The Australian government is asking businesses and individuals for feedback on its plan to overhaul licensing and custody arrangements for digital assets.
The proposals include requirements such as breach reporting obligations, compliance with anti-money laundering laws and a strategy on how to classify crypto assets, a government paper released yesterday said.
The regime is being developed so consumers can trust the exchanges they use to trade crypto, Australian Minister for Superannuation, Financial Services and the Digital Economy Jane Hume said in the text of a speech yesterday.
The government wants feedback on the regulation ahead of its finalization later this year, she said.
“Government can’t guarantee your crypto any more than it can guarantee a painting or a share in a company, and nor should it,” she said. “But we can make sure Australian exchanges, custodians and brokers — Australian players in the crypto ecosystem — work within a regulatory framework that is better, safer and more secure.”
Regulators around the world are battling with the speedy emergence of digital assets, aiming to strike a balance between spurring technological entrepreneurship, while minimizing risks to consumers.
More than 800,000 Australians have made transactions with digital assets since 2018, according to the Australian Taxation Office.
As part of the reforms, the Australian government is seeking feedback on policies to address banks refusing to do business with emerging fintech firms. It would also review how they are appropriately taxed by the end of this year, expecting the digital asset economy to grow to A$64 billion (US$47.3 billion) from A$2.1 billion by the decade’s end, Hume said.
“Australia is serious about getting regulation right for the digital age and emerging technologies like crypto are key,” Hume said.
Separately, the Malaysian Ministry of Communications and Multimedia has proposed to the government that cryptocurrency, such as bitcoin, be adopted as legal transfer, Deputy Minister Zahidi Zainul Abidin told parliament yesterday.
“We hope the government can allow this,” Zahidi said. “We are trying to see how we can legalize this so that we can develop youth participation in crypto and assist them.”
Cryptocurrency falls under the purview of the central bank and Securities Commission, he added.
Napoleon Osorio is proud of being the first taxi driver to have accepted payment in bitcoin in the first country in the world to make the cryptocurrency legal tender: El Salvador. He credits Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele’s decision to bank on bitcoin three years ago with changing his life. “Before I was unemployed... And now I have my own business,” said the 39-year-old businessman, who uses an app to charge for rides in bitcoin and now runs his own car rental company. Three years ago the leader of the Central American nation took a huge gamble when he put bitcoin
TECH RACE: The Chinese firm showed off its new Mate XT hours after the latest iPhone launch, but its price tag and limited supply could be drawbacks China’s Huawei Technologies Co (華為) yesterday unveiled the world’s first tri-foldable phone, as it seeks to expand its lead in the world’s biggest smartphone market and steal the spotlight from Apple Inc hours after it debuted a new iPhone. The Chinese tech giant showed off its new Mate XT, which users can fold three ways like an accordion screen door, during a launch ceremony in Shenzhen. The Mate XT comes in red and black and has a 10.2-inch display screen. At 3.6mm thick, it is the world’s slimmest foldable smartphone, Huawei said. The company’s Web site showed that it has garnered more than
PARTNERSHIPS: TSMC said it has been working with multiple memorychip makers for more than two years to provide a full spectrum of solutions to address AI demand Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday said it has been collaborating with multiple memorychip makers in high-bandwidth memory (HBM) used in artificial intelligence (AI) applications for more than two years, refuting South Korean media report's about an unprecedented partnership with Samsung Electronics Co. As Samsung is competing with TSMC for a bigger foundry business, any cooperation between the two technology heavyweights would catch the eyes of investors and experts in the semiconductor industry. “We have been working with memory partners, including Micron, Samsung Memory and SK Hynix, on HBM solutions for more than two years, aiming to advance 3D integrated circuit
Vanguard International Semiconductor Corp (世界先進) and Episil Technologies Inc (漢磊) yesterday announced plans to jointly build an 8-inch fab to produce silicon carbide (SiC) chips through an equity acquisition deal. SiC chips offer higher efficiency and lower energy loss than pure silicon chips, and they are able to operate at higher temperatures. They have become crucial to the development of electric vehicles, artificial intelligence data centers, green energy storage and industrial devices. Vanguard, a contract chipmaker focused on making power management chips and driver ICs for displays, is to acquire a 13 percent stake in Episil for NT$2.48 billion (US$77.1 million).
RSS