What an awesome week and a way to end the year for Aus DeFi. We had our event with the Stand With Crypto Australia crew along with Coinbase Immutable Sigma Prime last week.
We also announced as part of this our new website (www.defi.org.au) and the new members portal that we previewed. Additionally, we also shared our move towards more of an emerging tech-focused association to bring in AI as part of the association, esepcially as blockchain and AI are quite complementary.
You'll see more news on this in the coming weeks.
Also we got more photos of the Sydney Upside Xmas party event https://www.linkedin.com/posts/upside-dao_sydney-nailed-silly-szn-100k-and-vibes-ugcPost-7272765367821770752-N6Ak?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_android
Great to see team Australia meet team India as Redbelly Network got together up north https://www.linkedin.com/posts/redbelly-network_peopleofredbelly-teamredbelly-redbellynetwork-activity-7271787085068464128-Qhci?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_android
Bitcoin MENA day 1 recording here from Abu Dhabi. We had a few Aussies over there including cofounder Arturo
A16z crypto trends and AI is part of it https://www.linkedin.com/posts/brandonturp_a16z-crypto-just-released-their-2025-big-activity-7271912707858042880-0Wzy?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_android
Great to see DECA and others from industry meeting with Stephen Jones the assistant treasurer to discuss upcoming regulations https://www.linkedin.com/posts/digitaleconomycouncil_this-morning-deca-together-with-our-members-activity-7272843661283848192-Mc5q?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_android
Also great to see superannuation dominoes coming along to the crypto party with AMP investing $27m into Bitcoin https://www.afr.com/companies/financial-services/amp-first-big-super-fund-to-buy-into-crypto-20241212-p5kxwj
On the same day that OpenAI release Sora their long awaited video too, Google gets payback for their announcements being hijacked by releasing their latest Quantum chip, Willow. There's those who worry what this means for blockchain but it's more than just this spacez SSL encryption and other pieces of digital security we take for granted will also be affected. So we'll see what happens.
Fear not though - there are counter arguments to allay your fears https://www.linkedin.com/posts/piertwo_if-you-are-in-the-crypto-world-youve-probably-activity-7273216222245134337-Rxnx?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_android
Interesting discussion here on Unchained with host Laura Shin looking at what a regulatory environment looks like under the new regime in the USA
If you missed it there's the ASIC consultation on information paper 225 that's out. Angela Ang of TRM Labs here with the breakdown https://www.linkedin.com/posts/angelaajl_asic-consults-on-revised-digital-asset-activity-7269894963272781828-ayTN?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_android
Speaking of TRM, their colleague, Ari Redbord was on the Netflix feature “Biggest Heist Ever” which was about the Bitfinex hack. Check it out online.
As we head to the holidays check out this post from commujity member James https://www.linkedin.com/posts/james-coombes-617b2a19_btc-activity-7272773841804779521-odew?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_android
AusPayNet summit last week saw Brad Jones (Deputy Chair of the Reserve Bank of Australia’s Payments System Board) talk about the future of payments and Ellis Connolly (Head of Payments Policy at the RBA) created this summary on LinkedIn. He highlights Project Acacia, the next stage of CBDC testing with tokenised bank deposits and stablecoin. https://www.linkedin.com/posts/ellis-connolly-8b09a94b_the-future-of-the-payments-system-speeches-activity-7272843440126595072-vmGZ?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop
That's it folks! That's the last newsletter until the new year. Stay connected with us whilst we share more insights about our new website and and the upcoming members portal.
About Aus DeFi Association
The Australian DeFi Association (Aus DeFi) is a non-profit community organisation dedicated to increasing education and awareness of blockchain technology, specifically decentralised finance (DeFi) and web3-based projects. Their goal is to empower the Australian community with the knowledge and tools to participate in the decentralised economy, and to promote the adoption and growth of blockchain technology in Australia. They strive to provide a more grassroots approach to promoting blockchain technology compared to other industry-focused organisations in Australia, and to provide a platform for community members to learn about and engage with this emerging technology.
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This newsletter is brought to you by our sponsors at NotCentralised who use their AI tool, SIKE, to bring together the highlights each week. For more on SIKE and the world of business-friendly AI, see