One of the leading cryptocurrency exchanges in Australia, Swyftx, announced that it has listed the native cryptocurrency of Trust Wallet on its platform on Tuesday. Besides making the Trust Wallet Token or TWT available for the Australian users, the development, of course, extends the accessibility of the crypto, which is big news for TWT holders.
The development was disclosed early Tuesday by the cryptocurrency exchange via Twitter. Going forward, the users will be able to purchase and sell the cryptocurrency right from the exchange. However, it seems users can only trade the cryptocurrency with the fiat currency (the Australian dollar) as no crypto-to-crypto trading pair was mentioned for the Trust Wallet Token.
🚨 New Asset Listing: Trust Wallet Token (TWT)#TrustWalletToken is the native token of Trust Wallet.
Note that the TWT cryptocurrency is a utility token for Trust Wallet, a mobile cryptocurrency wallet application more suitable for BEP2, and Ethereum-based assets, like ERC20 and ERC721 tokens. The TWT crypto is also used as an incentive and governance token for the wallet platform, indicating that the most demand for the cryptocurrency should be from the wallet users.
Hence, TWT is likely to maintain a modest price performance as Trust Wallet gains more adoption and increase in user activity – this is not financial advice.
At the time of writing, the TWT cryptocurrency was trading at US$0.6281 on Coinmarketcap, with a 24-hour price change of 5.10 percent. From a circulating supply of 250,926,200 TWT, the token has a market capitalization of US$157,050,049 as of February 16.
Swyftx Sees More User Growth
Following the exchange’s tweets, the Trust Wallet Token is probably the second cryptocurrency listed on the platform since 2021. On January 5, the exchange announced the first coin listing to be Celo (CELO). CELO is a blockchain ecosystem that focuses on increasing the adoption of digital currencies among smartphone users.
On January 20, Swyftx reported a massive user growth last year, as well as its plans to introduce heavy infrastructure optimizations to support more growth in 2021.
Just when cryptocurrencies are becoming increasingly popular among Australians following the recent surges in price, an international broker, FBS is expanding in the country with cryptocurrency trading support targeted at Aussie FX traders. The development today would further strengthen the support and accessibility of digital currencies in the forex market, not just fiat currency and stock trading.
Crypto Adoption Among FX Traders
The development today is coming after the broker received a regulatory permit from the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC). As an ASIC-certified trading platform, the company will provide its cryptocurrency instruments alongside forex and stock trading to Australians in compliance with the ASIC regulations, according to the report on Tuesday.
Interestingly, FBS will equally debut Sharia-compliant cryptocurrency trading services for Islamic traders in the country, as their platform supports a “swap-free option for traders who cannot receive or pay the interest due to their faith.”
It’s worth mentioning that FBS would only add to the list of cryptocurrency brokers available in Australia; not the first. Already, eToro offers Contracts for Difference (CFD) on 16 digital currencies, including Bitcoin, Ether, Bitcoin Cash, Ripple, and others. Other crypto brokers in the country include Plus500, IG, and Pepperstone, all of which offer CFDs for not less than five cryptocurrencies.
The increase in the number of crypto brokers in Australia would strengthen the FX-crypto market, thereby creating another entry or capital inflow source for the Aussie crypto market.
Interest in Cryptocurrency Keeps Soaring in Australia
It’s no doubt that Australians are increasingly picking interest in digital currencies, probably due to the increases in market value and news of institutional adoption. Recently, Crypto News Australia reported a 132 percent increase in the volume of unique searches for cryptocurrencies on TradingView, between July 2020 and January 2021. A separate report also confirmed the growing interest in cryptocurrencies among teenagers in Australia.
Already, crypto exchanges like Binance Australia, are seeing increases in user activity.
What makes this capital raise particularly interesting is that VCs didn’t directly send funds to Synthetix’s Australian founders. Instead, they made a purchase of the platform’s native token directly from the synthetixDAO treasury.
Who is Synthetix?
Synthetix is a decentralised derivatives platform that features the native SNX token, as well as its own stablecoin called sUSD.
The reincarnation of Australian crypto project Havven, they have since rebranded as Synthetix and launched a new suite of crypto-backed synthetic asset tokens.
Synthetic assets are financial instruments in the form of ERC-20 smart contracts known as “Synths” that track and provide the returns of another asset without requiring you to hold that asset.
VC Interest a Double Edged Sword for DeFi Projects Like Synthetix
The current popularity surge in DeFi projects has not been lost on the VC industry. But with DeFi being decentralised in its very nature, skepticism around centralising a project around a set of private investors remains the concern of aspects of the community.
DeFi is supposed to be decentralised finance, featuring open and public protocols after all. For this reason, questions around centralised VC money coming in and having the ability to exert control, should therefore definitely be asked.
New DeFi Synths now available for trading
There is a Place for VC Money within DeFi
But in the case of this particular announcement, the significance of the $12 million raised is not so much the dollar value, but mainstream belief in both the Synthetix project and wider DeFi industry itself.
In the grand scheme of things, $12 million is barely a drop in the Synthetix pool. The synthetixDAO is currently pushing $3 billion USD in its treasury!
But what this announcement does show, is there is still an appetite for industry knowledge and connections, which only working with the right VCs can offer.
SNZ Market cap is over US $5 billion
Money Continues to Enter the DeFi Space
While we don’t have a crystal ball to tell us the exact direction the DeFi industry is going to take over the next few years, the projects aligned with smart money are certainly going to be front and centre.
One thing for sure is that this won’t be the last piece of exciting news that we hear coming out of the Synthetix camp. If things continue on their current trajectory, the $2.8 billion USD locked in its treasury is just the beginning.
The future of finance is coming faster than we ever anticipated. It’s decentralised and permissionless, while running anywhere and everywhere 24/7.
For Bitcoin to get to the top it would need to overtake Gold, which has a 11 Trillion dollar market cap. That would take some doing – but who is to say it’s not possible, especially at the rate BTC it growing.
To surpass Gold, the price of bitcoin need to grow 10x and be worth over $500,000 per BTC – not taking into account any growth that Gold would have over the time period, which you expect it would.
Bitcoin Marketcap Trend
Bitcoin has a trend that previous highs get smashed by new highs, where the previous high appears a small bump in the chart. The trend continues so far…
An Australian-based App called Bamboo is providing effortless investment into crypto, simply by rounding up your card transactions into micro payments which get invested into crypto assets Bitcoin and Ethereum.
With headquarters in Perth WA, the Bamboo team have been working hard on an investment tool which can allow everyday Aussies exposure to the crypto market with minimal effort and minimal technical knowledge.
Example of micro payment roundups of recent bank account transactions
Bamboo Features
The Bamboo app has some cool features which include:
Simple setup – Connect your bank and let your everyday purchases turn into long-term investments. Get started in under 90 seconds!
Put your spare change to work – Coffee for $3.50? Round it up to $4 and invest into digital assets!
Instant top-ups – Add an instant top up to your portfolio (minimum A$50)
Scheduled contributions – Set up a daily, weekly or monthly contribution.
Pick a portfolio – Set your custom portfolio composition.
Set your portfolio composition
Good to see the app being used as Bamboo users publish their stories on Twitter.
We’ve taken a look at the Security Process of Bamboo and they use third party intermediary called Basiq (part-owned by NAB) to connect your bank account to their app. They need this to read transactions and calculate the round-ups, and ofcourse take the direct debit payments from your bank account to invest with the App.
What Banks Are Supported?
Most of the major Australia and New Zealand banks are supported including Commonwealth Bank of Australia, Macquarie Bank Limited, National Australia Bank Limited.
What are the Fees?
We’ve also taken a look at the fees. “A deposit/withdraw flat fee applies when the amount is: less than or equal to $100, the fee is $1.49. more than $100 but less than or equal to $250, the fee is $2.49. more than $250 but less than or equal to $500, the fee is $3.99 more than $500, the fee is 0.8%.All fees are inclusive of GST.”
The decentralized finance (DeFi) industry is gradually peaking into the mainstream. There has been a massive increase in participation, users, and new decentralized protocols. This is evident as the total value of assets locked in these protocols has significantly increased to almost $40 billion, per DeFi Pulse. As of February 11, 2020, this same industry only had a valuation of about $1 billion.
The lending protocols dominate the entire DeFi space, with a total valuation of $17.9 billion. Maker might be the largest decentralized finance protocol by TVL, but not the top protocol in terms of transaction volume over the past 30 days.
Leading Dapps by Transaction Volume
According to data curated from DappRadar, the top ten decentralized applications by monthly transaction volume include
Venus
dYdX
Compound
Uniswap
Curve Finance
SushiSwap
Yearn Finance
Autofarm
Aave
PancakeSwap
As per DappRadar, Venus (XVS) is the top decentralized protocol by monthly transaction volume. The algorithmic money market protocol for BEP-20 assets gained US$54,520 million in volume in the past 30 days. dYdX, a decentralized cryptocurrency trading platform, sees about US$32,970 million within the same period, followed by the leading protocol, Compound, with a US$32,690 million transaction volume.
The largest decentralized exchange by TVL, Uniswap, follows the list with more than US$28 million. Curve Finance and SushiSwap recorded about US$26,700 million and US$16,910 million, respectively. SushiSwap has been the biggest competitor for Uniswap when compared to the value of assets locked. Uniswap has a TVL of US$3.93 billion, while SushiSwap closes in with US$3.63 billion.
SushiSwap almost overtook Uniswap during the end of its liquidity incentive program last year. Since that period, it has been neck and neck battle for both DEXes.
Aside from Yearn Finance, which sees US$12,780 million, other Dapps have less than $10 million in transaction volume. These include Autofarm (US$8,610 million), Aave (US$3,170 million), and PancakeSwap (US$2,900 million).
The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) has voiced out their stance regarding exchange-traded funds (ETFs) linked to Bitcoin, while addressing claims that it has a “secret policy” to stop such investment products tied to cryptocurrencies. The regulator is only concerned about investors’ protection and will welcome Bitcoin-linked ETFs, provided there are appropriate rules in place to protect the investors, according to the report by the Australian Financial Review on Friday.
ASIC Refutes Having Policy to Stop Bitcoin ETFs
The development is coming after the CEO of Cosmos Capital, James Manning, asserted that the regulator “have a policy — which they have not released — which says they do not want an exchange traded product, an MIS, listed on an exchange.” Note that, Cosmos Capital, a cryptocurrency mining and digital asset management company, tried to list a Bitcoin-linked ETF on the National Stock Exchange of Australia. However, the initiative was turned down by ASIC.
While addressing the claim today, ASIC commissioner Cathie Armour explained to the Senate select committee on financial technology that the effort from Cosmos Capital to list a Bitcoin ETF was rejected because the National Stock Exchange doesn’t have any proper rule to protect the investors. With appropriate rules in place, such products can be made available in Australia.
Bitcoin ETFs are Possible in Australia
“For any products to be quoted on exchange markets in Australia, the particular market needs to have in place rules that facilitate the quoting of products […] Not all markets have rules in place that do that. […] These products can be made available to Australians through a managed investment scheme regime and Australians can invest in these products in that way,” the commissioner precisely explained.
Bitcoin ETFs can be regulated under the Australian Securities Exchange’s AQUA Rules, according to Armour. This set of rules are specifically designed for ETFs, managed funds, and other related investment schemes. The National Stock Exchange of Australia doesn’t have such rules, Armour added.
The follows news a few months ago Australia’s Central Bank Tells ASX to Push on With Delayed DLT Trading Platform. Having confirmed it was replacing CHESS in December 2017, ASX originally planned to launch the new system in Q1 2020.
Many popular companies are beginning to voice out their stance about cryptocurrencies, probably due to Tesla’s move to Bitcoin (BTC). On February 11, Dara Khosrowshahi, CEO of one of the largest rail-hailing and food delivery companies, Uber, disclosed that they might start accepting payments in digital currencies.
However, the company is not planning to allocate its cash reserve to the leading cryptocurrency, as the electric car marker did.
Uber may Accept Crypto Payment
Khosrowshahi made this known while speaking with CNBC on Thursday. According to him, the rail-hailing giant can accept payment in digital currencies. However, they must have to be convinced of the need for accepting such payments and the benefits associated with digital currencies.
“Just like we accept all kinds of the local currency, we are going to look at cryptocurrency and or bitcoin in terms of currency to transact. That’s good for business, that’s good for our riders and our eaters. We are just not going to do it as part of a promotion,” Khosrowshahi said.
That aside, Uber isn’t looking to exceed this level with cryptocurrencies, especially when it comes to investing in cryptocurrency. The CEO stated clearly that the company doesn’t consider adding Bitcoin to their balance sheets.
“We’re not in the speculation business”
Khosrowshahi sees Bitcoin and cryptocurrency investments as being speculative. Hence, they prefer keeping their cash reserve safe. “It was a conversation that happened that has been quickly dismissed. We’re going to keep our cash safe. We’re not in the speculation business,” Khosrowshahi precisely said.
Meanwhile, it’s worth mentioning that Uber is one of the members of the Facebook-planned stablecoin project, which was recently rebranded from Libra to Diem. Also, Uber won’t be the first as a food delivery platform to accept payments in cryptocurrencies. Just Eat, which purchased the Australian food ordering company, Menulog, already support payments in crypto.
As digital currencies continue to increase in value, they keep attracting the attention of many investors, than in other traditional assets. One of the executives at the Australian largest gold mining company, Newcrest, opined today that the growing value of cryptocurrencies should be the more reason investors should consider having other assets like Gold. This statement comes due to the high volatility of cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (BTC).
Newcrest Suggests you Should Hold Some Gold
The largest cryptocurrency, for instance, has surged significantly since the start of the year. Just some days ago, BTC reached another all-time high (ATH) in value at over US$47,000. Other popular alternative coins like Ether (ETH), Polkadot (DOT), Binance Coin (BNB), etc., reached a new high in market value this year. However, these cryptocurrencies are all trading slightly below the ATH price.
But as the cryptocurrency market keeps growing, Sandeep Biswas, the CEO of Newcrest Mining Ltd, told Bloomberg TV that digital currency investors should consider getting some of the age-old haven assets to protect their capital/profit from the high volatility in cryptocurrencies. “If you’re into cryptos, you want to consider having some gold. […] “may act as a bit of a hedge against the volatility of cryptos,” Biswas commented.
The CEO added that Gold is a different class of investment from cryptocurrencies and would benefit investors since it’s a more stable asset. “It’s a tangible asset: you can see it, you can touch it, you can feel it, you can mold it, you can make it into jewelry, whatever you want,” he further noted.
Crypto and Gold can Co-exist
Biswas’ statement somewhat indicates that cryptocurrencies can co-exist with Gold. Many people think that the growth in the crypto market might pinch demand from Gold. However, companies like Goldman Sachs Group Inc. had noted that the traditional assets would continue to maintain their stand in the market. At press time, Bitcoin was trading at US$45,125 on Coinmarketcap, while an ounce of Gold traded at US$1,850.
Iris Energy, which has raised $25 million from investors, has plans to triple the computing power in its mining operation in Canada, which is powered by hydroelectricity, to meet the growing desire for ‘green’ investments.
Following Tesla’s recent investment in Bitcoin, Elon Musk, has led the way for more investments into crypto mining, enabling Iris to grow from their one facility hosting computers drawing on 9 megawatts of power, and build another 21 megawatts in two new data centres.
Who Is Iris Energy?
Photo: Iris Energy Founders, Dan and Will Roberts
Started by brothers Dan and Will Roberts, Iris Energy receives regular income in bitcoin for its mining, which is immediately liquidated into fiat currency. It uses the raw computing power to find a solution to the SHA-256 algorithm that secures the bitcoin network. The amount of bitcoin received is linked directly to the amount of computing power. About every 10 minutes, 6.25 bitcoins are released to the minor that solves the problem and then provides security to the network, know as the ‘block reward’. Dan Roberts says:
We sell bitcoin the day they are mined. We don’t hold or keep it. This, and the focus on renewables and integration with energy markets, is one of the reasons it is popular with institutions.
At present, Iris represents 0.5 percent of the bitcoin mining activity. However, Dan Roberts believes this will shift after they invest in new application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) SHA-256 machines. This is where renewable energy is helping them get ahead.
Tesla Leading the Way For Others
The Tesla investment comes after a flurry of interest from mainstream US financial institutions, including PayPal, Square and Visa. Lead portfolio manager at Wilson Asset Management, Oscar Oberg has made a small pre-IPO investment in Iris from its micro-cap fund. Oberg says:
“The growing US institutional interest in bitcoin, and Tesla’s huge investment this week, helped to validate the investment.”
Executive Chairman of Iris, Dan Roberts, who was Vice President at Macquarie Group in 2011, and then spent eight years at specialist infrastructure fund manager Palisade Investment Partners, says:
Tesla’s investment is another example of the institutional validation and interest we have seen over the past 6 to 12 months. In the current macroeconomic environment, the value proposition for a digital, scarce asset is gathering appeal.
The Future Of Green Mining
In the past 18 months, responsible investment has reached a tipping point, with sustainability concerns coming to the front for many institutional investors.
Investors, consumers and technology are aligning to accelerate the low-carbon transition, says Serge Colle, EY Global Energy Consulting Leader, creating the potential for outperformance by companies involved in the green economy.
Dan Roberts agrees with this shift. When it comes to bitcoin mining, it has moved away from those with access to the newest technology, to those who can build large-scaled energy and data centre infrastructure projects with access to institutional capital markets. And these institutional capital markets are going green.
Speaking on Iris Energy, Oberg says:
These guys are building data centres using the cheapest source of energy they can find, which is renewable, and they will have a lower cost of production to conduct bitcoin mining versus their competitors.
Dan Roberts says that if bitcoin reaches 20 per cent of gold’s market capitalisation, compared to a few per cent today, the energy demand to maintain the network would rise to 70 gigawatts. This is 10 times the level of bitcoin mining today, or three times the amount of power used by all of the world’s data centres. He says:
The operational flexibility in bitcoin mining makes it the perfect load balancing solution to energy networks dominated by intermittent renewables. With the ability to dynamically adjust energy consumption in response to market conditions and locate data centres in remote locations, bitcoin miners are logical users of excess renewable energy and can manage intraday load variability from wind and solar farms.
