There’s undoubtedly a downside to the bear market. However, several exchanges steered away from the price aspect and focused solely on development and expansion. Prominent US-based crypto exchange, Coinbase was certainly reaping the benefits of building during the bear market. The firm’s VP of international and business development Nana Murugesan revealed that Coinbase had been exploring the down under by rolling out a local entity.
In a recent interview, Murugesan brought to light that Coinbase would spruce up its presence in Australia by offering traders better services. This included new and fast payments for local bank accounts as well as 24/7 chat support with advanced trading opportunities. While Coinbase Australia’s presence will be limited to retail investors, for now, Murugesan hinted that a full range of its institutional and development products will be launched in the future.
Highlighting the process behind the firm’s latest venture, Murugesan noted that it all started with Coinbase Australia Pty Ltd. The exchange was focused on formulating a localized setup with a local entity. This included garnering a green signal from the Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre [AUSTRAC].
Why Australia?
Murugesan explained that the awareness around crypto in Australia was “kind of on par or even better” with regard to the US as well as other markets. In addition to this, he believed that a vast majority of Australians viewed crypto as the future of finance. He added,
“Australia definitely punches way, way over its weight in the APAC region, certainly at a global level too and from a revenue contribution standpoint, I feel pretty good about what it’s going to do.”
Recently Australia’s token mapping initiative toward the crypto industry garnered immense praise. Lauding the same, Murugesan said,
“Given the token mapping exercise that’s going on, there are a lot of technical questions that we are getting from the Treasury and other departments […] deep technical questions is another thing that we are seeing in Australia at a level deeper than some other countries.”
The Coinbase employee also noted that it had to face “tough questions” pertaining to the firm as well as its token listings. It should be noted that Coinbase has been eyeing Asia as part of its expansion spree.