Gemini, a major cryptocurrency exchange founded by the Winklevoss brothers, has just added support for three new fiat currencies on its platform. According to an official announcement on Aug. 17, Gemini now allows users to trade in the Hong Kong dollar (HKD), the Australian dollar (AUD), and the Canadian dollar (CAD). The three new fiat currencies come in addition to the United States dollar, allowing Gemini users in Hong Kong, Australia, and Canada to buy and sell crypto with native currencies. However, HKD, AUD, and CAD are currently not offered through Gemini’s crypto trading platform known as the Active Trader …

A judge has sentenced Australian citizen Kathryn Nguyen to a maximum time of 2 years and 3 months in prison for her role in stealing more than 100,000 XRP tokens in January 2018. According to an Aug. 11 report in Australian publication Information Age, Nguyen was sentenced over the theft of more than $300,000 in XRP two years ago. She was initially charged in Oct. 2018 and pled guilty to fraud charges the following August. Chris Craigie, the judge presiding over Nguyen’s case, said it was a “difficult and troubling decision” to send her to prison. The Australian national will …

Australia’s top-tier rugby league, the National Rugby League, along with IP Australia will trial a blockchain-based application to curb the sale of counterfeit products. IP Australia is an agency of the Department of Industry, Innovation and Science that orchestrates and regulates the issuance of intellectual property rights and legislation relating to patents, trademarks, registered designs and plant breeder's rights in Australia. Genuine products will be tagged with trust badges According to a ZDNet report, the new application uses blockchain to enable trademark owners to link their products to the government register. It acts as proof of their products’ authenticity, their …

The Australian Securities and Investments Commission, or ASIC, is asking people to remain cautious about celebrity-endorsed Bitcoin (BTC) scam sites. According to the commission’s public warning, the Australian watchdog has received a number of reports of fraudulent crypto sites that claim to be endorsed by prominent businesses, new sites, and government agencies. Some even appear to have the endorsement of national celebrities like Waleed Aly, Mike Baird, Dick Smith, and Virginia Trioli. Crypto bot scams are active in Australia The ASIC outlined a number of examples as part of their warning. One example, Bitcoin Evolution, is a fake crypto trading …

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 …

Major cryptocurrency exchange Binance is launching a fiat-to-crypto trading platform in Australia, offering support for direct purchases of crypto using the Australian dollar (AUD). Binance already operates Binance Lite Australia which offers limited services, but the new venture will be more like a fully fledged exchange providing local traders with access to the speed, deep liquidity and security controls of the flagship platform. In a statement on July 29, Binance described the new venture as “a secure and regulated platform for trading digital currencies with AUD” that had been developed through dialogue and engagement with local government and communities. Australian …

Crypto taxation software provider Koinly has announced a partnership with three Australian digital asset exchanges to simplify their clients’ tax reporting. Coinjar, Cointree and Swyftx announced support for Koinly on July 29, allowing the exchanges’ customers to automatically feed trading data to Koinly via csv or API, and access detailed capital gains reports. “Even though there is a lot of guidance around cryptocurrency taxes, it is simply too difficult to calculate taxes by hand especially if you traded on multiple exchanges,” asserted Koinly founder Robin Singh. Increased scrutiny from regulators The move follows the Australian Taxation Office sending letters to …

Leading market research and data analytics firm Nielsen has been unable to provide overnight ratings this week for Australian TV viewers as a result of a ransomware attack. The TV ratings were not available on Tuesday and Wednesday night, and local TV blog TV Tonight reports industry sources as saying the overnight ratings may not be available again until early next week. Nielsen said viewing data is still being collected and will be published once the attack is resolved. “We will be sure to keep the industry informed as new information on the matter becomes available,” the spokesperson added. Nielsen …

Eftpos Australia, the country’s leading point-of-sale technology provider, has announced a partnership with distributed ledger technology (DLT) firm Hedera to conduct a micropayments proof-of-concept using an Australian dollar stablecoin. Eftpos chief executive Stephen Benton described the collaboration with Hedera as part of a broader digital payments innovation strategy intended to modernize Australia’s payment sector. The pilot aims to demonstrate how micropayments can be used to offer innovative payment solutions, such as “pay per page content or streaming services on a pay-per-second basis.” The proof-of-concept will be powered by an Australian dollar stablecoin through Hedera’s consensus service. Speaking to Cointelegraph, Robert …

Australian Reserve Bank governor Philip Lowe has taken a swipe at the concept of money printing, as further fiscal stimulus measures are rolled out in the country amid the ongoing pandemic. In a speech in Sydney on Tuesday, the central bank boss said the government could borrow “on very favorable terms” and said public debt was currently much lower than in many other countries. Calls for money printing are misguided he said: “There is no free lunch. The tab always has to be paid and it is paid out of taxes and government revenues in one form or another [...] …

Encrypted messaging services have always presented a tough challenge for government agencies all over the world. On one hand, they allow for freedom of speech, but on the other, they enable miscreants and bad actors to facilitate nefarious deeds. In this regard, on July 2, European law enforcement authorities arrested over 800 individuals that were allegedly partaking in shady activities through the use of an encrypted chat service called EncroChat. The messaging platform has servers based out of France and claims to provide users with “worry-free secure communications.” According to the BBC, EncroChat has a customer base of more than …

The Australian National Blockchain Roadmap Steering Committee has reached out to the wider blockchain community in order to create working groups to explore specific applications of the technology within the supply chain, agricultural and educational sectors. The invitation on the Australian Government’s Department of Industry, Science, Energy and Resources’ website asks interested parties to submit their expressions of interest before the 22nd of July. The working groups will explore and identify use cases and economic opportunities as well as barriers that may prevent adoption across Australia, presenting their findings to the committee by early 2021. Who’s steering this committee? Established …