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

20 December 2024

Welcome to our 2024 year-end message and update to the community on all things Qoin.

Highlights

• October through November saw a prominent spike in new active users. Over 3000 Qoin Wallet Apps were downloaded from the App stores. The number of transactions and Qoin volumes increased more than 30% over this period.
• The parties have agreed a settlement deed that will settle and dismiss the Qoin class action, subject to court approval.

Industry overview   

According to media reports the key industry news included:

• An all time high for Bitcoin and the greater crypto index
• Resignation of SEC chairman Gary Gensler, implementer of regulation by litigation, and adversary of the crypto industry.
• Nomination by the Trump administration of a crypto friendly SEC chairman to replace Gensler,
• The USA Trump administration and certain other G7 country representatives discuss the potential of creating a national Bitcoin and/or Crypto Reserve.
• ASIC sues Binance Australia in the Federal Court on 17 December 2024
• Kraken Crypto Exchange operator in Australia given $8 million penalty following ASIC enforcement action.

Markets

Bitcoin hit an all-time high of US108,135 on 17 December. It’s also been another strong month for the greater crypto markets. Per CoinMarketCap the cryptocurrency market size has increased from US$2.44 Trillion on 1 November to US$3.49 Trillion on 19 December – an increase of 43% in less than two months.

Community Transactions

For the month of November 2024, the community transacted 2.472 million Qoin across 2,355 transactions at a wallet value of approximately AU$25.311 million of Qoin. The average transaction size for the month was Q1,049. Since January 2020 the Qoin community made circa 570k transactions at a combined wallet value exceeding AU$2.6 Billion. This data excludes incentives and treasury related transactions.

Technology and Governance

The tech team advised they are satisfied with the testing results of the migration process to the preferred public Layer 2 solutions on the Ethereum network.

A comprehensive announcement of next steps in the decentralisation process to a public blockchain will be made to the community early in the new year.

As our primary use case is a digital asset for business, we want to help our business members to thrive and achieve their goals. Thankfully, most businesses are doing just this, and most can expect marginal growth in 2025. That’s important because small businesses really are the heartbeat of our economy – two thirds of adults own or are employed by a small business.

Class Action Settlement                    

After a long mediation period, we are pleased to announce that the pending class action has been settled on terms which are subject to the approval of the Court. A Notice of Proposed Settlement which details the key terms was published earlier today in the Announcements & Newsletters tab. The settlement approval hearing has been set for 4 March 2025.

The Qoin team is satisfied with this outcome and look forward to now focus on the further decentralisation and expansion of the project to the benefit of the whole Qoin community. Although the past 3 years of litigation and mediation has been a costly distraction, we go into 2025 with confidence and optimism.

Other Updates

As previously announced ASIC has appealed one of Justice Downes’ decisions made in favour of BPS Financial Pty Ltd regarding licensing of the digital wallet.  This appeal by ASIC has been set to be heard on 14 March 2025.

Closing

We are encouraged with the continued increase of App downloads and Qoin Transaction Volumes in November. The political and regulatory landscape in the USA has never been more favourable to the crypto industry and digital assets as we enter 2025. The conditional settlement of the class action gives us further optimism to an outstanding 2025.

We thank all our loyal Qoin holders for your continued support through the year and wish you and your families a merry Christmas and a Prosperous 2025.

The Qoin Team