Thailand's Bank of Ayudhya (BAY) — in which Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG) holds a 76.9% stake — participated in the latest funding round for the Asia-Pacific-focused crypto exchange Zipmex. The $41 million raise, which saw the participation of two publicly traded Thai media firms and overseas venture capital (VC) funds — in addition to BAY — accounts for the lion’s share of Zipmex’s total $52 million in funds raised to date. BAY’s corporate venture capital arm, Krungsri Finnovate, invests in startups across various fintech areas, including blockchain, lending, e-commerce and cross-border remittance. Commenting on the news of the Zipmex …

Sweeping legislation allowing officials from the Australian Federal Police and Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission to target suspected criminals online has passed through the country’s parliament with bipartisan support. On Aug. 25, the Identify and Disrupt bill passed through Australia’s Senate, introducing three new warrants allowing authorities to take unprecedented action against suspected cybercriminals. The new warrants authorize police to hack the personal computers and networks of suspected criminals, seize control of their online accounts and identities, and disrupt their data. Home Affairs Minister Karen Andrews praised the broad expansion of powers available to Australian authorities targeting cyber actors. “Under our …

Investment scams in Australia cost investors more than 70 million Australian dollars ($50.5 million) in the first six months of 2021, with crypto scams contributing to more than 50% of the losses, according to Scamwatch data. As reported by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), Scamwatch data shows a 53.4% increase in investment scam-related reports, which is set to exceed $101 million by the end of this year. Based on the 4,763 reports received in 2021 alone, ACCC deputy chair Delia Rickard stated that 2,240 of the complaints were related to cryptocurrency scams and mainly attributed to Bitcoin (BTC). …

The Australian Border Force (ABF), Infocomm Media Development Authority of Singapore (IMDA) and Singapore Customs, along with other industry representations, have concluded a blockchain trial project analyzing the status of the countries’ digital verification systems in issuing and verifying trade documents. The collaborative venture was a part of the Australia–Singapore Digital Economy Agreement — an initiative designed to increase the efficiency of trade between the two countries, as well as to minimize economic friction in cross-border payments. The interoperability of the two digital verification systems — the ABF’s Intergovernmental Ledger and IMDA’s TradeTrust reference implementation — was analyzed to understand …

As crypto breaches mainstream finance, authorities have started issuing warnings to citizens against unregistered crypto businesses. Joining this list is the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) as it Australian investors to be wary of unlicensed entities that offer financial products. In a statement released by the ASIC, the regulator advised Australian citizens to make crypto asset related investments via financial institutions that hold an Australian Financial Services license or an Anti-Money Laundering mechanism. The ASIC said it had received reports from investors across Australia of citizens experiencing significant losses after trading crypto financial products such as options, futures, leveraged …

Cryptocurrency exchange Crypto.com has launched a free tax reporting service for users based in Australia. In an announcement today, Crypto.com said it had tailored its existing tax services for United States- and Canada-based crypto users to allow Australians to accurately report cryptocurrencies on their taxes. The exchange said it worked with professional tax advisers to ensure that the service was consistent with laws for filing cryptocurrency taxes in the country. Crypto.com allows users to import their crypto transaction records into a tax reporting platform such as TokenTax and generate a report to be filed with the authorities — the Internal …

Australian crypto influencer Alex Saunders is being sued by a disgruntled follower of his YouTube channel and advice service Nuggets News. The plaintiff, New Zealand-based Ziv Himmelfarb, filed a formal written order on Wednesday in the Victorian Supreme Court demanding that Saunders repay 479,270 Australian dollars ($353,027) in losses and damages for unpaid loans and investments that are yet to materialize. Speaking to the Australian Financial Review on Thursday, Himmelfarb said that he had followed Saunders’ crypto commentary since 2017, stating, “He made some great calls and to me he was the No. 1 person to follow in the crypto …

Blockchain Australia, an association representing the local crypto industry, has warned that the country has fallen behind on the regulatory front due to the undue persistence of a dismissive “wild west” narrative. The association has been proactive in its engagement with the state in recent months as the government continues to review the future of blockchain and fintech and regulation in the country. Appearing before the Senate Select Committee on Australia as a Technology and Financial Centre last week, Blockchain Australia CEO Steve Vallas said that the association strongly resists the notion that the crypto space remains “a bit of …

Asia-Pacific crypto-fiat trading platform Zipmex has forged a strategic partnership with Visa in a bid to improve the convenience of its payment programs and products. The platform's payment network ZipSend, designed to enable users to spend their crypto, will be integrated into Visa’s worldwide network of 70 million merchants. Following the partnership, Zipmex aims to release a Visa-branded payment card later this year. Zipmex, which has compliant operations in Thailand, Indonesia, Singapore and Australia, currently has a user base of over 200,000 and has reported over $1 billion in gross transaction volume since its launch in late 2019. The company …

Independent Reserve, an Australian crypto exchange founded in 2013, has become the first cryptocurrency exchange in Singapore to receive an “in-principle approval” to operate as a fully regulated virtual asset service provider (VASP). In a letter from the city-state’s de facto central bank, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), the exchange was approved under the terms of the Payments Services Act, which came into effect in January 2020 and provides clear-cut rules and regulations for crypto exchanges and service providers seeking to operate locally. Since January, VASPs awaiting their applications’ approval have been permitted to continue to operate under the …

Mastercard has been making headlines consistently as it ramps up efforts to offer crypto services across the globe. In a new partnership with CoinJar, Mastercard will enable the Australian market to spend cryptocurrencies within its fiat infrastructure. CoinJar’s blog post highlighted that the newly launched CoinJar Card will allow users to make purchases in crypto “wherever Mastercard is accepted.” The CoinJar Card will be made available for users through digital and physical cards and Apple Pay and Google Pay integration. According to the official announcement, the card supports 30 cryptocurrencies, including prominent ones, such as Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH) and …

Jack Dorsey’s cryptocurrency-friendly digital payments firm Square is expanding competition with global payments giants like PayPal by acquiring a major Australian lending company. Square announced Sunday that the firm has entered into a scheme implementation deed to acquire all of the issued shares in fintech company Afterpay in a $29-billion deal. The transaction is based on the closing price of the Square common share and is expected to be paid in all stock in the first quarter of 2022. The acquisition enables Square to further accelerate its strategic plans for payment ecosystems as the company is looking to integrate Afterpay …