Australia and Brazil Have Good News for the Cryptoverse

The Southern Hemisphere just sent some positive news to the cryptoverse. While some countries are turning their backs on initial coin offerings (ICOs), Australia appears to be contemplating actively promoting them. Also, another cryptocurrency exchange, this time in Brazil, has won a legal battle with a bank. Moreover, this is not the only positive news from this country.

Just as South Korean regulators have decided to uphold a much-decried blanket ICO ban, the Australian Treasury has produced an issues paper on ICOs that lists the potential benefits of positioning the country so that it could capitalize on new [ICO-based] opportunities.”

The paper points out that ICO issuers actively seek out “jurisdictions where regulatory settings are seen as most accommodating,” pointing out that many countries have already established themselves as “hubs for IT companies that favor ICO fundraising.” Singapore, for example, has become a major benefactor of the ICO bans in mainland China and South Korea in particular.

And authors note that an ICO “may be an attractive option for startups that are not yet mature enough to access venture capital or to undertake an IPO.”

The paper’s authors also remark that some Australian businesses have used ICOs as a means “to stay onshore rather than relocating overseas in search of capital.”

The issues paper is only a consultation document at this stage, but many Antipodean crypto-enthusiasts will be cheered to hear the Australian government is willing to consider fostering its fledgling ICO market, rather than stifling it.

Elsewhere in the Southern Hemisphere, a Brazilian cryptocurrency exchange has won a legal battle with a bank that had hoped to close the exchange’s accounts.

Per media outlet Portal do Bitcoin, a court in the country has ruled that the Sicoob bank had broken banking regulations and acted arbitrarily when it informed the Mercado Bitcoin exchange it would no longer process the latter’s transactions. The bank has been ordered to resume doing business with the exchange.

Meanwhile, the same media outlet reports that a cinema in Florianópolis, Santa Catarina claims to have become the first movie theater in the country to accept crypto-pay – through a POS terminal provided by Bancryp, a company that claims to be Brazil’s first “crypto bank.” The theater, Cine Multi, states that it now accepts “Bitcoin and other cryptocurrency” payment.

And elsewhere in the country, LGBTQ+ clubbers in the busy urban center of Recife will soon be able to buy drinks and pay for admission in Bitcoin and Litecoin. The owners of the Clube Metrópole say that as of this coming weekend, patrons will have the option of paying in cryptocurrencies, and that if crypto-pay proves to be a hit, they will also move to offer it at the clubs two other Recife-based nightclubs.

The Clube Metrópole says it has teamed up with CoinWISE, a Brazilian fintech startup, who will provide the required technological assistance.