Australian Bitcoin mining company Iris Energy has outlined ambitious plans to ramp up its hash rate to 20 exahashes per second (EH/s) by the latter part of this year, as detailed in a Feb. 7 update. To achieve this significant milestone, Iris agreed with Bitmain to secure 10 EH/s of new T21 miners at a fixed rate of $14/TH/s. This agreement encompasses 1 EH/s of immediate additional miner acquisitions and grants options for 9 EH/s of miner purchases exercisable in the latter part of the year. Meanwhile, Iris needs to boost its operational capacity by a significant 222% to achieve its targeted ..read more

The Asia-Pacific (APAC) region, a dynamic hub of banking and payment services, is facing a dual challenge: making notable advancements in fraud prevention while grappling with the evolving sophistication of financial scams. A recent report by Feedzai and Chartis Research, “Scam Prevention in Asia-Pacific: A Survey of Banking and Payment Provider Professionals,” offers an insightful look into this ongoing battle. The Persistent Challenge of Fraud Banks and payment service providers in APAC have made significant strides in fraud prevention, yet the challenge remains formidable. Artificial Intell ..read more

The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) is actively considering the potential adoption of a central bank digital currency (CBDC) as a transformative step towards the future of money and financial transactions. Brad Jones, Assistant Governor (Financial System) at the RBA, said in a speech titled “A Tokenised Future for the Australian Financial System” that the future of money is most likely digital, with CBDCs and tokenization having the potential to become integral parts of the future monetary system. CBDC Integration Jones said that CBDCs in the form of tokenized bank deposits could provide a mor ..read more

The Australian federal government is set to introduce new regulations requiring crypto exchanges to obtain a financial services license, the Australian Financial Review reported on Oct. 15. Assistant Treasurer Stephen Jones is scheduled to unveil these long-anticipated rules during the Australian Financial Review Crypto Summit. According to the report, the government will focus on the exchanges — subjecting them to existing financial services laws — rather than regulating individual tokens or cryptocurrencies. The new rules Crypto exchanges holding more than $5 million in aggregate or exceedin ..read more

Mastercard announced the successful demonstration of a central bank digital currency (CBDC) technology designed to integrate CBDCs with multiple blockchain networks, according to a press release. The technology aims to facilitate the tokenization, or “wrapping,” of CBDCs onto different blockchain networks to enhance consumer convenience and transactional security. Australian CBDC pilot Mastercard’s new solution was developed in collaboration with Cuscal and Mintable. It was tested with the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) and the Digital Finance Cooperative Research Centre (DFCRC) under their e ..read more

The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) alleged that Kraken Crypto Exchange’s provider, Bit Trade Pty Ltd, caused Australians losses of roughly $12.95 million due to non-compliance with local laws. Due to this, the financial regulator has filed a lawsuit against Bit Trade, highlighting how its margin trading product failed to comply with the design and distribution obligations tied to it. According to the regulator, Bit Trade did not correctly identify a target market before launching the product. “ASIC’s case focuses on Bit Trade’s failure to make a target market determin ..read more

Non-fungible token issuer Yuga Labs suggested on Aug. 18 that it will discontinue support for parts of OpenSea’s trading platform. Yuga Labs responded to an Aug. 17 announcement from OpenSea in which the latter firm said it would transition to optional creator fees. That move will see OpenSea discontinue its Operator Filter, which allowed NFT creators to enforce creator fees and royalties by blocking transactions from parties known not to respect those fees. OpenSea said it will sunset the filter on Aug. 31, though non-Ethereum collections and collections that enabled the feature prior to Aug ..read more

The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) has filed a lawsuit against the online trading platform eToro for allegedly violating financial regulations related to cryptocurrency derivative products, leading to two-thirds of CFD traders reportedly losing funds. ASIC vs. eToro According to the concise statement filed by ASIC, eToro is accused of contravening the design and distribution obligations under the Corporations Act 2001 from Oct. 2021 to July 2023. ASIC Deputy Chair Sarah Court expressed disappointment over the alleged breaches by eToro, given it is reputation, commentin ..read more

According to a statement released on July 19, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) canceled the Australian Financial Services (AFS) license held by FTX, a subsidiary operating in Australia, on July 14. The license cancelation does not impact FTX Australia’s arrangements to compensate its retail clients and its continued Australian Financial Complaints Authority membership. The exchange could also provide limited financial services for terminating existing derivatives with clients before July 12, 2024. FTX Australia serviced 30,000 customers Before its license cancellatio ..read more

National Australia Bank (NAB) blocked over A$270 million (around $184 million) in customer payments that raised scam concerns during the last four months, according to a July 17 statement. NAB blocking payments to ‘high-risk’ cryptocurrency exchanges NAB stated it stopped an undisclosed amount of transactions to crypto platforms where scams were prevalent between March and July. The bank did not name any exchange. NAB, citing reports to the Australian Financial Crimes Exchange over a recent 30-day period, claimed that 50% of scams reported to the agency were linked to crypto. Chris Sheehan, NA ..read more