Crypto and blockchain were missing from the budget despite continued need for regulation

Last week’s federal budget was somewhat surprising, offering more than we expected for SMEs and startups. This included a $392 million industry growth program, the extension of the instant asset write scheme, halving PAYG and GST instalments, and more. There was a hell of a lot in there, and some things that were gratuitously absent. This included cryptocurrency and blockchain. 

In fact, there wasn’t a single mention of either ‘cryptocurrency’ or ‘blockchain’ in any of the federal budget papers. And we haven’t been able to get an answer on why.

For some, this will be a cause of celebration. There are plenty of people who are skeptical of the space, particularly due to the plethora of scams, the FTX debacle, and even the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) which had a fair amount of cryptocurrency exposure.

Still, defenders of the space are adamant about its importance to the future.

“After the collapse of FTX, blockchain technology has a bigger challenge to build a case for public investment than other innovations like quantum and AI, which are verging on sci-fi, but we’d urge the government to keep an open mind,” Jason Titman, Swyftx COO, said in an email to SmartCompany.

Titman applauded Labor’s investment into tech...