Coinbase Will Expand To Australia With A Focus On Institutions

Coinbase’s VP of international and commercial development said authorities and legislators had “difficult questions” about its services.

The cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase, which is based in the United States, will expand its services in Australia by opening a local branch and a new set of services for retail crypto traders. This could be a sign that institutional products are coming soon.

Coinbase’s vice president of international and business development, Nana Murugesan, told Cointelegraph that building during bear markets has “paid off big time during the bull run” and that he is confident in what he sees in the local market.

Murugesan says that the “baseline signals” in Australia are “kind of the same or even better” than in the U.S. and other markets, such as the number of people who know about crypto and see it as the future of finance.

“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.”

Murugesan says they started by establishing a localised infrastructure, forming Coinbase Australia Pty Ltd, and registering with AUSTRAC, Australia’s financial intelligence agency, to provide digital currency exchange services.

“We’ve been very happy with how open Canberra and other policymakers have been to us,” says Murugesan. He adds that the exchange has been asked “tough questions” about its platform and token listings:

 “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.”

At first, Coinbase is giving Australian crypto traders new “fast payments” for local bank accounts, access to its advanced trading platform, and 24/7 contact support. This, says Murugesan, “opens the door” for the company to launch its full range of institutional and development products.

Even though he didn’t have a specific date for when the products would be available, Murugesan said that he knows Australian institutions will want to “do everything locally.” He also said that in the coming months, Coinbase will be “very focused on institutions.”

Murugesan says that the exchange is working with the University of New South Wales (UNSW) and others to offer similar courses and research programmes.

Murugesan says that regulation is good for business because “resources are limited, especially during a bear market” and Coinbase wants to grow in Asia.

Some countries in the region have unclear crypto policies, so it’s likely that it will focus “more on markets that have clarity or are moving towards clarity,” he said.

He talked about how interested G20 countries are in crypto and how blockchain and digital currencies fit into the future of finance. He said that he thought this would be a “hot topic” among G20 countries by next year.

“There’s a lot of interest among Australian policymakers to take a leadership role in those type of discussions, too.”