Commonwealth Bank is going to accept Crypto. So what does this mean?

Cryptocurrencies in the past 10 years have rapidly exploded across the world. Recently we have seen a $200 million Bitcoin acquisition by El Salvador, and a mass ban of 70%+ crypto mining operation in China. From jokes on the Big Bang Theory to Elon Musk’s tweets what does cryptocurrencies mean for the future of Australia?

As of this week, The Commonwealth Bank of Australia is set to launch crypto trading services for the 6.5 million Australian users of its CommBank app. This is a first for banking in the country, and economists believe that the ‘big 4’ will follow.

Local bitcoin players have responded cautiously to CBA’s move to bring crypto into mainstream banking on its app, which is expected to drive new investment into the red-hot space. https://t.co/Y1s46xgCnW

— Financial Review (@FinancialReview) November 3, 2021

According to the announcement from CBA, the Australian banking company is partnering with Gemini owned by the Winklevoss twins (the college athletes from The Social Network) to launch the pilot. Ten crypto assets will be supported in its banking app, with Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Bitcoin Cash (BCH) and Litecoin (LTC) named at this stage

President of the RMIT Blockchain Club Tully Kearny states,

It’s great to see CommBank offering this service, helping to solidify cryptocurrencies as an asset class and to take crypto mainstream. The adoption in Australia over the past year has skyrocketed and it is a very exciting time to be in this space. Especially off the back of the Senate Committee’s most recent recommendations to establish Australia as a crypto hub.

From the embarrassment on the world stage as Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison failed to commit to net zero at the COP26, the future of Australia’s economy that we will inherit will be a strange one. It is currently rumoured that majority of the Western world will push to regulate crypto, with a potential chance that from this monopoly by the ‘big 4’, we could be leading in crypto currencies by 2030 without a plan to net zero from the federal government.

For now, RMIT holds the title as the first Australian University to offer a blockchain first course as well as second highest ranking University in blockchain.

Would you enrol for the course if it meant Australia could go from pink notes to virtual dollars?