Coin Market

Australia outlines crypto regulation plan, promises action on debanking

Published

2 weeks ago

March 21, 2025

Australia’s government, under its ruling center-left Labor Party, has proposed a new crypto framework regulating exchanges under existing financial services laws and has promised to tackle debanking.

It comes ahead of a federal election slated to be held on or before May 17, which current polling shows is shaping up to a dead heat between Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s Labor and the opposing Coalition led by Peter Dutton.

The Treasury Department said in a March 21 statement that crypto exchanges, custody services and some brokerage firms that trade or store crypto will come under the new laws.

The regime imposes similar compliance requirements as other financial services in the country, such as following rules safeguarding customer assets, obtaining an Australian Financial Services Licence and meeting minimum capital requirements.

Australia’s Treasury says its new crypto regulations have four priorities. Source: Australian Department of the Treasury

In August 2022, the government initiated a series of industry consultations to draft a crypto regulatory framework.

“Our legislative reforms will extend existing financial services laws to key digital asset platforms, but not to all of the digital asset ecosystem,” the Treasury said in its statement.

Small-scale and startup platforms that don’t meet specific size thresholds will be exempt, along with firms that develop blockchain-related software or create digital assets that aren’t financial products.

Payment stablecoins will be treated as a type of stored-value facility under the Government’s Payments Licensing Reforms; however, some stablecoins and wrapped tokens will be exempt.

“Dealing or secondary market trading in these products will be not treated as a dealing activity, and platforms where they are traded will not be treated as operating a market simply because of that trading activity,” the Treasury said.

As part of its crypto agenda, Albanese’s government has also promised to work with Australia’s four largest banks to better understand the extent and nature of de-banking.

There will also be a review into a central bank digital currency and an Enhanced Regulatory Sandbox in 2025, allowing businesses to test new financial products without needing a license.

Albanese’s government intends to release a draft of the legislation for public consultation. However, a change of government could be on the horizon with a looming federal election, a date for which is yet to be called.

Dutton’s center-right Coalition had earlier promised to prioritize crypto regulation if it wins the election.

The latest YouGov poll published on March 20 shows the Coalition and Labor neck in neck for a two-party preferred vote.

The Coalition leads for topline voting intention, while Albanese continues to lead as preferred prime minister. Source: YouGov

Caroline Bowler, the CEO of local crypto exchange BTC Markets, said in a statement shared with Cointelegraph that the areas of reform are sensible and would keep Australia competitive with global peers.

However, she thinks there “will be additional detail required on capital adequacy and custody requirements.”

“We need to ensure that these requirements aren’t overly burdensome for business investment in Australia,” Bowler said.

Kraken Australia’s managing director, Jonathon Miller, said there is an “urgent need for bespoke crypto legislation” to address the existing confusion and uncertainty in the country’s industry.

“We believe that by establishing a clear crypto regulatory framework and mitigating problems like debanking, government can remove the barriers hampering growth in the Australian economy,” he said.

Magazine: Elon Musk’s plan to run government on blockchain faces uphill battle

Coin Market

Grayscale files S-1 to list Solana ETF on NYSE

Published

55 minutes ago

April 4, 2025

Digital asset manager Grayscale registered with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to list the Grayscale Solana (SOL) Trust exchange-traded fund (ETF) on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE).

The ETF will trade under the ticker symbol “GSOL” and will hold spot SOL as the underlying asset, according to the April 4 S-1 filing.

Grayscale announced plans to convert its existing Grayscale Solana Trust into an ETF in its 19b-4 application filed with the SEC in December 2024.

The filing is among several crypto ETF applications in the United States following a regulatory shift in Washington DC, and Solana is widely expected to be the next digital asset ETF approved by the SEC.

Grayscale Solana Trust ETF S-1 registration form. Source: SEC

Solana price slumps despite Trump’s attention

US President Donald Trump in March announced the inclusion of SOL in the country’s first crypto reserve, alongside Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH), XRP (XRP), and Cardano’s native token ADA (ADA).

Digital assets held in the reserve will be acquired through asset forfeiture and may not significantly contribute to demand for SOL or price appreciation.

“A US Crypto Reserve will elevate this critical industry after years of corrupt attacks by the Biden Administration” and include “made in America” cryptocurrencies, Trump wrote in a March 2 Truth Social post.

Following the announcement, SOL’s price declined to multi-week lows and is down approximately 60% since its all-time high of $295 recorded in January 2025.

SOL’s negative price performance reflects a broader downturn in the crypto markets brought on by fears of a prolonged trade war and the Trump administration’s tariff policies.

SOL has preformed poorly amid trade war fears and a broader downturn in risk-on markets. Source: TradingView

Risk-on assets tend to suffer during trade wars as investors flee volatile asset classes for more stable alternatives such as cash and government bonds.

The approval of a Solana ETF could mitigate this price decline by giving traditional financial investors exposure to SOL and funneling capital from the stock market into the altcoin.

Fresh investment capital pouring into SOL may prop up prices during general market downturns, making the altcoin more resilient to price shocks than digital assets lacking traditional investment vehicles.

Magazine: Solana ‘will be a trillion-dollar asset’: Mert Mumtaz, X Hall of Flame

Coin Market

PayPal, Venmo to roll out Solana, Chainlink transfers

Published

56 minutes ago

April 4, 2025

Global payments platform PayPal has expanded its cryptocurrency offerings to include Chainlink (LINK) and Solana (SOL), giving US-based users the ability to buy, sell and transfer the popular tokens.

Support for LINK and SOL will be rolled out over the next few weeks and will also be extended to users of Venmo, a US mobile payment platform owned by PayPal, the company disclosed on April 4.

Source: Cointelegraph

Roughly 83 million people used Venmo at least once in 2023, according to the latest available information from PayPal.

PayPal’s global reach extends to roughly 428 million accounts as of December, the majority of which are in the United States.

The company’s crypto services are available only to US residents.

PayPal is expanding its crypto offerings in response to growing consumer demand, according to May Zabaneh, an executive in PayPal’s crypto and blockchain division.

“Offering more tokens on PayPal and Venmo provides users with greater flexibility, choice, and access to digital currencies,” she said.

PayPal’s US crypto offerings now include seven digital assets in total, including its payment stablecoin PayPal USD (PYUSD).

PayPal’s stablecoin push

The launch of PYUSD in 2023 solidified PayPal’s entry into the cryptocurrency market. Roughly one year after its launch, PYUSD surpassed $1 billion in total market capitalization for the first time.

Since then, PYUSD’s circulating supply has fallen to around $760 million, according to industry data.

PayPal’s US dollar-pegged stablecoin peaked at a market cap of more than $1 billion in August 2024. Source: DefiLlama

To demonstrate the utility of PYUSD, PayPal settled an invoice with global consulting firm Ernst & Young in October for an undisclosed amount.

At the time, PayPal’s senior vice president of blockchain, Jose Fernandez da Ponte, said “The enterprise environment is very well-suited” for stablecoin payments.

Despite PYUSD’s modest circulating supply compared to stablecoin leaders USDt (USDT) and USDC (USDC), the company’s involvement in the sector cannot be understated, according to Polygon Labs CEO Marc Boiron.

In an interview with Cointelegraph, Boiron credited companies like PayPal and Stripe for catalyzing stablecoin adoption at a time when regulators and enterprises were still uncertain about the technology.

Magazine: Unstablecoins: Depegging, bank runs and other risks loom

Coin Market

Bitcoin sentiment falls to 2023 low, but ‘risk on’ environment may emerge to spark BTC price rally

Published

56 minutes ago

April 4, 2025

Bitcoin (BTC) sits in one of its least bullish phases since January 2023. According to Bitcoin’s “bull score index,” investor sentiment is showing its lowest reading in two years.

Bitcoin bull score index. Source: CryptoQuant

CryptoQuant’s “Crypto Weekly Report” newsletter explained that “bull score index” readings that sit below 40 for extended periods increase the likelihood of a bear market. The bull score remained above 40 throughout 2024, only dipping below this threshold in February 2025, as identified in the chart above.

However, over the past 24 hours, Bitcoin price has displayed resilience when compared against the massive losses seen in the US stock market. On April 3, Bitcoin closed the day with a green candle, while the S&P 500 was down 4.5%, a historic first.

The S&P 500 and Dow Jones extended their decline on April 4, dropping 3.87% and 3.44%, respectively, while Bitcoin held steady near the breakeven point.

Is Bitcoin near a risk-on phase?

Data from CryptoQuant indicates that Bitcoin’s Value Days Destroyed (VDD) metric currently sits around 0.72, suggesting that Bitcoin price is in a transitional phase. Since 2023, such periods have preceded either price consolidation or renewed accumulation before a bullish breakout.

Bitcoin value days destroyed. Source: CryptoQuant

The Bitcoin VDD metric tracks the movement of long-term held coins, and it has signaled a notable market trend since late 2024. The metric peaked at 2.27 on Dec. 12, signaling aggressive profit-taking and this dynamic matched the highs seen in 2021 and 2017. However, VDD dropped to 0.65 in April, reflecting a cooling-off period where profit-taking has subsided.

This opens the possibility of a “risk-on” market for Bitcoin. In financial terms, a “risk-on” scenario occurs when investors embrace higher-risk assets like cryptocurrencies, often driven by optimism and mean reversions in trends.

Amid ongoing market uncertainty that has been fueled by the US-led trade war, Bitcoin could unexpectedly gain from these tense conditions.

Speaking on Bitcoin and the crypto market’s potential as a hedge against traditional market volatility, crypto trader Jackis said,

“A reminder, this is not a crypto-driven drop but an overall risk-on, tariff, trade war-driven drop. While all of that is unfolding, it seems that crypto has likely undergone most of its downside already and has been lately absorbing all of the selling well.”

Similarly, the Crypto Fear & Greed Index also exhibited a “fear” category with a score of 28 on April 4. The index registered an “extreme fear” score of 25 on April 3, suggesting that the current price may present a compelling buying opportunity.

Crypto Fear & Greed Index. Source: alternative.me

This article does not contain investment advice or recommendations. Every investment and trading move involves risk, and readers should conduct their own research when making a decision.