Category: Australia

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Australia Bitcoin

Aussies Aiming at AU$ 100K for Bitcoin by the end of the Year

Data reveals that Australians are more bullish than ever when it comes to crypto, and many of them believe Bitcoins bull run has not reached its peak yet.

While historical data shows that March is usually a bearish month for Bitcoin – over 75% of Australians believe the market price for Bitcoin could reach levels over AU$ 60k in the next six months, and some even are targeting AU$100k by the end of the year.

The Australian crypto-exchange, Coinspot, recently published a poll where nearly 1,200 voted in about BTC’s status in the next 6 months. By now, over 78% believe the price will reach over AU$ 60k —while only 22% believe the price will drop.

Bitcoin Adoption Still Growing

Although many believe that the current status of this market will turn negative in March, institutions are still buying it in big quantities. In February alone almost $3 Billion has been invested into crypto. And the number of active Bitcoin addresses continues to grow consistently, as shown in the graph below.

Number of Active Bitcoin Addresses – source

Even so, some Australians believe Bitcoin could reach levels overs AU$ 100k at the end of 2021.

The bullish sentiment of Aussies remains strong —even some are rushing in by using SMSF to buy crypto. Depending on demographics, some Australians are buying crypto as a retirement investment, like Baby Boomers, while younger Aussies want to be part of the process out of FOMO, and make profits along the way.

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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.

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Australia Bitcoin Crypto News Independent Reserve

Independent Reserve Set To Sponsor Australian Bitcoin Core Developer

Quantum Computers Are Not a Threat To Bitcoin (Yet), Expert Explains

Australian cryptocurrency exchange Independent Reserve has collaborated with the operator of the United States’ BitMEX exchange, 100x Group, to sponsor a Bitcoin core maintainer in Australia named Michael Ford (known as @fanquake on Github).

This comes as part of the companies’ effort to support the development of the Bitcoin network. Per the announcement on Thursday, Michael will be sponsored by these two crypto companies for about one year.

Aussie Bitcoin Developer Gains Sponsors

Independent Reserve pledged to contribute AU$2,000 per month to the Australian developer, for a period of 12 months, while 100x Group will contribute a total of about AU$125,000 for the same period of months. The grant is provided without any condition, so Michael can be able to take on other projects of his choice. While commenting on the development, the CEO of Independent Reserve, Adrian Przelozny, commented:

“The confidence people have in Bitcoin is underpinned by its security and stability. The Bitcoin core developers play an integral role in safeguarding that stability. As an Aussie exchange, we’re excited to support a local developer.”

Why Sponsor Bitcoin Developers?

Sponsoring Bitcoin developers has been very fundamental to keeping the Bitcoin network running. Just like the anonymous creator of Bitcoin, Satoshis Nakamoto, the core developers are voluntarily working to update the Bitcoin software. They are the true believers of the network, and so, they really need sponsorship to keep the network running and up-to-date, since they work on a voluntary basis.

“100x Group is pleased to provide long-term financial support for open source developers like Michael, who build the infrastructure on which our business and many others depend,” the CEO of 100x Group, Alexander Höptner, commented.

This news also follows a story we covered on Tuesday, where Twitter’s Jack Dorsey also donated 1 Bitcoin to a non-profit organization to support the development of the Bitcoin network.

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.

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Australia Binance Crypto News

Binance Australia Tops BTC Market in Bitcoin and Ether 24-Hour Volume

Binance Australia Tops BTC Market in Bitcoin and Ether 24-Hour Volume

Binance Australia sees an increase in digital currency trading volume just as the rate of cryptocurrency awareness and adoption is rapidly growing in the country. On Wednesday, the CEO of the exchange, Jeff Yew, tweeted that Binance AU dominates other leading Australian exchanges in the 24 hours trading volume for Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH).

For some people, the development today might come as no surprise, as Binance Australia has been recording massive growth in new users lately.

Binance Records More Trading Volume for BTC and ETH

Yew tweeted the data from CryptoCompare, showing Binance Australia’s BTC/AUD 24 hours trading volume at AU$51.879 million. At the same time, BTC Market saw around AU$50.792 million, followed by Independent Reserve with AU$36.650 million. On the ETH/AUD market, Binance Australia also dominated the 24 hours volume with a total amount of AU$20.532 million. 

BTC Market recorded AU$15.124 million, while Independent Reserve had AU$12.868 million. 

The trading volume on Binance Australia is likely to rise continuously, given the adoption and number of users trading on the platform have been increasing massively, as confirmed by the CEO. Earlier this year, Crypto News Australia reported that the exchange witnessed a more than 400 percent increase in the number of SMSF and corporate users within the last quarter of 2020. 

During the rush in the crypto market in January 2021, Binance AU recorded as much as AU$130 million in 24hr volume across all the AUD pairs listed on its platform.

Crypto Adoption is Rising in Australia

It’s also worth noting that Binance is not the only exchange in Australia, seeing massive growth in its user base. In January also, the Swyftx exchange reported unprecedented growth in the number of users on its platform. The increasing user base of Aussie exchanges is indicative of the growing interest in cryptocurrencies amongst Australians.

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
Australia Crypto News Scams

Qoin Kicked Out Of Blockchain Australia as Alex Saunders Calls it a Big Scam

A recent Notice of Member Disciplinary Resolution from Blockchain Australia states that Qoin’s membership with them is now terminated.

NOTICE OF MEMBER DISCIPLINARY RESOLUTION 

For those that don’t know, Qoin is a cryptocurrency founded in the Gold Coast, Queensland which was targeting retail merchants across Australia – offering free Qoin to new members.

Is Qoin a Scam?

Alex Saunders of Nuggets News recently called Qoin “A massive scam” and urged people to “get their money out before it collapses”. Crypto News also had reports that some Qoin members were able to cash out and sell their Qoins for Aussie dollars. Others instead apparently hit error messages and were unable to cash out.

Interestingly, searching LinkedIn for Qoin members reveals titles such as “Qoin Agent”, “Qoin Accredited Agent”, “Qoin Ambassador” or “Qoin Master Agent”. This seems to suggest elements of multi-level marketing, where adoption could be driven by a tiered rewards system for front-line sales agents.

No Response

A few months ago, Crypto News reached out to founding members of Qoin and Bartercard, asking them to address concerns over the project. Disappointingly, no response has been received yet – neither via email, phone nor LinkedIn. An appropriate conclusion is left for the readers to draw.

Categories
Australia Binance Crypto News

Binance Enable Australians to Buy Polkadot, Cardano, and PancakeSwap with AUD

Binance Australia to List Polkadot, Cardano, and PancakeSwap

Amid the growing interest in digital currencies, Binance Australia, one of the largest Aussie cryptocurrency exchanges, has announced that it will list three more cryptocurrencies on its trading platform. The digital currencies mentioned in the tweet on Monday include Polkadot (DOT), Cardano (ADA), and PancakeSwap token (CAKE), which is based on the Binance Smart Chain.

Binance Australia could be listing these cryptocurrencies due to the increase in demand. Notably, these cryptos posted a moderate increase in the market value last week.

Buy Cardano on Binance Australia From Tuesday

Per the announcement on Twitter, the Polkadot, Cardano, and PancakeSwap cryptocurrency will be listed on the exchange on February 23. So, starting Tuesday at precisely 10:00 AM Sydney time, Australians on the platform will be able to buy and sell the cryptocurrencies right from the exchange using their AUD balance. 

Binance Australia allows Australian dollar deposits via PayID/OSKO today.

At the time of writing, the Polkadot crypto was traded at AU$44.65, while Cardano and PancakeSwap token traded at AU$$1.25 and AU$18.95, respectively, as per the Crypto News Australia coin price tracker. Concerning the BSC-based PancakeSwap token, it’s either Australians are so much interested in the cryptocurrency, or the Aussie exchanges are optimistic about it.

Swyftx Also Listed PancakeSwap

Binance Australia’s announcement for PancakeSwap comes about three days after Swyftx, another popular exchange in Australia, announced it was also listing CAKE on its platform. Swyftx listed the CAKE token alongside DODO, the native cryptocurrency of DODO decentralized exchange (DEX).

DODO is ranked among the 100th largest digital currencies. The DeFi token has a market capitalization of $531,954,155 from a circulating supply of 97,556,928 DODO. At press time, the cryptocurrency was trading at $5.61.

Categories
Australia Scams Sydney

Sydney Man Arrested For Laundering Cash Into Crypto

A man who – according to police sources – is the head of a profitable multi-million dollar crime syndicate focusing on money laundering has been arrested in Sydney’s inner west area.

His car allegedly contained $1 million in cash when he was stopped by police.

Under Supervision For Months

Police sources have stated they were on the man’s trail since October 2020.

The man arrested – a 30-year-old by the name of Yi Zhong – was stopped by police at around 5:30 AM on Monday and taken to Auburn police station.

The police reportedly found and seized 2 bags containing $1 million in cash – and then proceeded to search a home, presumably his, in Wentworth Point. Over a kilo of methylamphetamine, cocaine, a laptop, several hard drives, and USB sticks, as well as mobile phones, were seized to help in the investigation.

In a press statement, the police stated that they will be pressing charges against the man, accusing him of multiple crimes – chief among them being the direction of a criminal syndicate that laundered a total of $5,479,300 into bitcoin following his orders.

“Police will allege in court the man directed a criminal syndicate to launder money by converting cash into bitcoin on his behalf, totalling $5,479,300.”

In total, Mr. Zhong will be charged with 24 offences – out of which 19 are for “knowingly dealing with the proceeds of crime, knowingly directing activities of a criminal group and drug-related offences.” He is due to appear in court on the 19th of April and has already been denied bail.

Detective Superintendent Matt Craft stated that the gang seemed to have operated as money-launderers-for-hire – and that a series of consequent arrests are probably on the horizon.

Categories
Australia Crypto News

Australia’s Central Bank Sees no Strong Case for Issuing a Retail CBDC

Australia’s Central Bank Sees no Strong Case for Issuing a Retail CBDC

The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) is one of major central banks researching the concept of Central Bank-issued Digital Currency (CBDC).

In a meeting on Friday about the payment system in the country, the Payments System Board of the central bank admitted that they don’t see any strong case for issuing a retail CBDC in the country. They are mostly focused on researching the feasibility of launching a wholesale CBDC instead.

RBA is Sceptical About Retail CBDC

Retail central bank digital currencies are the ones launched for the general public, just like the Chinese long-planned digital yuan. On the other hand, a wholesale CBDC would be specifically designed “for the settlement of transactions in wholesale markets, such as purchases of financial assets or large-value payments.”.

Having discussed the ongoing CBDC development taking place internationally, the Board said there wasn’t any strong case for launching a retail CBDC. However, the bank will continue its collaborative effort with a number of external parties to research the possibility of a wholesale CBDC.

The Board is following this work closely but continues to be of the view that there is not a strong public policy case at present for issuance of a retail CBDC in Australia. The Bank is continuing its collaborative research project on a wholesale CBDC with a number of external parties, which is due to be completed in the coming months.

Reserve Bank of Australia [media release]

RBA Collaborated with Banks on CBDC

Back in November 2020, the central bank of Australia collaborated with some banks in the country, including the Commonwealth Bank, National Australia Bank, and blockchain company, ConsenSys Software. The consortium was driven by the objective of exploring the implications and potential benefits in issuing a wholesale CBDC on blockchain technology. At the time, the RBA planned to develop a proof-of-concept (POC) to pilot the CBDC via a tokenized form.