Could Australia Become Asia’s Crypto Derivatives Hub?

With Australian DeFi projects surging, the CEO of crypto exchange Mine Digital said he believes the nation could become a future hub for crypto derivatives in Asia.

CEO Grant Colthup made the comments in a webinar hosted on July 29 by Melbourne’s Apollo Capital regarding digital asset infrastructure. Colthorp said many institutional investors in Australia were interested in crypto but were still skittish about getting away from “brick and mortar” financial establishments. 

But he said crypto derivatives projects across Asian countries have the potential to move into Australia. Cothlup cited those in Hong Kong — where regulations are becoming more favorable but political uncertainty is driving many away — as well as firms in South Korea and Japan, where crypto derivatives are practically “non-existent.”

“I really see Australia as being a massive hub going forth for the development for Asia-based crypto derivatives,” he said.

Australia is already home to one of the most successful decentralised crypto derivatives projects, Synthetix. The protocol, which is backed by Apollo Capital, is the third largest DeFi project with almost half a billion in USD value locked.

Founder Kain Warwick also made a presentation at the webinar where he said that DeFi was making legacy fintech obsolete. 

Attracting new companies

Part of the appeal of projects looking to Australia instead of the United States may be the cultural approach to crypto, commented Kayvon Pirestani, Head of APAC Institutional Coverage for Coinbase.

Also in attendance for the webinar, Pirestani said Australian crypto firms looking to tap into this institutional space were “more adventurous” than those in the United States.