Australia

An upcoming ‘scams code framework’ proposed by Australia’s Department of the Treasury considers applying sector-specific codes and standards to banking and cryptocurrency scams, among others.Adding to the efforts of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), a regulator wit ...

Welcome to Finance Redefined, your weekly dose of essential decentralized finance (DeFi) insights — a newsletter crafted to bring you the most significant developments from the past week.The attacker who stole $46 million from the KyberSwap protocol has used a complex strategy described by ...

Australia’s tax regulator has been unable to clarify confusing aspects of its new guidance that suggests capital gains tax (CGT) is payable on a slate of everyday decentralized finance transactions.The ATO failed to answer direct questions from Cointelegraph on whether staking Ether ...

The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) has issued guidance on capital gains tax (CGT) treatment of decentralized finance (DeFi) and wrapping crypto tokens for individuals, clarifying its intent to continue taxing Australians on capital gains when wrapping and unwrapping tokens.In May 2022, t ...

Australian authorities will oblige local companies to be fully transparent and report any ransomware cyberattacks on their businesses. The country’s economy lost $2.59 billion to cybercrimes in 2021. As reported by the Australian on Nov. 13, the national cybersecurity strategy, which ...

Australian crypto exchange CoinSpot has reportedly been hacked for $2.4 million in a “probable private key compromise” over at least one of its hot wallets.According to a Nov. 8 post to his Telegram channel, blockchain sleuth ZachXBT highlighted two transactions entering the alleged hacker ...

The Joint Chiefs of Global Tax Enforcement (J5), a global anti-tax fraud group, hosted investigators, cryptocurrency experts and data scientists in “The Cyber Challenge” event to track down individuals and organizations committing tax fraud.The J5 members comprise the criminal intelligence ...

The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) is open to the idea of using central bank-issued digital currency (CBDC) as the future of money where CBDC would represent a tokenized form of central bank reserves.Brad Jones, the assistant governor (Financial System) of RBA, in his speech titled “A Tok ...

Australian crypto exchanges have praised plans from the Australian Treasury to regulate cryptocurrency exchanges under pre-existing financial services licensing measures.In an Oct. 16 consultation paper, the Treasury outlined a new suite of proposed regulations, that suggested regulating c ...

The Australian federal government may soon require cryptocurrency exchanges to hold a financial services license issued by the local financial regulator, the Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC). In the newly-unveiled “Regulating digital asset platforms” consultation ...

Australian fintech firm Block Earner is charging ahead with plans to launch a crypto-backed loans product, despite staring down an upcoming court date with the financial regulator for allegedly offering financial products without a license. The new crypto loan product allows Australia ...

Australian investors will be left exposed to unregulated markets and investments will be driven away from the country if the Digital Assets (Market Regulation) Bill is rejected by parliament, the bill's author Senator Andrew Bragg has warned.On Sept. 4, the Senate Committee on Economics Le ...

Australian crypto exchange Swyftx is launching a new “Earn and Learn” crypto education platform, aimed at rewarding its users for completing courses covering an array of crypto scams. The new educational platform will launch on Sept. 6 and comes amid heightened attention over crypto-r ...

Australia’s Senate Committee on Economics Legislation has finally provided feedback to the cryptocurrency bill introduced by senator Andrew Bragg.The committee on Sept. 4 reported on the draft bill referred to as “The Digital Assets (Market Regulation) Bill 2023,” asking the bill authors t ...

Binance Australia General Manager Ben Rose says he’s “really confident” that Australian regulators will eventually make the right choices when it comes to laws that govern digital assets in the country. “There are lots of very smart people in the government wor ...

Cryptocurrency exchanges in Australia have been increasingly communicating with their users as part of preventative measures for scams. According to local crypto firms, such communication is the key to preventing scams as it is able to “break trust” between victims and scammers.Executives ...

There are hopes that the United States could see a new crypto resurgence after several rulings this year have seen court judges “rein in the SEC,” according to a digital asset lawyer from K&L Gates.On Aug. 31, Jeremy McLaughlin, a partner at the global law firm, noted that multiple U.S ...

Discussions around ways to shorten local settlement cycles within the next five years have got most securities firms eyeing local central bank digital currencies (CBDCs). CitiBank’s latest edition of the Securities Services Evolution whitepaper highlighted India’s recent move to T+1 settlements, ...

Australia’s central bank has completed its pilot of a central bank digital currency exploring use cases for a potential digital dollar, finding it useful in four main areas, including enabling complex payments and asset tokenization. The Reserve Bank of Australia and the Digital Finance Coope ...

Australia’s financial regulator has sued eToro over its contract for difference (CFD) product, alleging the trading platform used insufficient screening tests when offering the leveraged derivative contracts to retail investors.The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (A ...

Australia’s Bendigo Bank has become the fourth major bank in the country to announce blocks for “high-risk crypto payments,” citing the need to protect customers from investment scams.The bank said on July 31 it implemented new rules on instant payments to crypto exchanges which adds “some ...

An Australian court has reportedly ordered Meta Platforms, the owner of Facebook, to pay fines amounting to 20 million Australian dollars ($14 million) for collecting user data through a smartphone application, Onavo. According to a Reuters report, Australia’s Federal Court has ordere ...

The Australian financial services regulator has finally canceled the financial license of FTX Australia, the bankrupt crypto exchange’s local subsidiary. On July 19, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission announced the cancellation, which took effect July 14. FTX A ...

Australian-based crypto investment firm Monochrome Asset Management has updated its application to offer a spot Bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded fund (ETF) on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) through its partner Vasco Trustees.The ETF — Monochrome Bitcoin ETF (IBTC) will be able ...

On-chain derivatives are set to become the next big growth sector in the decentralized finance (DeFi) space, says Henrik Andersson, the chief investment officer of Australian crypto investment firm Apollo Crypto.In a wide-ranging interview with Cointelegraph, Andersson said he thinks the i ...

June was a tough month for Binance, as it faced stress tests worldwide after the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filed a lawsuit against the crypto exchange and its leadership.In a nutshell, over the past 30 days, the Belgian financial regulator ordered Binance to ce ...

Blockchain Australia’s new CEO, Simon Callaghan, is urging Australia’s banks, the government and the crypto industry to come together to combat rising cryptocurrency scams.Speaking on the final day of Australian Blockchain Week in Melbourne on June 30, Callaghan announced that ...

Central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) may not solve any problems faced today, but could be the answer to ones not even fathomed yet, says the executive spearheading Australia’s CBDC pilot. Dilip Rao, a former Ripple executive who’s now spearheading Australia’s CBDC rese ...

The Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) is unlikely to directly list a cryptocurrency on its exchange but could consider an “appropriately-backed” tokenized real-world asset such as gold.Speaking to Cointelegraph, Dan Chesterman, the ASX’s chief information officer and group executive of ...

Riot Platforms — one of the world’s largest Bitcoin (BTC) mining companies — has bought 33,280 “next-generation” Bitcoin miners for its Texas facility, costing $162.9 million.The rigs — which were sourced from mining manufacturer MicroBT — will boo ...

Australia’s cryptocurrency industry banking woes will likely continue, with the government and major banks signaling no intention to back down against scams that “touch” crypto.During a panel at the Australian Blockchain Week on June 26, Sophie Gilder, managing director o ...

In the middle of the night, Binance Australia’s team was suddenly told it would be “cut off” from Australia’s banking system. There was no prior warning, consultation or redress, the exchange’s regional manager Ben Rose has claimed.On May 18, Binance Australian announced its dollar service ...

The Australian Treasury’s token mapping of digital assets will adopt a “tech agnostic” and “principles-based” approach in order to define crypto assets, according to a Treasury official.Speaking to Cointelegraph on June 26 at the Australian Blockchain Week, Tr ...

A draft bill from the Australian government is warning tech and social media giants to remove misinformation from their platforms or be prepared to pay up big fines.The new draft bill would see the country's media regulator — the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) & ...

Blockchain Australia’s new CEO Simon Callaghan hopes the Federal Government will take its cues on crypto regulation from the United Kingdom, Hong Kong, and Singapore — and definitely not the United States.In his new position, Callaghan aims to steer crypto rule-making in the co ...

Digital Asset — the New York firm responsible for Australian Securities Exchange’s now-abandoned blockchain-based clearing system — has blamed the securities exchange for dropping its blockchain plans. Meanwhile, representatives of the ASX have clapped back in statements to Cointelegraph, ...

Despite seeing themselves as more “risk averse” than their older counterparts, nearly a third of all young Australian investors hold or have traded cryptocurrencies over the last year, a new study has found.In an Australian investor study from the Australian Securities Exchange ...

The Australian government needs to quicken its pace in developing crypto regulation or risk falling behind developing markets, according to the chair of a new crypto think tank.Loretta Joseph, chair of the Australian Digital Financial Standards Advisory Council (ADFSAC) — the newly l ...

Binance users in Australia now have a narrowed pool of options to purchase cryptocurrencies amid the ongoing global debanking of crypto businesses. Since 5:00 pm local time on June 1, fiat on-ramps and off-ramps by bank transfers have been halted in Australia. The suspension includes trading for ...

The neural network will approve credit lines And assess customer sentiment and more Payment giant American Express (Amex) plans to implement artificial intelligence for its operations. Neural networks will check transactions, approve credit limits, assess cust ...

This is the couple's second major purchase in the local real estate market Their combined property measures 5,663 square meters Mansion in Melbourne was also previously purchased by Kick founder Ed Craven The CEO of Curve Finance, Mikhail Yegorov, and ...

According to recent data from Coin ATM Radar, Australia has surpassed the Asian continent in terms of total crypto ATM installations, solidifying its position as the third largest ATM network globally. This achievement comes after Australia's active efforts to install new crypto ATMs since the be ...

According to the latest report by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), cryptocurrency scams in 2022 resulted in a loss of $148.3 million to Australian citizens. The regulator received 3,910 reports of cryptocurrency fraud over the past year, with an average loss of $37,900 p ...

Cryptocurrency fraudsters have resorted to using the identity of one of the wealthiest women in Australia, Gina Rinehart, who is the owner of Hancock Prospecting, to advertise their schemes. The scammers are claiming that Rinehart has invested in a particular cryptocurrency startup and that users ...

The OKX cryptocurrency exchange's management has revealed plans to establish a new office in Australia, citing the country's strong potential for growth and development of the trading platform as a key factor. According to Haider Rafique, OKX's Chief Marketing Officer, Australia is poised for a n ...

Mastercard has unveiled a new partnership with Stables, an Australian stablecoin platform, that will enable users to pay directly with stablecoins through a new Mastercard. The card will be linked to the Stables wallet, which exclusively supports stablecoins, and can be used at any retail locatio ...

As per the latest reports from Reuters, numerous Australians who invested their pension savings in cryptocurrency have faced huge losses amounting to millions of dollars. The losses are attributed to the self-managed pension funds (SMSF) that are not regulated by Australian prudential regulators ...

International law enforcement agencies have conducted a joint operation in Serbia, Germany, Bulgaria, and Cyprus, resulting in the arrest of cryptocurrency scammers. The syndicate, which was run from Israel, had been targeting Australians who were lured into investing in fraudulent schemes promising ...