Australia’s ministerial department of Treasury reached out to the public to seek consultation regarding draft legislation that would exclude cryptocurrencies from being taxed as a foreign currency if passed. In a press release, Assistant Treasurer Stephen Jones highlighted the Australian government’s intent to exclude crypto assets from being regarded as a foreign currency for tax purposes. However, the legislation would have no impact on the collection of capital gains taxes on crypto held as investments. The public has been provided with 25 days, from Sept. 6 to Sept. 30, to share their opinion on the proposed legislation. If signed into …

Law enforcement in Australia is working to boost cryptocurrency expertise and trace crypto transactions by setting up a dedicated police group. The Australian Federal Police (AFP) has established a new cryptocurrency unit to focus on monitoring crypto-related transactions, The Australian Financial Review reported on Monday. Stefan Jerga, the national manager of the AFP’s criminal asset confiscation command, said that the use of crypto in criminal activity had significantly increased since the AFP made its first crypto seizure in early 2018. In response to this, AFP decided to set up a dedicated crypto team in August, Jerga noted. The increased focus …

According to local news outlet 7News, two Melbourne women, Manivel Thevamanogari and her sister Gangadory Thevamanogari, received an AUD$10.5 million deposit from Singaporean crypto exchange Crypto.com after the latter made an error in issuing an AUD$100 refund. Instead of the refund amount, an employee allegedly typed an account number in the payment section, resulting in an erroneous transfer to their bank account. The incident occurred back in May 2021, but was not discovered until an annual audit in December 2021. After filing a lawsuit, the Victoria Supreme Court recently ruled that the funds must be returned to the company. However, …

Binance Australia is tightening up its onboarding process for new users as part of a push to protect users it's flagged as most vulnerable to financial crypto crime. The new measures were mentioned in Binance Australia’s June quarter Economic, Social, and Governance (ESG) report on Aug. 29, which noted that the exchange was working on a “stringent and user-focused onboarding experience” aimed at groups with a higher occurrence of financial crime. Speaking with Cointelegraph, Binance Aus CEO Leigh Travers and Zachary Lu from the exchange’s Financial Crime, Risk and Compliance unit, noted the company has been actively working on ways …

Australia’s financial regulator, Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC), has pledged to put crypto assets and decentralized finance (DeFi) firmly in its sights over the next four years. The regulator intends to focus on “digitally enabled misconducts” and to protect investors “from harms posed by crypto-assets.” Given the ASIC’s history of anti-crypto sentiments, such an announcement could be perceived as hostile, but at least it contains a promise to implement some regulatory framework that is still absent. And, it is hardly a coincidence that the announcement came only days after Australia’s new ruling government announced plans to move forward with regulation …

Australia’s financial regulator, Australia's Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) has pledged to put crypto assets and decentralized finance (DeFi) firmly in its sights over the next four years. According to ASIC’s newly released “Corporate Plan” released on Aug. 22, the financial regulator said it will be focusing on “digitally enabled misconducts” as “emerging technologies and products change our financial ecosystem” as part of its four-year strategic plan which stretches to 2026. Joe Longo, chair of ASIC said the regulator would be focusing in particular on scams and crypto-assets. “Our regulatory environment is changing and evolving — climate risk, our aging …

Australia’s Northern Territory Racing Commission (NTRC) is consulting with its gambling licensees over a tentative proposal to incorporate crypto wagering as part of the regulated gambling industry. For the most part, gambling in Australia is regulated at the state level and not federally. The NTRC oversees all gambling and wagering companies that choose to be licensed in the Northern Territory (NT), including global wagering companies such as Betfair, Entain Group, Draft Kings and Sportsbet. As it stands, the NTRC has sent a private document out to licensees, which seeks input and feedback on what the regulatory landscape could look like …

Three months after being elected into power, the Australian Labor party has finally broken its silence on how it's planning to approach crypto regulation. Treasurer Jim Chalmers announced a “token mapping” exercise, which was one of the 12 recommendations in a senate inquiry report last year on “Australia as a Technology and Financial Center.” The report was warmly welcomed by the industry which has been anxiously waiting to see if the ALP government would embrace it. Aimed at being conducted before the end of the year, the token mapping exercise is expected to help “identify how crypto assets and related …

Australian crypto exchange Swyftx has had to lay off 21% of its staff to lower costs as it wades through the current bear market. According to an Aug. 17 note from co-CEOs Alex Harper and Ryan Parsons stated that 74 colleagues had to be let go, as the current economic climate that they were hired in has shifted dramatically to what it is today: “As you’re all aware, we are operating in an uncertain business environment, with levels of domestic inflation not seen in over two decades, rising interest rates, highly volatile markets across all asset classes, and the potential …

Australian asset manager Monochrome Asset Management has landed the country’s first Australian financial services license (AFSL) for a spot crypto exchange-traded fund (ETF). Speaking to Cointelegraph, Jeff Yew, CEO of Monochrome Asset Management said the AFSL approval is significant, as until this point, approved crypto ETFs in Australia only operate under general financial asset authorization, and only indirectly hold crypto-assets. Yew noted that Monochrome’s crypto ETFs on the other hand, will directly hold the underlying crypto-assets and is specifically authorized by the Australian Securities & Investments Commission (ASIC) to do so. The Monochrome executive said the approval represents a significant …

Crypto television advertising spending has reportedly fallen off a cliff in the United States, reflecting the current state of the markets, however, that's no excuse to take a break, two crypto firms tell Cointelegraph. An Aug. 17 report from Bloomberg highlighted that television ad spending among the largest crypto trading firms hit the lowest mark in over a year, with only $36,000 spent in July according to ISpot, down 99.9% from $84.5 million in February. The $84.5 million ad spend was achieved during the U.S. Superbowl period when Crypto.com, FTX US, and Coinbase splurged on high-profile ads to raise awareness …

Convenience store and petrol station brand On The Run (OTR) has launched crypto payment support across all 175 of its petrol stations and convenience stores across Victoria, South Australia (SA), and Western Australia (WA) as of Aug. 18. As previously reported, the move is part of a collaboration between OTR, Singapore-based exchange Crypto.com, and DataMesh, a Sydney-based payment systems provider. The exchange has provided its Pay Merchant service as a payment settlement layer, while Datamesh has provided the point of sale terminals. Speaking with Cointelegraph, Crypto.com’s Asia & Pacific General Manager Karl Mohan noted that it only took “eight weeks …