Aussie fintech prays for crypto clarity as it launches Bitcoin-backed loans
Australian fintech firm Block Earner is charging ahead with plans to launch a crypto-backed loans product, despite staring down an upcoming court date with the financial regulator for allegedly offering financial products without a license.
The new crypto loan product allows Australian crypto investors to use crypto as collateral to borrow cash. Similarly, a Colorado-based lending platform called SALT offers crypto-backed loans to U.S. clients. The major cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase once offered a similar service to its U.S. customers but shuttered it in May this year.
The initial rollout from Block Earner is expected at the end of September and will initially only allow loans using Bitcoin as collateral.
Block Earner co-founder Charlie Karaboga told Cointelegraph that the new loan products have been designed in a “very conservative way” in a bid to fit neatly into an existing licensing model.
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Karaboga’s firm was burned in November last year after it was sued by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission for allegedly offering crypto-linked fixed-yield earning products without an Australian Financial Services (AFS) license.
At the time, Karaboga lashed out against the regulator for its lack of clarity, claiming that his firm had spent considerable time and resources building out products he believed were compliant with ASIC’s existing guidelines.
“Like any company in the fintech ecosystem, before we launched the product we got
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