Category: Australia

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Australia Crypto Art Crypto News NFTs

Australia’s First NFT Gallery Opens on the Sunshine Coast

Australia’s first non-fungible token (NFT) gallery has opened at Baringa – a new suburb near Caloundra – on the Sunshine Coast, with the goal of making the Queensland holiday region a hub for digital artists and tech enthusiasts:

According to Kenny Lienhard, chief executive of the METACOLLECT Gallery, the global NFT community – now worth billions of dollars, although its total value has slipped amid the current bear market – is poised to extend across business, sport and the wider community once market conditions improve.

Ideal Timing for an NFT Gallery

“Crypto artists now have the ability to sell their art and make a living via a global platform on their own terms,” Lienhard says. And with Australia ranking second in the world in terms of interest in NFTs, the timing of project makes perfect sense.

“We’ve developed our own NFT marketplace and publication, both focused on undiscovered Web3 artists while also providing the opportunity for the general public to easily mint NFTs and broadcast them directly onto gallery frames,” Lienhard adds.

METACOLLECT was co-founded by Lienhard and Sean Ballent, who in 2018 also jointly launched Cryptowriter, a blockchain-agnostic, community-driven crypto publication. “We decided our publication needed a brand mascot and our first NFT product was born.”

METACOLLECT’s John Williamson, Kenny Lienhard (centre) and Jimmy McRae at the gallery.

Two sold-out NFT collections later, the pair also designed an NFT art brand that would become UNDRGRND, formulated to discover and support underappreciated NFT artists.

Artist Publication Morphs into Gallery, Token and Marketplace

The UNDRGRND publication was launched in November 2021 and the next logical step for Lienhard and Ballent was to deliver their $COLLECT token, NFT marketplace and Web3 IRL gallery, under the collective banner of METACOLLECT.

The gallery is open to the public every Saturday from 10am-4pm. The address is Unit 11/9-13 Matheson St, Baringa.

Hand in glove with the country’s inaugural NFT gallery, Australia’s first NFT-ticketed music festival, The Grass Is Greener, will also take place later this year in several east coast locations plus Canberra.

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Australia Banking Crypto News

Westpac Makes its Tentative First Steps Towards Crypto

After remaining silent on the topic for most of this year, major Australian bank Westpac has indicated its intent to enter the blockchain and crypto space.

This comes as it shared a job post this week advertising the need for a “principal architect” for digital assets and crypto. The successful candidate would aid Westpac in transforming emerging cryptocurrency and digital asset trends into opportunities for the bank and its customers.

Westpac’s Roadmap for Digital Assets

More specifically, the principal duty of the position will involve the development and maintenance of a strategic technology roadmap for digital assets. David Walker, chief technology officer at Westpac, has spoken regarding speculation about its future in crypto:

https://www.itnews.com.au/news/westpacs-new-cto-looks-beyond-mobile-banking-531811

We have been exploring blockchain technologies for some time, recognising the benefits it could have not only for customers, but for streamlining parts of the wider financial system as well … Ensuring the safety and security of our customers remains a critical consideration with the use of this technology.

David Walker, chief technology officer, Westpac

If Westpac continues down this path, it will fall into line with other ‘Big Four’ Aussie banks that have already started catering to crypto.

Other Aussie Banks Banking on Crypto

Australia’s most productive bank when it comes to delving into the crypto industry has so far been the Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA). However, CBA was forced to halt its crypto trading pilot in May amid market turmoil. Those who were trialling CBA’s upcoming in-app crypto trading facility were left with no word on when the app was likely to resume trading.

The goals of the Australia and New Zealand Banking Group (ANZ) are set to extend the usage of its cash-backed stablecoin, A$DC, over increased demand for access to it from its institutional customers. At the time (June 2022), ANZ was also looking to target additional use cases through a pilot program, thanks to aid from the federal government and regulators.

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Australia Crypto News Regulation

Australian Financial Planning Association Backs ‘Crypto Rule Book’

The Financial Planning Association of Australia (FPA) is showing its support for a “crypto rule book”, calling to regulate crypto assets via exchanges and arguing it would be far too difficult to regulate the underlying assets separately.

Regulate Exchanges, Not the Technology

Ben Marshan, the FPA’s head of policy, strategy and innovation, has said that “the regulation of a financial product or service should not depend on the technology which underlies the asset”, adding:

To this point, investment in crypto assets is as much in relation to the asset itself, such as an ether [ETH] coin or a non-fungible token [NFT], as a bet on the sustainability of the technology platform supporting the asset, for example, the Ethereum blockchain.

Ben Marshan, head of policy, strategy and innovation, FPA

Marshan’s opinion is that besides regulating exchanges, it would be nearly impossible to regulate assets given the way they are housed: “[The products are] so decentralised, they’re in all sorts of foreign jurisdictions.”

He noted further that the regulation of crypto should fall under the current financial services regime and not under a new separate legal framework. Focusing regulation on crypto service providers, such as exchanges, would remove a lot of “complexity” from the equation:

It makes it a lot easier because instead of having to work your way through thousands of pages of the Corporations Act, people can go to a specific section and it’s much more efficient.

Ben Marshan, head of policy, strategy and innovation, FPA

Marshan’s view is that if a rule book were adopted, it would allow financial planners to recommend crypto assets to their clients along with specific training in associated crypto strategies.

“At the moment, it’s effectively illegal because there’s no authorisation around crypto assets,” Marshan said, “and because of that financial planners can’t recommend them and can’t get professional indemnity insurance.”

Calls to Government for Clearer Regulation

While the FPA is pledging its support for a “crypto rule book” to be implemented, many have called on Australia’s new Labor government for clearer regulation when it comes to crypto. In 2021, Aussies lost a total of A$84 million in cryptocurrency scams, which many argue could have been avoided if the previous government had enacted clearer regulations regarding digital assets.

The new government is unlikely to change its stance, having recently confirmed that crypto is not a foreign currency and would remain subject to capital gains tax.

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Australia CBDCs Crypto News Cryptocurrency Law Regulation Stablecoins

Reserve Bank of Australia Chief: Private Stablecoins May Be Better Than CBDCs

In a recent panel discussion of the G20 finance officials meeting in Indonesia, Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) governor Philip Lowe signalled his support for privately issued stablecoins, subject to appropriate consumer protection guardrails.

Private Sector Better Suited to Issuing Digital Dollars?

Just weeks after Australian Treasurer Jim Chalmers said that crypto would remain excluded from foreign currency tax arrangements, RBA head Lowe has said that privately issued stablecoins may be better than central bank digital currencies (CBDCs), provided the relevant companies are suitably regulated.

Treasurer Jim Chalmers (left) and RBA governor Philip Lowe (centre) represent Australia at the the 2022 G20 finance officials meeting. Source: The West Australian

In a panel discussion that included the inherent risks of decentralised finance (DeFi) projects, talk shifted to CBDCs and their potential application in both a retail or wholesale context.

With the recent implosion of “stablecoin” UST and Luna, regulation has come into sharp focus, an issue that no doubt partially informed the RBA chief’s comments on privately issued stablecoins:

If these tokens are going to used widely by the community they are going to need to be backed by the state, or regulated just as we regulate bank deposits.

Philip Lowe, RBA governor

Lowe added: “I tend to think that the private solution is going to be better – if we can get the regulatory arrangements right – because the private sector is better than the central bank at innovating and designing features for these tokens”.

As crypto regulation is one of the newly elected federal government’s stated priorities, those who oppose retail CBDCs on the basis of financial surveillance and infringements on freedom will be pleased to hear that the RBA governor is seemingly more inclined towards a free-market solution. However, that in itself provides no guarantee, as Tether (USDT) and Circle (USDC) have both been accused of censorship in the past.

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Australia Crypto News Regulation Surveys

Australia 5th in Global Crypto Rankings: Report

Australia ranks fifth among the world’s top crypto-friendly economies, according to the latest quarterly global cryptocurrency rankings released by analytics firm Coincub.

Coincub awards points across nine overall categories: government, financial services, population, taxation, talent development and industry participation, trading, fraud and environmental potential. New sub-categories such as crypto education courses and initial coin offerings have been added to create a more comprehensive gauge.

Germany, US Top the Table, Followed by Switzerland and Singapore

Jointly topping the table are Germany and the US, whose dominance stems from both countries’ progressive regulatory environments and major bitcoin investments by mainstream institutions.

Allowing its savings industry to utilise crypto investments and maintaining a zero-tax policy on capital gains on BTC and ETH held for more than a year were key reasons for Germany’s ascent to the top of the rankings earlier this year.

The US moved up from third spot in Q1 to share the top rank with Germany in the wake of President Joe Biden’s March executive order on digital assets, which increased consumer protection and financial stability while also cracking down on illicit activity.

Switzerland came in third on Coincub’s global crypto rankings, largely due to the City of Lugarno recognising bitcoin as legal tender. More than 1000 blockchain and virtual asset service providers are based in Switzerland, and the country also ranks highly for its preponderance of Bitcoin nodes and ATMs.

In fourth place is Singapore, down from top spot at the end of 2021 because of recent regulatory tightening in the island republic.

Why Australia Made the Top Five

Australia’s proliferation of initial coin offerings, exchanges and transaction volumes, as well as several of its universities offering blockchain and crypto educational courses, helped see it into fifth place.

That position tallies with Australia’s status as the fourth-best market for crypto job opportunities, according to a May report. Australians also ranked eighth in the world for interest in NFTs, according to analysis published this month by online lender CashNetUSA.

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Australia Metaverse NFTs Sports

Australian Open NFT Project ‘AO Metaverse’ Wins Big in Global Advertising Awards

The Australian Open Metaverse, in partnership with Melbourne Web3 studio ‘Run it Wild’, has won the first Cannes Lions award for an NFT metaverse project in the entertainment category for sports, in this instance the annual Australian Open Grand Slam tennis tournament held in Melbourne in January.

The AO Metaverse project was also awarded a Bronze Lion for “most innovative use of tech and platforms in sports” for its AO Artball, a unique feature that utilised match data from the actual tournament.

How the AO Artball Worked

To create the AO Artball feature, the match court was split into 6,776 squares, each corresponding to a tennis ball NFT. These NFTs would change based on exactly where winning points were scored during the tournament.

Since crowd numbers were affected by Covid lockdowns and many fans were unable to attend in person, the joint creative team built a replica of the Melbourne Park tennis precinct in Decentraland, where people could watch matches and interact with each other in real time.

Fans attending matches in the metaverse had the chance to buy an AO Art Ball NFT linked to a specific spot on centre court that marked the winning shot of both the men’s and women’s championships, along with all other finals matches in the tournament. The project proved such a success that the value of a single championship NFT (the men’s, won by Rafael Nadal) soared 4000 percent.

Cannes Lions Advance Industry, Not Just Business

The Cannes Lions Awards, a global advertising benchmark, is one of the world’s most respected for creative excellence. Companies from over 90 countries enter more than 30,000 pieces and are judged by members of the international creative community. The sole purpose of the awards is to recognise the best work that pushes not just one business, but an entire industry forward.

Adam De Cata, CEO of NFT Tech and founder of Run It Wild, had this to say in response to the award shared with the AO Metaverse:

There’s something truly beautiful when creative, data and technology meet. Having the faith and support of the AO, it’s been a crazy ride pushing the limits of creative and technological possibilities, elevating those we work with.

Adam De Cata, CEO, NFT Tech / founder, Run it Wild

De Cata added: “Accepting this award in the same category as major brands like Adidas, Nike, and Samsung reinforces the power of Web3 and its possibilities.”

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Australia GMT Token Markets Solana

Adelaide-Based STEPN Announces $122 Million in Q2 Profits, Plans Buyback and Burn

On July 12, Adelaide-based move-to-earn platform STEPN announced a Q2 profit of US$122.5 million, which it says was generated through its platform fees.

In keeping with the economic plan outlined in the project’s whitepaper, STEPN plans to allocate 5 percent of this profit to its Q2 buyback-and-burn program. The Solana-based move-to-earn leader also revealed that a portion of the profit would be spent addressing security and cheating issues that have plagued the platform recently.

Details of Token Burn

According to STEPN, its buyback-and-burn program is designed to ensure its users are “best supported”. Generally, token burning is seen as a way to increase the scarcity of a token and therefore increase its price – STEPN uses this mechanism to increase its token’s value over time and make its platform more attractive to users. 

Based on the 5 percent figure cited in the announcement, the Q2 buyback-and-burn program should see just over US$6 million worth of tokens burnt. STEPN explained that the program may “take a few weeks to complete in order to avoid causing sudden price volatility”.

Security, Integrity Top Spending Priorities

After a string of DDoS attacks targeting the platform in the first half of 2022, the STEPN team says it has decided to spend more resources increasing server capacity and enhancing the security of the platform.

We are committed to delivering the best possible service to our users and have been working to amplify the platform’s security and server capacity to prevent future DDoS attacks. With the profits realised during Q2, we will be able to double down in our commitment to this and devote more resources to our efforts.

STEPN team

While the platform has always had an anti-cheat system, the team said part of the Q2 profit would be used to enhance this system:

We have heavily invested in this mechanism since day one and we will continue to do so [to] ensure the fairness of the STEPN game landscape. We are set to improve upon our AI’s ability to detect anomalies, prevent accounts from using bots for mining, accounts faking movement to gain additional rewards, and more.

STEPN team

Other areas of the business that will receive spending boosts heading into Q3 include team expansion, partnerships, and marketing.

STEPN Leads Emerging Move-To-Earn Sector

STEPN is one of the leaders in the emerging sector of move-to-earn platform: crypto-based apps that allow users to earn rewards by exercising. The platform has seen significant growth since launching in December 2021. By April of 2022, STEPN had soared in value 217x. 

Like most crypto projects, though, it has recently seen its value drop dramatically, partly due to factors affecting the whole market and partly due to a spate of DDoS attacks and cheating scandals that have rocked confidence in the project.

Currently, STEPN’s governance token GMT is changing hands at US$0.85, down around 78 percent from its all-time high of US$3.83, which it hit in April.

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Australia Crypto News Cryptocurrencies Payments

Australia Ranks Last Out of 20 Countries in Digital Currency Ownership: UN Report

New data from the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) shows that only 3.4 percent of Australians own crypto, placing the country last in a list of 20.

While Ukraine (12.7 percent), Russia (11.9%), Venezuela (10.3) and Singapore (9.4) topped the list, the most surprising result was that Kenya (8.5) was the highest-ranking African country, edging out South Africa (7.1) and Nigeria (6.3):

The result for Nigeria is also significant in that out of a population of 211 million, just over 13 million were owners of digital currencies in 2021.

Crypto Awareness Still Low in Australia

By comparison, a recent study conducted by research firm Roy Morgan found that over a million Australians owned some form of crypto, out of a total population of almost 26 million. Another survey published in December last year found that only one in 10 Australians even knew what a cryptocurrency was.

UNCTAD acknowledged in its findings that cryptocurrencies have grown in popularity in some Third World countries because they are “an attractive channel through which to send remittances”.

UNCTAD also found that middle-income individuals from hyperinflation-hit developing countries either own or hold cryptocurrencies because they are seen “as a way to protect household savings”.

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Australia NFTs

Australia’s First NFT-Ticketed Music Festival Launches For ‘The Grass Is Greener’ 2022

An annual all-ages music, food and art festival kicking off again later this year in an expanded format will be the first major Australian event to integrate NFTs into its ticketing via a limited-edition 1,111 NFT collection:

Dates Added for Canberra and Geelong

The Grass Is Greener 2022 travelling festival starts its 2022 season on the Gold Coast on October 22, followed by its first-ever show in Canberra on October 23. The festival, inaugurated in 2016, will also take place in Cairns, far north Queensland, on October 29 and then conclude in Geelong, Victoria, on October 30.

Grass Is Greener NFTs will grant owners access to the event itself and its unique on-site experiences, including Lifetime Ticket NFTs, Backstage Pass NFTs and “much more”. Organisers also tout multiple themed stages and an upgraded VIP experience.

Grass is Greener NFT Collection. Source: Grass is Greener via Twitter

Where to Sign Up

Artists already announced for the 2022 travelling festival include Ty Dolla $ign, VNSSA, Pnau, Sticky Fingers, Onefour, Maya Jane Coles and Boo Seeka. For the complete lineup appearing at each event, visit The Grass is Greener’s official website.

The NFT mint is scheduled for 08h00 (AEST) on July 12, 2022, and those interested in participating are encouraged to joined the event’s Discord group.

Sticky Fingers are on the bill for The Grass Is Greener 2022. Source: abc.net.au

In Other NFT Music News

The Grass Is Greener festival’s NFT ticketing innovation is arguably the biggest news on the music-related NFT front since blockchain-based platform Opulous announced its world-first music copyright-backed NFTs in January this year, allowing fans to bankroll their favourite artists by harnessing the power of DeFi.

And for those fans who’d rather experience music events in the metaverse, a month earlier Animal Concerts launched a virtual touring company to host “live” music events via Web3. Through this project, artists will be able to earn up to 50 percent of their revenues from both virtual ticket and NFT sales.

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Australia Axie Infinity Crypto News NFTs Surveys

Australia Ranks 8th in ‘Most Interested in NFTs’, Report

Whether they love ’em or hate ’em, it’s clear Australians are highly curious about non-fungible tokens after ranking eighth globally for NFT interest according to an analysis conducted by online lender CashNetUSA.

Based on Google search volume and Twitter sentiment collected in March 2022, the analysis identified that Singaporeans were most likely to search for information about NFTs. The US, Canada, Hong Kong, Australia and New Zealand also made the top 10 on monthly search volume figures:

Top 10 countries by interest in NFTs. Source: CashNetUSA

A similar exploration of NFT search queries in 50 countries by the NFT Club website in May placed Australia second in terms of interest in NFTs, with Taiwan taking out the top spot.

Australians Positive Towards NFTs, Favouring Axie Infinity

In terms of positive and negative sentiment towards NFTs, CashNetUSA found Eastern European countries were the most passionate on both counts. People in Montenegro were most likely to post pro-NFT tweets, while Twitter users in Poland were most likely to be anti-NFTs. 

A higher number of Australians expressed positive views of NFTs, according to the analysis: for every 1,000 tweets, 539 were found to show “love” for NFTs compared to just 79 expressing “hate”.

Among Australian NFT enthusiasts, the most popular NFT collectible community is Axie Infinity. The Vietnam-origin gaming platform dominates globally when it comes to most-Googled collectibles, ranking first in 112 countries. Decentraland, Sorare, and Bored Ape Yacht Club also featured on the list of popular NFT communities. 

Of course, Australian investors are more likely to feel the love for NFTs when they make gains, like the Aussie owner of a Bored Ape who was being offered up to US$5 million for the NFT he purchased for just US$300.