Breaking: South Korea’s Leading Web 3.0 Firm that Raised $200 Million Faces Tax Investigation

Hashed, South Korea’s leading venture capital firm with a focus on Web 3.0 projects has come under an investigation from the National Taxation Service (NTS), as per a report in Ajunews. The report noted that the investigation is an in-depth inspection rather than a regular query with the main focus on the background of the company.

The tax investigation for Hashed also comes after its recent $200 million Web 3.0 fundraise. Many believe the blockchain venture capital firm is being investigated for tax evasion. The NTS refused to offer any clarity behind the nature of the investigation, however, one of the officials said,

“We cannot confirm information related to tax investigations on individual companies.”“However, starting a special tax investigation on small businesses with small appearances is not infrequently related to slush fundraising or tax evasion by the company’s CEO,” 

Hashed is a first-generation virtual asset investment firm established in 2017 and became a leading VC firm in South Korea. However, the company has seen a gradual decline in revenue over the past three years, which is why many were surprised by the sudden investigation. Industry insiders also claimed that it’s quite unusual for NTS to conduct a special investigation on a small firm like Hashed.

South Korea Tightens Regulatory Stance on Crypto

South Korea is among the leading nations in terms of crypto regulation implementation. It was the first nation to impose a blanket ban on any form of ICOs, it was also among the first nations to implement new AMLD5 regulations for crypto firms. The country also became the first nation to impose a 20% tax on crypto gains outside the existing tax rules which recently got postponed by a year amid concerns raised by experts.

South Korean regulators are reportedly also looking to impose a tax on NFTs as they believe it cannot be regulated similar to crypto tax gains.