Australia announced a stocktake of its cryptocurrency holdings to help better understand and regulate the booming $1 trillion sector.
What Happened: The Treasury would undertake “token mapping,” or cataloging of the types and uses of digital currency owned within the country, Treasurer Jim Chalmers said in a statement, Reuters reported.
Chalmers said Prime Minister Anthony Albanese-led government would make “token mapping” a priority this year to help identify which digital asset tokens are being used in the country and how they should be regulated, adding that a public consultation paper on the matter would be released soon.
He added that Australia would be the first country in the world to conduct such an exercise.
“With the increasingly widespread proliferation of crypto assets, to the extent that crypto advertisements can be seen plastered all over big sporting events, we need to make sure customers engaging with crypto are adequately informed and protected,” Chalmers said.
This came after the Australian Securities and Investments Commission said that it wants cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin BTC/USD, Ethereum ETH/USD, and Dogecoin DOGE/USD to be regulated — citing its research that found 44% of retail investors held at least one cryptocurrency in late 2021.
Check out more of Benzinga’s Europe and Asia coverage by following this link.
Image source: Getty Images
Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC), Ethereum (CRYPTO: ETH), and Cardano (CRYPTO: ADA).
Australian and international crypto investors have shaken up their holdings of these top tokens over the past quarter.
Below, we look at how the positions of the most held cryptos on multi-asset investing platform eToro changed at the end of the second quarter compared to the end of Q1.
Aussies’ return to the biggest crypto names favours Bitcoin
Bitcoin, the world’s top token by market cap, reclaimed its number one spot as the most widely held crypto by Aussie investors on the eToro platform.
Bitcoin came in at number two among Australian investors at the end of the first quarter, with XRP (CRYPTO: XRP) being the most widely held crypto on the platform at the time. XRP slipped to number five in Q2.
e-Toro reported that despite the market turmoil in 2022, the number of users on its platform holding Bitcoin increased 9% globally and 16% in Australia.
Meanwhile, Ethereum – the second biggest token by market valuation – climbed into the number two spot, up from third place in Q1.
And Cardano, the number eight crypto by market cap, made a big move from fifth place up to third place among Australian crypto investors on the eToro platform.
Resilience in a ‘difficult spell’
Commenting on the last quarterly results, market analyst at eToro Josh Gilbert said:
There’s no hiding to the fact that the crypto market has had a difficult spell in the last quarter. However, the eToro community is showing resilience, whilst keeping faith with the cryptos with the biggest heritage and market cap.
Noting that Bitcoin and most all crypto prices have fallen sharply this year, mirroring the selling trend in equities, Gilbert added:
Many investors see the long-term potential of crypto assets and those same investors have the time horizon to allow these investments to flourish. Retail investors are using the current price weakness to build their allocation to the crypto space whilst diversifying across assets.
Payments service firm Visa has given the green light to the issuance of physical debit cards that’ll let CryptoSpend app users spend funds from bitcoin trading
In line with its promise to expand the scope of crypto acceptance, Visa has collaborated with Australian crypto outfit CryptoSpend to launch debit card services for consumers in the country as per a Wednesday announcement. The approval represents the first time a service in Australia has issued a payment card that exploits existing payment systems to enable users to spend their crypto profits at places like gas stations, cafes and even grocery stores.
Through the CryptoSpend app, Australian consumers would also be able to spend their crypto to pay bills, send crypto to other CryptoSpend users without transaction charges, and withdraw their assets into the Australian Dollar. Visa is expected to make an official announcement soon, with the said debit cards expected in two months. They will be distributed by Novatti Group, an Australian-based software company.
The Visa card would be a zero-balance card, entirely deriving its value from the consumer’s crypto loaded on it rather than fiat. The announcement further indicates that BitGo would be the custodian of choice for the customers’ crypto. Customers would be exposed to several crypto tokens, including Tether, Bitcoin, Litecoin, and Ripple.
CryptoSpend was founded in 2018 by two university students Andrew Grech and Richard Voice, who had observed that cryptocurrencies were being used as commodities rather than for making payments. Grech said that the development would allow users to spend their crypto gains rather than sell them. The move could potentially see a significant increase in crypto use cases in the country.
“Spending it directly is a more convenient way of selling it. If the market is green, someone could say it’s time to spend some of my profits. On the other side of the fence, another person might say it’s going to keep going up; I’ll hold onto it. But we have seen more spending volume when the price is going up,” he explained.
The co-founders believe the move would place CryptoSpend in a position to hasten mainstream adoption of crypto. Visa has been taking steps to integrate crypto onto its platforms, consistent with its commitment. The payment solutions company has in the past launched a crypto rewards card with BlockFi, and given Crypto.com the green light to launch its Visa crypto card. It recently reported that consumers had already spent over $1 billion worth of crypto since the turn of the year.