Crypto exchange Binance Australia has won the Best Innovation in Digital Currencies category of the Finder Innovation Awards, announced a short time ago on Thursday afternoon.

The awards program, now in its sixth year, aims to recognise Australia’s most forward-thinking, and cutting-edge businesses showing strides in innovation and growth in the past 12 months.

Submissions across 27 key innovation categories, including digital currencies, were scored by a judging panel of 46 industry experts from Deakin University, the Australian Investment Council, Australian FinTech, the Australian Tourism Industry Council, and some from this publication as well.

The runners-up for the Best Innovation in Digital Currencies award were Brisbane-based blockchain development agency Labrys and the Sydney-based crypto payments solution RelayPay.

Binance Australia, which has been operating for just over a year, has grown into the country’s largest crypto exchange by AUD trading volume, with more than 480,000 Australian users so far and billions in value traded in its first year.

To help cope with its booming user activity, the Aussie chapter of the world’s largest crypto exchange recently said it has plans to triple its staff in its second year.

On top: Finder Innovation Award winner Binance Australia.

Australia is in the middle of a crypto tech boom

James Edwards, cryptocurrency expert at comparisons site Finder, says that Australia is well positioned to take advantage of a cryptocurrency-tech boom.

“Australia has a thriving cryptocurrency community with a rich ecosystem of businesses, developers and users,” said Edwards today, adding:

“We are fortunate to have fairly clear direction from the government, which has allowed the industry to grow without regulatory challenges or interference as has been the case in other countries, like the US.”

Edwards highlighted the fact that Australia is home to more than its fair share of innovation and start-ups.

Synthetix, PowerLedger, Rocket Pool, THORChain and Illuvium spring to mind as just a handful of prominent local examples among an ever-growing field of blockchain talent playing a huge part in shaping the industry globally.

It’s these home-grown innovators who can “take adoption beyond users and into the economy”, believes Edwards.

“If Australia continues down this path of blockchain-friendly governance, then we could play host to our own cryptocurrency tech boom, which is quite exciting,” Finder’s crypto expert continued. “We are already seeing big strides in financial services, gaming and even art – all tied back to blockchain technology.”

A recent Finder survey of 1,004 Australians revealed that 25% either own or plan to own cryptocurrency by the end of the year. Despite this, one in five (20%) don’t know how to buy it.

The nationally representative survey also revealed that 10% are interested in purchasing cryptocurrency but say they just haven’t gotten around to it yet.

You can view the full list of Finder’s 27 category finalists and winners here.

 

Binance Australia update: restriction of derivatives products offerings

In further Binance news, the exchange has now just announced that its Australian users will not be able to open new accounts for options, margin products and leveraged tokens. This doesn’t have any bearing on regular spot-trading activities on the exchange.

The statement reads:

“With immediate effect, users from Australia will be restricted from opening new accounts for options, margin products, and leveraged tokens. This is an expansion of restriction since users from Australia were restricted from opening new futures accounts on 2021-07-08 (UTC).”

It’s another move from Binance to proactively tackle the regulatory and compliance scrutiny the exchange has been facing globally this year.

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