In this edition of The Daily we feature two countries that want to promote their positions in the cryptocurrency and blockchain world. In the UAE a top banker has stated that keeping up with crypto is crucial to become an international financial hub and in Australia the government is investing in the local industry. Additionally, Coinbase Pro is set to implement changes to trading and fees.
Keeping up With Crypto Is Crucial for UAE
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) Banks Federation has hosted a forum on fintech and crypto assets with the Abu Dhabi Global Market, the institution which launched a regulatory framework for cryptocurrency activities in June 2018. The forum discussed, among other related subjects, how financial regulators and banks can handle regulatory risks in working with crypto businesses.
Abdul Aziz Al-Ghurair, Chairman of the UAE Banks Federation, stated: “Given the rapid emergence of new FinTech such as cryptocurrencies and other crypto assets, it is essential that we develop frameworks and regulations that govern these technologies and developments. With aspirations to become one of the foremost international hubs for finance, we must keep up with the rapid technological changes taking place across the sector. Ensuring a robust monetary and financial market environment is critical to this, and can only be achieved by protecting consumer rights and safeguarding market integrity.”
Australian Government to Support Local Industry
The Australian government has announced the development of a national blockchain roadmap as well as $100,000 in funding to help the country’s blockchain industry become a global leader. The promised roadmap is said to focus on a number of policy areas including regulation, skills and capacity building, innovation, investment, and international competitiveness and collaboration. The $100,000 in funding will help Australian companies to showcase their service at an industry event in New York in May.
In the Daily: UAE Needs to Keep up With Crypto, Australia to Support Local Blockchain Industry
Minister for Industry, Science and Technology Karen Andrews commented: “The national strategy puts us on the front foot in exploring how government and industry can enhance the long-term development of blockchain and its uses. We will work closely with blockchain and technology experts from industry and academia to develop the strategy, as well as with CSIRO’s Data61 [the digital innovation arm of Australia’s national science agency] to incorporate findings from their forthcoming future scenarios report on blockchain.”
Coinbase Pro to Implement Trading Changes
Coinbase Pro will implement a set of changes on Friday, March 22 designed to optimize the “market health” of the platform. The changes include a new fee structure, updated order maximums, smaller order increment (‘tick’) sizes, turning off stop market orders and adding market order protection points. Both Coinbase Pro and Prime will introduce a 10 percent market protection point so any market orders that move the price in excess of that will stop executing and return a partial fill, thus helping to prevent large orders from causing more than 10 percent slippage. The company explained that these changes are designed to increase liquidity, enable better price discovery for trades, and to make price movements smoother, leading to a more efficient market.