By George Ward
The Australian-based crypto firm, Swyftx, wants to shut down its crypto-interest initiative this week. The company cited a lack of clear regulations for crypto products in Australia.
Swyftx To End Earn Program On January 10th
According to reports, the Swyftx exchange will end its crypto-interest offering on January 10th. The exchange promised to return users’ assets in their Earn balances to their trading wallets.
Swyftx noted that this is a tough decision for the company. However, the company said it will do what is best for the initiative now. The exchange wrote:
“We believe in the future and promise of cryptocurrencies. However, we now want more clarification on the rules guiding cryptocurrency products such as Earn.”
Interestingly, Swyftx first posted the announcement on December 27th. Unfortunately, the notice did not get much attention due to the holiday season. This news comes several weeks after Australian financial watchdogs went after Finder.com and Block Earner’s crypto yield products.
Regulators alleged that both companies were offering crypto yield products without proper licensing. Furthermore, Swyftx’s recent announcement is not a permanent closure on the Earn program.
The Australian exchange firm noted that it would reopen the program once there are clear crypto regulations.
“We plan to reopen it after Australia has established laws for interest-bearing crypto offers. Meanwhile, our objective is to maintain good engagement with authorities and the government to safeguard current and future Australian crypto consumers,” Swyftx stated.
Crypto Regulation In Australia
Meanwhile, Swyftx first launched its Earn initiative in May 2022. The program aimed to allow users to loan crypto tokens to Swyftx while earning daily interest.
In other news, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) has been scrutinizing the crypto sector in the past few months, focusing on crypto service providers. Last year, the agency went after crypto-related companies such as Finder.com and Block Earner in November and December.
Also, the agency sanctioned the owners of the Qoin token around October. According to ASIC, the creators provided a “misleading” token representation.
Last month, the Australian Labor Government revealed its plans to publish a consultation document early in 2023. This is part of the country’s project towards “token mapping.”
Jim Chalmers, a top-level government official, provided more information about the consultation paper. He said the report would cover the regulation of crypto assets and provide a framework for crypto firm licensing, customer protection, and asset custody.