Executives at two of Australia’s “big four” banks have ruled out allowing retail customers to trade cryptocurrency on their platforms, with one reasoning that customers don’t understand “basic financial well-being.” Speaking at the Australian Financial Review Banking Summit on Tuesday Maile Carnegie, executive for retail banking at Australia and New Zealand Banking Group (ANZ), said that from speaking to retail customers, she believed “the vast majority of them don’t understand really basic financial well-being concepts.” “Are we really going to make it easier and less friction and implicitly endorse speculating on crypto when they don’t understand basic financial well-being? The …

Australian consumer advocacy group CHOICE has called on the federal government to provide better protection for crypto investors while submitting a proposed regulatory framework for cryptocurrency exchanges operating in the country. The regulatory framework was submitted in response to the federal Treasury’s consultation paper for crypto asset secondary service providers, or CASSPs, defined as firms providing custodial crypto wallets and exchange services. CHOICE commented: “As it stands, enforceable protections in the unregulated cryptocurrency market are somewhere between negligible and non-existent.” Outlining four main areas in its framework, the group called for a single definition of crypto for better regulation, a …

Australia’s Swinburne University of Technology has partnered with two financial technology firms which will provide its students exposure to the financial technology and cryptocurrency business world. The partnership is between Swinburne and small business loan provider Judo Bank along with Banxa, a payment service provider with a fiat-to-crypto platform whose clients include Binance, KuCoin and hardware wallet Trezor, among others. Students of the university’s Master of Financial Technology (fintech) course will be “exposed to real life examples and cases across the spectrum of financial services,” Dimitrios Salampasis Swinburne’s director of the master of fintech told Cointelegraph. Salampasis said Judo Bank …

The Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) has put its plans for a second pilot program of crypto trading services on hold indefinitely and cut off access to those in the first round of testing. CBA sent Cointelegraph a transcript of a Tuesday bank briefing where CEO Matt Comyn said that he was still waiting on regulatory clarity. He also said that he was “working with a number of regulators very closely, as you would imagine, about the appropriate treatment of this particular product:” “Our intention still, at this stage, is to restart the pilot, but there are still a couple …

The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) has outlined crypto capital gains as one of four key areas of focus in 2022. A capital gain or loss refers to the price difference between the time an asset was purchased and the time it was sold. The percentage owed to the ATO varies between income brackets and duration of ownership, but in general, the rate is reduced for assets held longer than 12 months. The ATO, which has fired off many warnings to crypto investors over the past few years, has also directly mentioned nonfungible tokens (NFTs) as an asset class that will …

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has donated $4 million worth of USD Coin (USDC) to the University of New South Wales (UNSW) to support the development of a pandemic detection tool. The capital, which equates to roughly 5.3 million Australian dollars, is part of Buterin’s self-described “moonshot anti-COVID effort” dubbed Balvi Filantropic Fund in partnership with the Shiba Inu (SHIB) memecoin project and Crypto Relief. The funds will further support the development of the Shiba Inu Open-Source Intelligence- (OISNT)-based EPIWATCH tool, which utilizes artificial intelligence (AI) and open-source data to create early pandemic warning signs. Created by Kirby Institute professor and …

With crypto markets tanking, three crypto-focused exchange-traded funds (ETFs) picked a difficult day to commence trading on local exchange Cboe Australia today. The trio’s launch marks the first crypto ETFs to go live in Australia, with two of them focused on offering exposure to Bitcoin (BTC), and the other focused on Ether (ETH). So far, the three ETFs have generated more than $1.3 million between them, and it has been estimated that they could see around $1 billion worth of inflows moving forward. The Cosmos Purpose Bitcoin Access ETF (CBTC) from Sydney-based crypto investment firm Cosmos Asset Management offers a …

Australians will soon have more options for spot cryptocurrency exchange-traded funds (ETFs) after a previous hold-up was given the green light this week and new funds entered the ETF market. The latest update came late on Monday as Cboe Australia issued a round of market notices that three funds previously delayed are expected to begin trading on May 12. They include a Bitcoin (BTC) ETF from Cosmos Asset Management, plus BTC and Ether (ETH) spot ETFs from 21Shares. Cboe Australia and Cosmos did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but a spokesperson from 21Shares confirmed to Cointelegraph: “We’re …

Swyftx exchange will begin offering interest-bearing yields on a wide range of cryptocurrency assets — the first Australian-operated crypto exchange to do so. Swyftx’s new product, called Earn, will offer Australian and New Zealand residents the ability to earn interest on 21 different digital assets, including large-cap cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH), Solana (SOL), Cardano (ADA) and stablecoins like Tether (USDT) and USD Coin (USDC). Swyftx CEO Ryan Parsons said that the exchange’s Earn feature was one of the most competitive in the crypto industry, as the Brisbane-based company will allow customers to withdraw their assets from Earn …

The Crocodile Minter Australia Zoo, the famous animal sanctuary owned by Terri Irwin, the widow of Steve Irwin or the crocodile hunter, has launched a nonfungible token (NFT) project called “Wildlife Warriors.” Wildlife Warriors is also the name of a nonprofit organization founded by the Irwins in 2002 which focuses on the protection of injured, threatened or endangered wildlife. All profits from the NFT sales will be donated to the Australia Zoo and Wild Warriors conservation efforts. The NFT collection is a part of the 20th-anniversary celebration of the Australia Zoo, and users can now sign up for the allow …

Australian Senator Andrew Bragg has met with United States Senator Cynthia Lummis to discuss potential collaboration on cryptocurrency regulation between the two countries. Senator Bragg is a crypto-friendly politician from the ruling Liberal Party, a conservative center-right party, that has been one of the driving forces behind a proposed forward-thinking regulatory scheme in Australia. Last year, he fronted the Senate Committee on Australia as a Technology and Financial Center (ATFC), which tabled 12 extensive regulatory proposals relating to taxation, decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) and company licensing. Two months later, Treasurer Josh Frydenburg outlined intentions to begin implementing at least six …

The launch of Australia’s first three Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) exchange-traded funds (ETF) scheduled for Wednesday has been delayed as a result of further “checks” needing to be completed. The exchange listing the Bitcoin Spot ETF from Cosmos Asset Management, Cboe Australia, released a statement late Tuesday stating that “standard checks prior to the commencement of trading are still being completed” and a “further update will be provided in the coming days.” Cboe issued the same notice regarding two spot ETFs issued by 21Shares also scheduled for launch today, a Bitcoin ETF and an Ether ETF. A representative for …