Author: José Oramas

José is a journalist and translator with a keen interest in blockchain and cryptocurrencies.

Categories
Australia Crypto News Institutions

The Australian Tax Office May Put More Pressure on Aussies Investing in Cryptos

The Australian Tax Office (ATO) may put more pressure on Aussie crypto-traders and investors this year – as cryptocurrencies become more popular among the general Aussie population.

As recently reported by Yahoo Finance, the ATO could be targeting up to 1 million Australians who have invested in cryptocurrencies and have failed to report their profits in their tax returns.

The ATO to Collect Data From Exchanges

Likewise, the agency is collecting data directly from crypto-exchanges in Australia, and using an intelligent data-matching program they can detect which users are not paying their taxes.

The demand for crypto in Australia has increased so much that the ATO may focus more than ever on cryptocurrencies, especially as Bitcoin has skyrocketed in price this year and most people are in profits. The demand for cryptocurrencies even surpassed the popularity of precious metals in the country according to our sources.

Even Australians over 50 years old are using their SMSFs to invest in cryptocurrencies, and younger traders are HODLing cryptos in their portfolios – some with no plans to sell anytime soon.

“Crypto Money” Laundering Schemes

The ATO’s interests may also be sparked by so-called “money laundering schemes” in the country. An IRS – Internal Revenue Services Criminal Investigation Unit – agent was sent to Australia as a joined effort to tackle schemes related to cryptocurrencies.

Categories
Australia Bitcoin Crypto News

Australians Replacing Gold For Crypto While Interest in Crypto Debit Cards Spikes

Australian investors are now choosing cryptocurrencies instead of gold, according to a new survey. Likewise, Australia has positioned itself as the second country with the most interest in crypto debit cards, surpassing the U.S. and standing behind Nigeria,

According to The Motley Fool —who also invested $5M in Bitcoin despite calling it a “terrible investment”— from 2,000 investors surveyed, at least 12.6% of them are now holding cryptocurrencies in their portfolio, while 12.1% of them are still holding precious metals like gold.

Aussies are Natural Hodlers

According to the survey, at least 51% of the interviewed stated they do not plan to sell their assets anytime soon, and at least 23% of them plan to hold their funds and sell in at least three years at best.

It seems logical that Aussies wouldn’t want to sell anytime soon, as a massive wave of FOMO —fear of missing out— kicked in at the beginning of February, with Australians buying cryptocurrencies more than ever, and just before Elon Musk announced that Tesla was investing $1.5B in Bitcoin.

“Crypto Debit Card” Spikes in Australia

Moreover, according to a report from Crypto Parrot, Australia is the second country with the most interest in Crypto Debit Cards. The term “Crypto Debit Card” in Australia has a total score of 45 Popularity Points in Google.

The interest in cryptos has significantly increased since March 2020, when all markets around the world crashed, and more Aussie investors —and Australians in general— were moving toward digital assets like Bitcoin.

The demand for cryptocurrencies in Australia such, that over 5,000,000 Aussies will own cryptocurrencies this year, and over 45% of Aussies are investing in Bitcoin merely because of the price increased.

Categories
Australia Ethereum

Aussies Facing Extreme ETH Gas Fees as the Crypto-market Plunges

Transactions on the Ethereum network are reaching astronomical levels as the crypto market took a hard dip this Tuesday. The gas fees have become so high, that the average transaction can cost you nearly $50.

Ethereum has become the second most-used crypto and network preferred by Australians. But now it seems like Aussies will have to migrate to other networks —and the entire crypto community is now seeking alternatives, like BSC —Binance Smart Chain— as not everyone can afford those fees in every small/medium-size transaction they make.

If this seems high, DeFi users are complaining about the extreme gas fees taking place right now, where a single transaction could cost you even up to $14,000, and, not surprisingly, everyone is afraid of getting liquidated.

The crypto community is outraging this week not only because the crypto-market experienced a considerable dip —over 5-10% dip— but how high the gas fees are becoming.

In the DeFi space, over $100M in positions were liquidated, following Bitcoin’s -10% dip.

The Next Exodus

Now analysts and influencers are suggesting ETH 2.0 should come out “anytime soon” before the Ethereum ecosystem becomes unpractical. Lark Davis, a popular influencer from The Crypto Lark, stated that Ethereum could lose a great number of users if these gas fees issues are not solved anytime soon.

Some fees can reach price levels of $150 – $250 with medium-size transactions of $1000 – $2000. This is an outstanding increase considering three months ago, transactions only cost $5 – $7.

Categories
Cryptocurrencies Ripple

Ripple Has Turned the Tables Against the SEC: it Never Warned Exchanges About XRP’s status

The XRP community is crossing its fingers, as the pretrial conference started this morning against the Securities and Exchange Commission —SEC—.

Brad Garlinghouse and Chris Larsen are all set to defend their company. Both hired three lawyers who were exposing and defending today their evidence and arguments against the SEC.

Did the SEC warn Exchanges about XRP status?

As the pre-trial developed, Ripple’s lawyer, Matthew Solomon, highlighted how the SEC dismissed exchanges and other market actors about selling XRP as a security, instead of a cryptocurrency.

According to Solomon, since 2019 the SEC never stated that exchanges and brokerages could not sell XRP, and never declared the currency’s status —whether it was a security or an investment contract.

We’ve already taken some discovery on the Securities and Exchange Commission, which revealed that the Securities and Exchange Commission was having discussions with ultra-sophisticated market actors, including exchanges, and not, apparently, telling those actors that it believed XRP was security or an investment contract as late as 2019. And, again, as this case moves forward, these facts will come to light, and it will be clear that XRP cannot establish and will not establish that XRP is a security.    

Stated Solomon in the conference

Likewise, Jeremy Hogan laid down how Ripple can turn the tables against the SEC with these statements. The fundamental here is that the SEC never told exchanges and other platforms that XRP could not be sold — so the main question that the crypto-community is asking is: what is different from 2019 to 2020?

Just hours before the pre-trial, XRP surged over 5%, and keeping a steady price level between $0.52 and $0.58, after it suffered extreme swing prices yesterday.

Categories
Ripple

Ripple is Moving Its Offices To Wyoming Due to Friendlier Crypto-laws

It looks like Ripple is now officially a Wyomen-based company. According to Caitlin Long, CEO and Founder of Avanti Bank & Trust, Ripple decided to register its offices in Wyomen due to crypto-friendlier laws.

The move comes following discontent over U.S. crypto-regulations, expressed several times by Ripple’s executives Chris Larsen and Brad Garlinghouse.

Wyoming has become one of the most crypto-friendly states in The U.S., with the local government supporting crypto banking, being Kraken the first exchange to receive a special-purpose depository institution —SPDI— permission.

XRP Wipes out thousands of positions in a Few Minutes

Ripple’s XRP has experienced extreme volatility recently. Yesterday, XRP plunged over -12% in price, without no reason apparently, with a quick recovery over the $0.50 level, maintaining a steady price 24 hours later.

Several positions were liquidated in Binance after the unexpected drop. Something similar happened at the beginning of this month when supporters of XRP —together with Reddit subforums— tried to break resistance levels, but fell massively hours laters.

Despite recently changing its location, several users were displeased with the announcement, and some of them calling XRP a “shady company”

Although the company still appears as listed in San Francisco, Ripple has not made any comments about the topic.

Categories
Australia Bitcoin Cryptocurrencies

The Crypto Market has Surpassed Australia’s Total GPD, In Less Than 24 Hours

In less than 24 hours, the crypto-market has reached a total of $1.60 trillion, according to Coinmarketcap, even surpassing the total GPD —Gross Domestic Product— of two countries: Spain and Australia.

According to data from the World Bank —a financial institution that provides loans and bonds to governments— Australia’s current GPD is $1.48 trillion, while the Spanish GPD stands around $1.39.

No signs of Selling for the moment

Bitcoin’s price has been moving with speed since February 8, when Tesla announced investing $1.5B —almost AU$2B— in Bitcoin. Now the chart indicates a possible 46-48K price correction, before taking off or dropping below that level of support.

BTC/USD chart

Despite a possible price correction —or even a consolidation zone, BTC could reach higher levels of even $65K considering there still is a strong demand as the buying pressure still is strong between traders and investors.

BTC/USD investor’s sentiment

Higher price levels for Bitcoin are probable scenarios according to several top-investors and CEOs, including Antoni Scaramucci —SkyBridge founder, and analysts from JP Morgan.

The Securities and Exchange Commission —SEC— could soon allow a Bitcoin ETF, now that two major institutions: NYDIG —New York Digital Investment Group LLC—, and Morgan Stanley joined to file a petition in favor of a Bitcoin fund for their accredited investors, while Morgan Stanley will be NYDIG’s first authorized participant.

The move follows Australia and Canada’s recent plans for opening a Bitcoin ETF, with full permission and regulations.

Besides, Australia is also entering the crypto-market more than ever and even using Self-Managed Super Funds for buying Bitcoin despite the increase in price.

Categories
Crypto News TRON

TRON busted for Shilling Coin Through Celebrities

Looks like Justin Sun, CEO of Rainberry and founder of Crypto-platform TRON, has been caught shilling TRX again, now trying to get Marques Brownlee —a popular YouTuber and influencer— into promoting the cryptocurrency on Twitter.

In a recent upload, Marques Brownlee shared his thoughts about Dogecoin, but midway through the video, Brownlee revealed that TRON—or someone representing it— contacted him via email, asking to promote TRX via Twitter, without looking like a promoted tweet.

Funny enough, Marques was referring to these types of emails as “the opposite end of the Dogecoin strategy”. The Youtuber also referred to these strategists as “insincere” and “tryhard”.

The email specified he should not make it look like it is promoted —although, Harry.eth, from MyCrypto, published how you can easily contact celebrities like Lindsey Lohan or Ne-Yo on Cameo:

Sun Gets Caught Shilling —Again

A few days ago, Sun tried to promote TRX using celebrities after losing millions of dollars in the GameStop saga, a strange fight between Wall Street and Reddit. Sun was unconditionally supporting the people from r/WallstreeBets, later investing $10M —now worth less than $2M.

Sun tried to defend himself in a Twitter thread, stating that the TRON Foundation is not involved with such activities, but most users liked to differ.

Categories
Crypto News Ethereum

Ethereum’s Trading Volumes Reaches Over $75M as Institutional Demand Increases

The daily trading volume of Ethereum has reached over $75 million —almost doubling its previous amount, $40 million. The increase comes just a week after Ethereum Futures were launched on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange.

According to data from Glassnode, the open interest for Ethereum has increased at least $62 million as well. The institutional demand for Ethereum is also increasing, as corporations are exploring the world’s second-highest market cap crypto.

Likewise, the number of addresses in the Ethereum blockchain is more active than ever, with over 450K wallets with funds of almost $2,000 in ETH interacting with the network.

Source: Glassnode

ETH 2.0 Staking Rewards Are Here

The increase in activity and trading volume was also driven following Coinbase’s announcement, allowing users to earn rewards by staking ETH 2.0.

Accordingly, the waitlist is live now, and customers will earn at least 7.2 in yields, by simply holding ETH.

This month, Ethereum broke the 200 billion market cap —currently, 208,567,363,632— as it soared over 150% at the beginning of 2021. This reflects the number of whales moving millions of dollars in Ethereum and XRP, as Bitcoin reached $50,000.

Categories
Australia Bitcoin Institutions

Following Australia and Canada, the U.S. Could Soon Open a Bitcoin ETF

The New York Digital Investment Group —NYDIG— has filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission —SEC— for a Bitcoin ETF, with Morgan Stanley being the first authorized participant, and the NYDIG being the custodian of that crypto-fund.

Both companies are hoping the SEC will finally set the green light now that Bitcoin and crypto, inevitably, are taking institutions and the mainstream by storm.

The Long Road for Bitcoin into Institutions

From 2017 to 2019, Bitcoin has had a hard time entering into institutional systems in the U.S. —mainly, the petition for a Bitcoin Exchanged-traded fund has been rejected multiple times by the SEC.

But as more countries like Australia and Canada are moving forward with this new financial vehicle, the U.S. could finally consider allowing a Bitcoin fund, now that big players in the industry like Morgan Stanley, Tesla, Grayscale, and several more major corporations are jumping in on digital assets.

A few days ago, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission —ASIC— approved a Bitcoin ETF listing on the Australian Stock Exchange, but Canada went first, by approving the world’s first Bitcoin ETF.

Could Bitcoin Hit $100K by the end of 2021?

Most hodlers in the crypto-community are going all out in favor of $100K for Bitcoin, which could become the greatest milestone achieved by BTC since its creation.

The petition of NYDIG came shortly after Bitcoin made history yesterday, finally reaching $50,000, and slowing down to $47,000.

BTC/USD chart

It’s not about retail traders and deposited faith anymore. Major companies like Morgan Stanley and JP Morgan are exploring ways of adding Bitcoin into their sheets, now that the demand is growing stronger between accredited investors.

Categories
Australia Blockchain

Due to Lack of Education, 70% of Australian Businesses are Missing Out on Blockchain and Fintech Technology

Australia has been a crypto-friendly APAC country for several years, providing a solid ground for fintech companies and the issuance of digital assets.

But despite the record-number of DeFi and Fintech development of several companies in the last month, over 70% of Aussie businesses are missing out on fintech technology.

According to a report from accounting body CPA Australia and Airwallex —called “The Role of FinTech in Modernising Businesses” —only a third of businesses in the Asia-pacific area are willing to implement fintech and blockchain-related technologies.

Main Concerns for Aussies Businesses

Australia is currently a leading APAC country in fintech usage. Although, at least 70% of Aussie businesses are not willing to implement these technologies. One of the main concerns for Aussies was “cybersecurity reasons”.

Several respondents were not educated in these digital spaces, and, naturally, some of them have fear of data leaks, and security and trust concerns.

Although, Australia is a leading country when it comes to fintech and digital assets, around 40% of businesses are unaware of fintech technology.

Despite the several benefits —and challenges as well— that fintech and blockchain technology can bring to Australians, over 70% remain unsure about transitioning to these digital environments.

Educating Aussies in Digital Areas

Several Aussie businesses still struggle with high banking fees and the inability of establishing international bank accounts.

The main problem, accordingly, relies on the lack of education regarding blockchain and fintech-related areas in businesses and finance in general.

Australian businesses are falling behind their international counterparts when it comes to the uptake of fintech solutions. The current business environment amid the COVID-19 pandemic has made digital technologies more essential than ever before.

Stated Gavan Ord, Manager at CPA Australia, for Australian Fintech.

To address these issues, Airwallex and CPA Australia are aiming to educate Aussies so they can jump in on the set of benefits that blockchain and fintech technology can bring to their businesses. We have also seen recently TAFE Queensland list blockchain courses for Advanced Diplomas of Applied Blockchain.