Not long ago, FTX was one of the world’s largest trading platforms for cryptocurrencies. Founded in 2019, the Bahamas-based crypto exchange had a meteoric rise to prominence, and was valued at more than US$30 billion earlier this year. All that has changed in the past two weeks. First, concerns emerged about links between FTX and… Read more »
The Australian arms of crumbling cryptocurrency empire FTX have been placed in voluntary administration. Scott Langdon, John Mouawad and Rahul Goyal of KordaMentha Restructuring took over as administrators of the Sydney-based cryptocurrency businesses FTX Australia Pty Ltd and subsidiary FTX Express Pty Ltd on Friday following a board meeting earlier today that decided to place… Read more »
Corporate regulator the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) has sin-binned Sydney firm Holon Global Investments from offering three of its cryptocurrency funds to retail investors for three weeks due to concerns that they’re not suitable for the retail market, with the product disclosure statements pointing out that the funds could end up worthless. The… Read more »
The architect of Australia’s first response to regulating digital assets in Australia has lost patience with the new government, issuing his own draft legislation in a bid to push Labor to act on the issue. Liberal senator Andrew Bragg coauthored a landmark Senate Select Committee report into digital asset regulation last year, investigating issues such… Read more »
A year ago, El Salvador became the first country to make Bitcoin legal tender – alongside the US dollar, which the Central American country adopted in 2001 to replace its own currency, the colón. President Nayib Bukele, a cryptocurrency enthusiast, promoted the initiative as one that would deliver multiple economic benefits. Making Bitcoin legal tender,… Read more »
Amid the continuous noise about cryptocurrencies, it’s often hard to pick out what really matters. However this month, if all goes to plan, the energy-hungry digital sector will undergo its biggest shake-up in years. Ethereum, the world’s second largest cryptocurrency, is tomorrow expected to start a technology changeover which, once complete, should cause its carbon… Read more »
Major cryptocurrency trading platform Crypto.com accidentally sent a woman $10.5 million instead of the $100 refund she requested – and didn’t notice until seven months later. Now the platform is trying to recover its money, $1.35 million of which the woman, Thevamanogari Manivel, used to buy her sister a home in the Melbourne suburb of Craigieburn. The… Read more »
The Albanese government is looking to map out Australia’s cryptocurrency landscape, taking a slower approach to digital asset regulation and reform than the former Morrison government. In a joint announcement on Monday by federal treasurer Jim Chalmers, Assistant Treasurer Stephen Jones and competition, charities and treasury assistant minister Dr Andrew Leigh, they said “the first step… Read more »
In what promises to be the hottest currency issued by the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) since 1981’s Charles and Diana 50 cent wedding coins, the RBA will launch a pilot central bank digital currency (CBDC) as part of a research project to assess use cases and potential economic benefits. The RBA is collaborating with… Read more »
Telstra’s VC arm, Telstra Ventures, has taken a deep dive into web3 and blockchain world amid the crypto crash that’s wiped $1.3 trillion in value from investors, with the market down 60% since January, to see who’s survived and thrived. The 12-page report, titled Blockchain Open-Source Developers Signal Strength of Web3 Community, shows that web3-developer… Read more »
Cryptocurrencies account for less than 1% of the investment portfolio of high-net worth (HNW) people in Asia-Pacific, despite considerable holdings in alternative assets. New figures from data and analytics company GlobalData found that alt investments account for 12% of the average HNW APAC investor’s portfolio, but after interest in crypto peaked in 2020, they offloaded… Read more »
Finder conducts a quarterly survey of 53 crypto experts They predict bitcoin will end 2022 at US$25,473 10% say its time to sell out, 50% buy 70% think ‘winter’ will continue until at least 2023 Interest rates and the Terra collapse are to blame. Australian cryptocurrency experts have cut their predictions on the value of… Read more »
The dream that decentralised finance – or “DeFi” – can free the monetary system from the clutches of governments and banks has helped launch 20,000 cryptocurrencies. But with 2022 proving to be more of a crypto-nightmare – including for the vaunted “stablecoins” that held the most promise as rivals to central bank-issued currencies – questions… Read more »
Animoca Brands, the digital entertainment, cryptocurrency metaverse and blockchain company thrown off the ASX in 2020, has been fined $50,000 following legal action by corporate regulator ASIC after it failed to lodge annual and half-yearly financial reports between 2019 and 2021. The company failed to appear before the Downing Centre Court on June 21 and… Read more »
Melbourne family investment firm Victor Smorgon Group (VSG) has pioneered another digital transaction using the ANZ bank’s stablecoin, A$DC, this time buying carbon credits. VSG used A$DC to purchase the BCAU carbon tokens from Zerocap, an Australian crypto asset investment platform, via BetaCarbon, which tokenises Australian Carbon Credit Units (ACCUs) into digital tokens, with each representing… Read more »
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