The contents of this announcement or newsletter are point-in-time statements. Please note the date of publication.
Welcome to your latest newsletter where we update the community on all things Qoin.
Industry overview
The big news on 23 May 2024 was the unexpected approval of an Ethereum “ETH” spot Exchange Traded Fund “ETF” by the American Securities Exchange Commission “SEC”. This follows the Bitcoin ETF that was approved in January 2024. Per media reports this paves the way for more crypto ETF’s to follow as the industry goes mainstream.
Per Business News Australia, on 5 June 2024, Block Earner was absolved by the Australian Federal Court of all penalties in the case it lost against ASIC for unlicensed conduct when it offered a crypto yield product without a financial services licence. The key reasons Block Earner was absolved from any penalty was because it obtained legal advice from a leading law firm and genuinely believed it was not breaching the law.
According to the publication Block Earner submitted that it effectively did the best that any reasonable business could do in Australia’s uncertain financial services regulatory environment (at para [17]-[19]) of the judgment. His Honour Jackman highlighted an extract from a recent Australian Law Reform Commission report, titled “Confronting Complexity: Reforming Corporations and Financial Services Legislation”, which stated on its first page:
[T]he legislation governing Australia’s financial services industry is a tangled mess – difficult to navigate, costly to comply with, and unnecessarily difficult to enforce.
Judges have described the current laws as being like “porridge”, “tortuous”, “treacherous”, and “labyrinthine”.
Per CoinMarketCap and the S&P Digital Asset Index the cryptocurrency market size has grown this year to a market capitalisation exceeding US$2.5 Trillion as of 10 June 2024. More than 130 new cryptocurrencies have been floated onto the global market in the last 7 days.
Community Transactions
For the month of May 2024, the community transacted 1.275 million Qoin across 2,421 transactions at a combined wallet value of approximately AU$12.7 million of Qoin. The average transaction size for the month was Q526. Since January 2020 the Qoin community made 560,000 transactions at a combined wallet value exceeding AU$2.5 Billion. This data excludes incentives and internal related transactions.
Technology and Governance
As foreshadowed in the April 2024 newsletter the team has simplified the Qoin.world website with the objective to streamline its messaging to a future audience of merchants and consumers.
The Qoin Association continues to investigate ways to introduce more independence and decentralised governance into the protocol. This is important for long term sustainability across a broad spectrum of stakeholders and users. An announcement in this regard is expected before the end of this year.
The tech team has made progress for the next technological phase of further decentralisation of the blockchain and automation of the off-chain processes, including the merchant count and verification services. The objective is for the Association and Group Leaders to review these recommendations over the next few months.
Other Updates
The class action parties remain in mediation. The mediation has been adjourned until 19 June 2024 to allow for ongoing discussions and communications between the parties. Due to the confidential nature of the mediation no further information can be disclosed at this stage. The parties can provide a further update as soon as the mediation has either been concluded or alternatively terminated.
As per the Announcement on 3 May 2024 judgment was delivered between ASIC and BPS Financial Pty Ltd “BPS”. Both ASIC and BPS have been given leave to appeal or cross appeal. The parties have until 21 June 2024 to consider their appeal options.
Importantly, BPS has updated its authorised representative agreement with the Australian Financial Services License (AFSL) holder Billzy Pty Ltd to align with the Federal Court ruling of 3 May 2024. The updated agreement has been submitted to ASIC.
We will update the community on any material progress in both the mediation and appeal matters above as soon as practical, permitted and authorised.
Closing
All the best to each one of you across Australia, New Zealand, United Kingdom, South Africa, and Singapore who have downloaded the Qoin Wallet App in May. Explore the Qoin World and remember transacting is free.
The Qoin Team