In Australia, politicians are publically talking about their cryptocurrency investments and are listing them as assets. They are also declaring and discussing other successful digital investments as the country moves towards a crypto friendly legislation.
Register of Members’ Interest
Two Queensland legislators have publically declared their crypto holdings and trading history, reported the Brisbane Times, as a part of asset declaration for the register of members’ interest. The register of members’ interest is the requirement for all politicians to declare assets and party affiliations to the public.
Nick Damatto, the newly elected member of Katter’s Australian Party Member, may be the first politician ever to have listed bitcoin as an asset. Following suit, Labor MP Bart Mellish also declared his bitcoin holdings.
Australia Crypto Friendly?
With enough information and helpful tutorials on how to manage digital assets and investments, more and more people are getting comfortable with the new technology. So in a way, politicians and large public figures declaring bitcoins and other cryptocurrencies under their assets is, in a way, inevitable.
The interesting thing about these announcements is that it is coming from Australia, which has always been outwardly supportive of the cryptocurrency market. It was on in May of 2017, that the Australian Government made an announcement that they would end double taxing digital currencies. Until the announcement, investors in the country were charged GST as well as exchange charges, making it that much more expensive for them to buy, trade and store.
Australia may just be one of the most crypto friendly countries because it has always been in support of the market and adaptive to the new opportunities that the technology poses. The Australian Securities and Investment Commission has come out in support of ICOs in their ICO information sheet document, saying “ICOs have the potential to make an important contribution to the options available to businesses to raise funds and to investment options available to investors.” (Reported by NewsBTC.)
The country also announced in March that 1200 newsagents would make Bitcoin and Ethereum available over the counter. Using a phone number and mobile application, people can buy these coins while picking up cereal and milk.
Australia is a country that is slowly and quietly leading the way for other countries with respect to cryptocurrencies and its market. The country doesn’t feature as much as the US and South Korea, in cryptocurrency publications but is quietly becoming the most crypto friendly nation on the planet.
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