By
Chimamanda U. Martha
April 25th, 2024
According the deal signed between two fintech startups, very soon Australians will be able to pay any bills in cryptos no matter what recipients accept as a unit of account.
While cryptocurrency supporters from the rest of the world struggle to achieve a mainstream adoption in the market, the population of Australian continent now can enjoy secure and fast transactions recorded on the digital ledger.
The fact does not come as a total surprise, since according to the crypto-statistics, Australia has recently exhibited a skyrocketed surge in the Bitcoin paid bills. During the last three years, the amount of cryptocurrency-backed payments rose by a drastic 3300%, while school fees took the largest portion of cryptocurrency-based bill payments followed by loans and superannuation expenses.
Also, Australians prefer to pay for taxes, credit card repayments and rent in digital coins instead of fiat money, mostly due to an advanced layer of transparency ensured by the blockchain technology.
Such a robust cryptocurrency usage has triggered high business activity of industry players willing to seize an opportunity and fill the niche. Seeking to let Australians pay their bills with cryptocurrency, the fintech startup for automatic payments Gobbill partnered Australian cryptocurrency exchange Cointree.
Under the terms of agreement, Gobbill will act as an intermediary, which takes the funds from its users and pays the bills on their behalf. Additionally, users of the Gobbill platform will be able to link their cryptocurrency wallet to their accounts and have their bills paid using a specified cryptocurrency. The service is mainly aimed at small businesses and households.
According to the co-founder and CEO of Gobbill, Shendon Ewans, the initiative is aimed at meeting existing and anticipated demand:
“We anticipate a surge in the number of customers who would like to pay their bills in crypto in the coming years. Our partnership with Cointree will cater to this market and ensure Gobbill continues to remain ahead of the curve when it comes to allowing our users to pay their bills automatically, while knowing they’re protected from fraud and scams.”
The representative of Cointree, in turn, said that the exchange also had its own service that lets users pay bills, but they hope this partnership would make it an easier process opening it up to more people who had not experimented with cryptocurrencies before.
Notably both Cointree and Gobbill have obtained regulatory approvals. Gobbill has an Australian financial services licence under ASIC, while Cointree is licensed under AUSTRAC to meet anti-money laundering and counter terrorist financing obligations.
Prior to the partnership, the Cointree exchange platform, which is only a few years old, has climbed a threshold of 60,000 active members and has facilitated 100 million transactions. At the press time, Cointree offers 40 types of cryptocurrency including Ripple, NEO and Litecoin, as well as the two most popular cryptocurrencies Bitcoin and Ether.
Despite the protracted decline taken place at the market of digital assets, two startups are confident in their upcoming success saying investors got used to nascent price fluctuations and ultimately developed different trading strategies to mitigate risks. Therefore, a vast majority of cryptocurrency exchanges continue to operate without loss and attract novices.