Trading platform FTX continues its crazy growth by announcing the opening of a new headquarters, this time in Australia. Sam Bankman-Fried, its founder announced the news while speaking at Blockchain Week 2022.
FTX moves to Australia
Speaking at Blockchain Week 2022 in Australia, Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF), announced that his FTX platform will open a headquarters in the country.
Really excited to launch FTX: Australia!https://t.co/ZcBNEuyiG9https://t.co/jGumMSXMW3 https://t.co/rABSI5Y81O
– SBF (@SBF_FTX) March 20, 2022
Specifically, Sydney, Australia’s financial centre, will be the location of the crypto asset trading services giant. The company has been licensed by local regulators to issue over-the-counter (OTC) derivatives, including:
- Options;
- Futures contracts;
- CFDs;
- Leveraged tokens.
During his speech, SBF praised the spirit of collaboration between his company and the Australian regulator. He also emphasised the importance of these discussions in order to establish a sound legal framework for our ecosystem:
The creation of FTX Australia should give all our local clients the confidence to trade on a registered and licensed platform. As in other jurisdictions in which we operate, significant resources have been allocated to proactively engage with local regulators. We seek to participate in policy discussions globally […] and are encouraged by the important work being undertaken to establish a new digital asset licensing regime. “
FTX announced the establishment of FTX Australia, which holds an Australian Financial Services Licence and acts as the issuer of the OTC derivatives including options contract, futures contract, contract for difference (CFDs) and leveraged tokens.
– Wu Blockchain (@WuBlockchain) March 21, 2022
The benefits of good regulation
FTX’s announcement comes as Australia appears to be moving towards cryptocurrency-friendly regulation.
The country’s finance minister, Josh Frydenberg, said that if the government did not take action, Silicon Valley players would set the next payment standards, thereby removing some of Australia’s sovereignty.
Thus, the country, which enjoys a favourable reputation in terms of finance in the Asia-Pacific region, wishes to place itself at the forefront of the new technologies brought by Web 3.0.
We can see that this type of strategy is paying off, whether by this example, or more recently with Binance which is developing in the Middle East for similar reasons. Indeed, if a nation really wants to play a leading role in the future that is taking shape, it is in its interest to adopt a coherent position towards this technology, which will continue to evolve.
