdiction to monitor and evaluate every cryptocurrency transaction carried out by individuals or entities within any other member state of the EU.
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Safeguarding minister Jess Phillips has told Sky News that councils that believe they don’t have a problem with grooming gangs are “idiots” – as she denied Elon Musk influenced the decision to have a national inquiry on the subject.
The minister said: “I don’t follow Elon Musk’s advice on anything although maybe I too would like to go to Mars.
“Before anyone even knew Elon Musk’s name, I was working with the victims of these crimes.”
Mr Musk, then a close aide of US President Donald Trump, sparked a significant political row with his comments – with the Conservative Party and Reform UK calling for a new public inquiry into grooming gangs.
At the time, Ms Phillips denied a request for a public inquiry into child sexual exploitation in Oldham on the basis that it should be done at a local level.
But the government announced a national inquiry after Baroness Casey’s rapid audit on grooming gangs, which was published in June.
Asked if she thought there was, in the words of Baroness Casey, “over representation” among suspects of Asian and Pakistani men, Ms Phillips replied: “My own experience of working with many young girls in my area – yes there is a problem. There are different parts of the country where the problem will look different, organised crime has different flavours across the board.
“But I have to look at the evidence… and the government reacts to the evidence.”
Ms Phillips also said the home secretary has written to all police chiefs telling them that data collection on ethnicity “has to change”, to ensure that it is always recorded, promising “we will legislate to change the way this [collection] is done if necessary”.
Operation Beaconport has since been established, led by the National Crime Agency (NCA), and will be reviewing more than 1,200 closed cases of child sexual exploitation.
Ms Phillips revealed that at least “five, six” councils have asked to be a part of the national review – and denounced councils that believed they don’t have a problem with grooming gangs as “idiots”.
“I don’t want [the inquiry] just to go over places that have already had inquiries and find things the Casey had already identified,” she said.
She confirmed that a shortlist for a chair has been drawn up, and she expects the inquiry to be finished within three years.
Ms Phillips’s comments come after she announced £426,000 of funding to roll out artificial intelligence tools across all 43 police forces in England and Wales to speed up investigations into modern slavery, child sex abuse and county lines gangs.
Some 13 forces have access to the AI apps, which the Home Office says have saved more than £20m and 16,000 hours for investigators.
The apps can translate large amounts of text in foreign languages and analyse data to find relationships between suspects.