As the Western Front continued its uncertain stance on cryptocurrencies, Australian government officials remained a step forward to better understand the functionality and utility of digital assets.
According to a recent report, Judge Judith Gibson of New South Wales district court in Australia permitted the utilization of a cryptocurrency exchange account as a security against the legal expenditure.
During an on-going defamation case, the defendant placed a request in front of the district court, stating that the accused party should place a sum of $20,000 AUD in a court-controlled bank account. Should the plaintiff lose the case or facilitate a withdrawal, the funds will be used to cover some of the legal costs of the defendant.
Funds to be stored in the Crypto Account
The court in Australia accepted the proposal but allowed the plaintiff to store the capital in a cryptocurrency exchange account that would be used as collateral in the event of the plaintiff losing the lawsuit.
Legal Representatives from the defendant’s side raised concerns regarding this situation as even though the account was by Australian dollars, the money was represented by a highly volatile form of asset. In response to this statement, Judge Gibson accepted that fact that digital assets were unstable but she added,
“However, this is a recognized form of investment.”
In order to address the volatile issue of cryptocurrencies, the plaintiff agreed to send monthly statements to the defendant’s counsel attached to the cryptocurrency exchange account. In addition, the court also stated that the plaintiff had to notify the defendant if the crypto’s account valuation drops below the agreed sum of $20,000 AUD.
The NSW district court Judge in Australia said,
“I can see the desirability of the defendant receiving prompt notification of any drop in the value of the account. These are uncertain financial times.”
While the use of cryptocurrency as collateral for a lawsuit is far from ideal, the approval of such a proposal only illustrated Australia’s increasing positive attitude to digital assets. The above-mentioned case will improve the credential of the digital asset while fostering mass adoption across the country.
312 Crypto Exchanges in Australia
From a point of adoption, regulatory institutions in Australia with regards to digital assets have been fast and responsive over the past couple of years. According to the Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre (AUSTRAC), the regulators have already registered 312 digital exchanges at press time.
A total of 246 crypto exchanges were registered with AUSTRAC in February 2019, suggesting that 66 more exchanges had been added to the picture in the last 12 months.
Bitcoin; Not the only popular crypto in Australia
Although Bitcoin’s popularity in Australia and around the globe is unparalleled, XRP proponents in the nation were thrilled to realize that market volumes for the third-largest token outperformed Bitcoin’s trading volume by 4 times on BTCmarkets, a crypto exchange in Australia.
One of the major reasons behind such a huge pump could be the fact that BTC markets have successfully entered a collaboration with Ripple for the utilization of RippleNet’s ODL services.
Ripple has been fervently active in the continent as well and FlashFX, a licensed entity in Australia, currently uses RippleNet to facilitate cross-border transactions via AUD-PHP and AUD-USD corridors.
However, FlashFX’s Chief Enabling Officer, Nicolas Steiger believed that that possibility of an instant ODL adoption by Australian banks at the moment was less but it was due to lack of understanding rather a regulatory issue.