The contents of this newsletter are point-in-time statements. Please note the date of publication.

02 May 2023

Welcome to the April newsletter where we update the community on all things Qoin.

As updated in the March newsletter the investment firm had instructed a leading professional advisory firm to advise it on key areas of the Qoin project including licensing, regulatory and structuring arrangements. We have been advised that this advice is expected before the end of June. This advice will be considered alongside the Australian government (Treasury) proposed licensing arrangements which is also expected to be published by the end of June. The community will continue to be updated in this newsletter of further material progress.

We are pleased to report that the long anticipated Qoin Block Explorer was made available to the whole community on 20 April. Registered users of both Apple and Android mobile phones can easily export their blockchain transactions from any browser on their desktop, laptop, or their mobile devices. Transactions can be downloaded in any date frame into a CSV format which can upload to most accounting systems. Tap the Qoin Block Explorer tab in the HELP button which will take you straight to the Qoin Explorer.

The upgraded Qoin App has been released to selected community leaders for live user testing. After Initial feedback a few further features are being added and the developers had to contend with some changes at the IOS. It is expected to release the much-anticipated upgrade App to the community in May or June, subject to approval by both the Apple and Google App stores.

Other key projects currently in various stages of planning & development are the Q Shop upgrade to a fully transactional ecommerce platform, the Qoin-Back rewards system, and adding additional nodes to the blockchain towards a higher degree of decentralisation.

During the month of March 2023, the community transacted 2,036,000 Qoin across 5,100 transactions between wallets resulting in an average transaction size of Q399. Over the past 12 months the community transacted 55 million Qoin across 83,000 transactions. This data excludes internal related transactions.

Members of the community who would like to buy or sell goods & services should visit the Q Shop by tapping the “Explore Q Shop” button in the Qoin App or visit the many community Facebook pages. The feature trading page this month is the “Qoin Sydney Community Group” Facebook page. We are told by the administrators this page has 212 active traders on the page. We encourage Qoin communities from other cities and towns across Australia, New Zealand, United Kingdom, Singapore, and South Africa to create trading pages for local traders, buyers and sellers of goods & services.

Industry news was dominated by the collapse of various crypto friendly banks as well as tough regulatory action against the largest exchanges in the world including Coinbase, Kraken, and Binance. These actions have left many exchanges without banking facilities. Notwithstanding this turmoil, the crypto price index gained over 50% since January with Bitcoin trading around US$29,000.

A silver lining and crucial development on the regulatory front is that the EU Parliament, on 20 April 2023, overwhelmingly approved the 560-page Markets in Crypto Assets “MiCA” Legislation. The European parliament has now clearly classified crypto assets into 3 main categories, each with its own particular level of regulation, and classified crypto services into 10 categories of service providers, each again with its particular level of disclosures and regulation.

This new crypto regulation now provides certainty to consumers, investors, speculators, and service providers across 27 European member states. Our prediction is that many other countries will adopt these EU regulation principles which had been thoroughly researched and passed by a large majority of an important parliament. The Qoin project and community leaders can now evaluate the most appropriate country in the EU to establish a registered office in the future.

In breaking news on 28 April 2023, the Chairman as well as Chief Legal Officer of Coinbase Inc, the worlds’ largest public crypto exchange, published a video where they make a stunning address to the USA regulator – Securities and Exchange Commission “SEC”. In this video Coinbase pleads with the SEC to refrain from their counter-productive strategy of enforcement by litigation in a crypto industry with confusion and no clear regulatory rule book. Coinbase states that the SEC should not want to litigate as such litigation would put the SEC’s own actions on trial, erode public trust in the SEC, and undermine any incentive for other participants to engage with the SEC. For more startling news at the centre of the confusion at the USA crypto regulatory framework watch the 13-minute video here.

BPS and the other respondents attended the first combined case management hearing in front of her honourable Judge Downes on 20 April 2023.

In the ASIC proceedings brought against BPS the judge consented to the agreed timetable of activities until the trial date set for 16 October 2023. As part of the Redfern Discovery process BPS had requested certain documents and information from ASIC around its publicly stated position on crypto regulation for the period 2017 to 2022. This request was contested and objected to by ASIC. The judge resolved in favour of BPS that ASIC must produce the documents to BPS, albeit in a narrowed scope.

In the representative proceedings matter the applicants requested a date to serve an application for leave to file their further amended statement of claim. The BPS’ barrister pointed out to the court that this 4^th amended statement of claim is again significantly deficient and has obviously been rushed. In favour of BPS, the judge proposed a process and timeline for respondents to notify all parties of their grounds of opposition. Further submissions to be made by the applicants by 26 May. The Amendment Application is listed for hearing on 30 May 2023.

Thank you to all our members of the Qoin Community for your support, loyalty and trading in March.