As the fight for regulatory clarity in Australia continues, Binance Australia CEO Leigh Travers believes such a framework will show that the cryptocurrency industry “stands at a higher level” than many realize.
Travers spoke to Cointelegraph on Tuesday about the current state of local crypto regulatory efforts. and how the opportunities available in the industry are constrained by a lack of clarity.
That lack of clarity was cited as the reason the Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) indefinitely postponed a pilot program for its cryptocurrency trading services last month. Although there are no rules on the books directly prohibiting the new CBA service, Australian financial regulators pushed for a pause in the services due to a lack of consumer protection.
Without the necessary regulations to allow these cryptocurrency services to function, they cannot prove their viability.
In Travers’ view, the crypto industry is already ahead of traditional financial regulatory regimes for a number of reasons, and he believes new regulations should reflect this.. He says that he believes “the cryptocurrency industry wants there to be regulation” for good reason:
“People in the crypto industry want to show that they hold themselves to a higher standard than others believe.”
Travers believes that a prudent regulatory regime would make that higher standard self-evident to Australians.. With or without new regulations, blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis made it clear in January that when it comes to financial crime, “cash is still king.”
Another way Travers said the cryptocurrency industry stands apart from traditional finance is that cryptocurrencies like bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) don’t fit easily into any existing classification for property or financial products. Cryptocurrencies are currently classified as goods in Australia.
Travers said that the distinction between cryptocurrencies and other assets could widen over time as decentralization increases.adding that “cryptocurrencies fit into different products,” which only compounds the difficulty of regulating it responsibly.
Travers called Senator Andrew Bragg one of the champions of crypto on the liberal side, but the local industry may lose that champion now that the Labor Party has taken power. for the first time in nine years.
He says the previous majority Liberal Party saw industry “with well-paying jobs and contributions to the economy” as a good thing. He worries that the work already underway on the new regulations will slow down considerably because “Labour is not immediately focused on blockchain or cryptocurrencies”, which could put the domestic industry at a disadvantage:
“This industry is crying out for clearer regulation because it is difficult to be a service provider in this environment.”
Usually, Travers appears to be bullish on cryptocurrencies. He shared his belief in the future of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and the various roles they could play in society.
In the short term, he admitted that the path of NFTs is still uncertain and that they will probably remain mere pieces of art, but that the long-term implications of NFTs are far-reaching for property rights and intellectual property. He said he thinks “NFTs are going to be huge. Intellectual property is the reason Disney is such a big company.”
Despite the current price crash, in which BTC has fallen below its realization price for the first time since March 2020, Travers is generally bullish on the sector. He pointed out that in the short term, “cryptocurrencies will suffer as much is macro driven”, but that it is only a matter of time before the tide turns again for the bulls:
“When the fear of rising interest rates subsides, cryptocurrencies will catch that wind and have more opportunities when everything has been sold.”
Keep reading:
Investments in crypto assets are not regulated. They may not be suitable for retail investors and the full amount invested may be lost. The services or products offered are not aimed at or accessible to investors in Spain.