December 2, 2025 • 8 mins
With Bitcoin swinging from record highs to sharp drops, investors are asking what’s next.
Sean Aylmer speaks to John O’Loghlen, Managing Director of Coinbase Australia, for an insight into market flows, regulation, and whether a Fed change could spark the next rally.
This is general information only. Seek professional advice before making investment decisions.
Find out more: https://fearandgreed.com.au/
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
Welcome to Fear Any Greed Q and A, where we
ask and answer questions about business, investing, economics, politics and more.
I'm Sean Aylmer. Crypto investors have had a pretty wild
ride over the last year or so. It's probably fair
to say the last few years the price of bitcoin
climbed from low's last year of just over forty thousand
US dollars to an all time high of one hundred
(00:26):
and twenty six thousand US dollars in October or a
bit more than that, before falling sharply again to ninety
thousand and even love us. So what's driving the movement
in bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies? And with rumors the next
FED chair could be Kevin Hassett, a former advisor to
bitcoin and crypto exchange Coinbase, might we be in for
another price spike? Remember this is all general information and
(00:49):
you should seek professional advice before making investment decisions. Jena
Laughlin is the managing director of coin Based Australia and
joins me now from India. John, welcome back to Fear
and Greed. You're a long way from home.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
Yeah, thanks, Sean. We have three regulated businesses across APAC
and my day job is running the Australian business and
at other times I'm looking after an amazing team on
the side of the ocean and here for a few
days and then back in Sydney on Friday.
Speaker 1 (01:16):
Fair enough, let's jump in to cryptocurrencies, Bitcoin, Ether, Solana.
The last couple of days they've come back again. How
should we be framing cryptos when we're thinking about them
at the moment?
Speaker 2 (01:33):
Great question and something my wife and my own family
have been asking me at that recent times, and I'm
sure lots of our colleagues in the US of a
Thanksgiving we're pondering the same topic. This has always been
a volatile asset class, more volatile than nearly every other commodity,
and we've been through this before. In twenty twenty one,
for instance, in a four week period, Bitcoin fell over
(01:56):
fifty percent, Ethereum over sixty in Solana nearly seventy percent.
We're a centralized, trusted exchange and clearly we provide services
when people are buying and selling, and so we're not
really in the business of looking at the direction or
price of certain assets. I do think our job is
(02:17):
to kind of, you know, avoid the noise and keep
our head downs and just keep shipping the best product
and making sure that people have you know, reliable service.
Some of the observations in the last month and talking
to our institutional colleagues as well when things came below
one hundred k and lower. As you mentioned, you know,
we've always been seeing more buyers than sellers in our
(02:38):
order books, which is positive. I think probably in late
October a number of the highly leveraged players closed their
positions and exited the market. But during all that time
flows and markets remained orderly, and we've seen a whole
of other people come back into the market. Probably the
best guidance comes from David Duong, who you can find
(02:59):
on Twitter or on x He's the head of our
institutional research and one of the few people who you know,
really provides institutional research in this space. And so you
know a number of things that are driving this lowering
of the price. I think bitcoin's been a major guide
for volatility and all sorts of markets. You have a
huge number of passive funds and index funds and other
(03:22):
investment class or rather products that now have exposured a bitcoin,
whether it's through digital asset treasuries or others, and so
a lot of those products and businesses have triggers and
flaws and various prices, and when more people are in
the business and there's a selloff, I think there's just
been more momentum across the broader market. But as you
(03:42):
talked about, we're predicting some rate cuts coming. David Duong
feels that a lot of traders are mispricing the rate
cuts and they meet greater than less and so we're
hoping for a kind of post December ten rally looking
at those those FED announcements. As you mentioned. In Australia locally,
you know, we've seen a really strong business as well.
(04:03):
So I think I think the appetite from all sorts
of demographics is still very, very healthy.
Speaker 1 (04:10):
Without meaning to give coinbase a Dorothy Dixon, but I
think I'm about to When you are buying or selling
a cryptocurrency and you want to use in exchange, what
should you be I mean, I just I'm interested in
I don't buy and sell cryptocurrencies, but if I wanted to,
(04:30):
what are the things that you say, look as an
potential investor, these are the things you've just got to
make sure you're getting right and your counterparty is getting right.
Speaker 2 (04:40):
Yeah, great question. I mean I joined this business because
it's a regulated entity effectively, and yeah, so when I
joined in twenty twenty two, oz track with a regulator.
Now we're spending a vast amount of time preparing for
an AFSL under ASSEK the incoming regulator. And I think
in Australia Ostrack might have registered three or four one
hundred plus brokers or people offering crypto services in one
(05:04):
form and another. That sounds like probably too many for
a country the size of Australia, and so I think
there's going to be a consolidation in the market. And
we only offer our consumer service retail businesses and regulated markets.
And so the positive there, I think for Australian consumers
is that the Assistant Treasurer of dal Molino announced guidance
on regulation last week in Canberra, the last sitting day
(05:28):
of Parliament. This is something we've been working on for
four years. We've been leaning in with the industry on this,
wanting to get guidelines on what an exchange needs to do.
There's a stable coin regime that they've given guidance on
what how are these tokens class as financial products or
utility products, et cetera, et cetera. So looking to regulated
(05:49):
players in those markets with the highest level of regulation,
and in many instances we're kind of acting like a
regulated player before the regulation is even here. And so
be very careful when you're when you're reading those teas
and sees. I would say, if someone doesn't have a
FI art offering, i e. They can't connect to local
(06:09):
ossie banks. And there are a number of players in
the market who are big names who only let you
offer kind of crypto to crypto so you can send
your crypto in and out of the exchange if you're
not offering a kind of FIAT offering to top up
and sell out through Aussie dollars. And I don't think
you can really regard yourself as as a fully regulated,
(06:30):
buttoned up player in Australia.
Speaker 1 (06:33):
Great advice, broadly, I appreciate you in exchange, and you're
not here to tell us whether the bitcoin is going
to go up or down or whatever. If we end
up with a well, we will end up with a
new fed chair. Now obviously that Kevin Hassett has been
thrown around a former advisor to Bitcoin and coinbase. Whoever
it is is probably going to be more sympathetic to
(06:56):
cryptocurrencies than the current chairs or empowered at least publicly.
Is that how good a thing is that for cryptos?
Speaker 2 (07:06):
Look, I think it's positive. I don't think the appointment
of someone of the background you described as unique or unusual,
you know. Going forward, even in India where I sit
now on a pretty bumpy highway, there have been murmurings
from people at the RBI, the Ministry of Finance and others,
(07:27):
and the stable coin regime and cryptocurrencies digital assets are
coming into the conversation in a way that no one
would have imagined twelve months ago. Joe Longo, the chairman
of ASAK, made quite a public statement two weeks ago
at the press cub and camera asking for effectively more
innovation in the financial markets and signaling the value of
(07:52):
distributed ledge of technology. And that was also covered at
the ASSEIC forum in Melbourne, and that topic had never
been covered obviously as well. So that in itself is
a local kind of signal from from someone in a
position of influence whose major job is to protect and
control and look after markets. So I think we're seeing
(08:14):
a lot of these appointments and you know, I've just
broad more broadly called them kind of upgrades to the system.
Financial systems are antiquated, archaic, expensive burdens into consumers. They
need an upgrade. I think that the trains left the
station on that reality.
Speaker 1 (08:32):
John, thank you for talking to Fear and Greed. Thanks Sean,
John I. Laughlin, Managing Director of Coinbase Australia. And a
reminder to seek your own advice before making any investment decisions.
If you've got something you'd like to know, then send
through your question on LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook or at Fearing
greed dot com. Today you I'm Chanel and this is
Fear and Greed Q and a
Welcome to Fear Any Greed Q and A, where we
ask and answer questions about business, investing, economics, politics and more.
I'm Sean Aylmer. Crypto investors have had a pretty wild
ride over the last year or so. It's probably fair
to say the last few years the price of bitcoin
climbed from low's last year of just over forty thousand
US dollars to an all time high of one hundred
(00:26):
and twenty six thousand US dollars in October or a
bit more than that, before falling sharply again to ninety
thousand and even love us. So what's driving the movement
in bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies? And with rumors the next
FED chair could be Kevin Hassett, a former advisor to
bitcoin and crypto exchange Coinbase, might we be in for
another price spike? Remember this is all general information and
(00:49):
you should seek professional advice before making investment decisions. Jena
Laughlin is the managing director of coin Based Australia and
joins me now from India. John, welcome back to Fear
and Greed. You're a long way from home.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
Yeah, thanks, Sean. We have three regulated businesses across APAC
and my day job is running the Australian business and
at other times I'm looking after an amazing team on
the side of the ocean and here for a few
days and then back in Sydney on Friday.
Speaker 1 (01:16):
Fair enough, let's jump in to cryptocurrencies, Bitcoin, Ether, Solana.
The last couple of days they've come back again. How
should we be framing cryptos when we're thinking about them
at the moment?
Speaker 2 (01:33):
Great question and something my wife and my own family
have been asking me at that recent times, and I'm
sure lots of our colleagues in the US of a
Thanksgiving we're pondering the same topic. This has always been
a volatile asset class, more volatile than nearly every other commodity,
and we've been through this before. In twenty twenty one,
for instance, in a four week period, Bitcoin fell over
(01:56):
fifty percent, Ethereum over sixty in Solana nearly seventy percent.
We're a centralized, trusted exchange and clearly we provide services
when people are buying and selling, and so we're not
really in the business of looking at the direction or
price of certain assets. I do think our job is
(02:17):
to kind of, you know, avoid the noise and keep
our head downs and just keep shipping the best product
and making sure that people have you know, reliable service.
Some of the observations in the last month and talking
to our institutional colleagues as well when things came below
one hundred k and lower. As you mentioned, you know,
we've always been seeing more buyers than sellers in our
(02:38):
order books, which is positive. I think probably in late
October a number of the highly leveraged players closed their
positions and exited the market. But during all that time
flows and markets remained orderly, and we've seen a whole
of other people come back into the market. Probably the
best guidance comes from David Duong, who you can find
(02:59):
on Twitter or on x He's the head of our
institutional research and one of the few people who you know,
really provides institutional research in this space. And so you
know a number of things that are driving this lowering
of the price. I think bitcoin's been a major guide
for volatility and all sorts of markets. You have a
huge number of passive funds and index funds and other
(03:22):
investment class or rather products that now have exposured a bitcoin,
whether it's through digital asset treasuries or others, and so
a lot of those products and businesses have triggers and
flaws and various prices, and when more people are in
the business and there's a selloff, I think there's just
been more momentum across the broader market. But as you
(03:42):
talked about, we're predicting some rate cuts coming. David Duong
feels that a lot of traders are mispricing the rate
cuts and they meet greater than less and so we're
hoping for a kind of post December ten rally looking
at those those FED announcements. As you mentioned. In Australia locally,
you know, we've seen a really strong business as well.
(04:03):
So I think I think the appetite from all sorts
of demographics is still very, very healthy.
Speaker 1 (04:10):
Without meaning to give coinbase a Dorothy Dixon, but I
think I'm about to When you are buying or selling
a cryptocurrency and you want to use in exchange, what
should you be I mean, I just I'm interested in
I don't buy and sell cryptocurrencies, but if I wanted to,
(04:30):
what are the things that you say, look as an
potential investor, these are the things you've just got to
make sure you're getting right and your counterparty is getting right.
Speaker 2 (04:40):
Yeah, great question. I mean I joined this business because
it's a regulated entity effectively, and yeah, so when I
joined in twenty twenty two, oz track with a regulator.
Now we're spending a vast amount of time preparing for
an AFSL under ASSEK the incoming regulator. And I think
in Australia Ostrack might have registered three or four one
hundred plus brokers or people offering crypto services in one
(05:04):
form and another. That sounds like probably too many for
a country the size of Australia, and so I think
there's going to be a consolidation in the market. And
we only offer our consumer service retail businesses and regulated markets.
And so the positive there, I think for Australian consumers
is that the Assistant Treasurer of dal Molino announced guidance
on regulation last week in Canberra, the last sitting day
(05:28):
of Parliament. This is something we've been working on for
four years. We've been leaning in with the industry on this,
wanting to get guidelines on what an exchange needs to do.
There's a stable coin regime that they've given guidance on
what how are these tokens class as financial products or
utility products, et cetera, et cetera. So looking to regulated
(05:49):
players in those markets with the highest level of regulation,
and in many instances we're kind of acting like a
regulated player before the regulation is even here. And so
be very careful when you're when you're reading those teas
and sees. I would say, if someone doesn't have a
FI art offering, i e. They can't connect to local
(06:09):
ossie banks. And there are a number of players in
the market who are big names who only let you
offer kind of crypto to crypto so you can send
your crypto in and out of the exchange if you're
not offering a kind of FIAT offering to top up
and sell out through Aussie dollars. And I don't think
you can really regard yourself as as a fully regulated,
(06:30):
buttoned up player in Australia.
Speaker 1 (06:33):
Great advice, broadly, I appreciate you in exchange, and you're
not here to tell us whether the bitcoin is going
to go up or down or whatever. If we end
up with a well, we will end up with a
new fed chair. Now obviously that Kevin Hassett has been
thrown around a former advisor to Bitcoin and coinbase. Whoever
it is is probably going to be more sympathetic to
(06:56):
cryptocurrencies than the current chairs or empowered at least publicly.
Is that how good a thing is that for cryptos?
Speaker 2 (07:06):
Look, I think it's positive. I don't think the appointment
of someone of the background you described as unique or unusual,
you know. Going forward, even in India where I sit
now on a pretty bumpy highway, there have been murmurings
from people at the RBI, the Ministry of Finance and others,
(07:27):
and the stable coin regime and cryptocurrencies digital assets are
coming into the conversation in a way that no one
would have imagined twelve months ago. Joe Longo, the chairman
of ASAK, made quite a public statement two weeks ago
at the press cub and camera asking for effectively more
innovation in the financial markets and signaling the value of
(07:52):
distributed ledge of technology. And that was also covered at
the ASSEIC forum in Melbourne, and that topic had never
been covered obviously as well. So that in itself is
a local kind of signal from from someone in a
position of influence whose major job is to protect and
control and look after markets. So I think we're seeing
(08:14):
a lot of these appointments and you know, I've just
broad more broadly called them kind of upgrades to the system.
Financial systems are antiquated, archaic, expensive burdens into consumers. They
need an upgrade. I think that the trains left the
station on that reality.
Speaker 1 (08:32):
John, thank you for talking to Fear and Greed. Thanks Sean,
John I. Laughlin, Managing Director of Coinbase Australia. And a
reminder to seek your own advice before making any investment decisions.
If you've got something you'd like to know, then send
through your question on LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook or at Fearing
greed dot com. Today you I'm Chanel and this is
Fear and Greed Q and a
Popular Podcasts
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
Are You A Charlotte?
In 1997, actress Kristin Davis’ life was forever changed when she took on the role of Charlotte York in Sex and the City. As we watched Carrie, Samantha, Miranda and Charlotte navigate relationships in NYC, the show helped push once unacceptable conversation topics out of the shadows and altered the narrative around women and sex. We all saw ourselves in them as they searched for fulfillment in life, sex and friendships. Now, Kristin Davis wants to connect with you, the fans, and share untold stories and all the behind the scenes. Together, with Kristin and special guests, what will begin with Sex and the City will evolve into talks about themes that are still so relevant today. "Are you a Charlotte?" is much more than just rewatching this beloved show, it brings the past and the present together as we talk with heart, humor and of course some optimism.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.