Australia poised for ‘inflection point’ of crypto demand

Australia’s crypto industry is in a good spot to benefit from a global “inflection point” for crypto demand as long as its lawmakers make the right decisions, according to a Kraken Australia executive.

Speaking to Cointelegraph on the sidelines of the Formula One Grand Prix in Melbourne, Miller looked to the influx of fresh capital into spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs), stablecoin adoption and BlackRock’s recent move to launch a $100 million tokenization fund on Ethereum as reasons to take a bullish outlook on crypto in the coming months.

Miller noted that while institutional demand for crypto had soared in the United States — with fund managers such as Fidelity and BlackRock instructing their clients to invest in Bitcoin — this was yet to make its way to Australia.

However, Miller explained there had still been a drastic uptick in interest from retail investors and crypto-related businesses in the country.

“We‘re still seeing quite an increase in adoption here. People are starting to invest again, and many are building new businesses around crypto as well,” he said.

“We’re seeing a lot of these businesses come to us specifically because they’re after liquidity,” added Miller.

Miller noted that many of the new Australian crypto businesses were focused largely on stablecoins, which he — like many others — described as the crypto industry’s “killer app.”

“All of our engagement with [Australian] Treasury has been positive. Our next challenge is to kind of get the government to prioritize legislation. It’s very hard to do that, but I think we’re getting closer,” he said.

In October 2023, the Department of the Treasury released a consultation paper that proposed mandating crypto exchanges to apply for a financial services license from the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC).

#news #Australia #Cryptocurrencies

Apr-2-2024 08:24:42 AM