Kogan and Canadian crypto trading platform Bitbuy have entered into a domain sale agreement that will see Kogan sell the domain name bitbuy.com to Bitbuy's parent company, First Ledger.

Kogan owns and manages a portfolio of domain names, including bitbuy.com.

Under the sales agreement, Kogan will receive$1.5 million in cash and a warrant entitling the company to approximately CA$2.8 million in either equity in First Ledger or cash upon exercise of the warrant, which will occur within a year of the domain name being transferred to First Ledger.

"The domain sale not only delivers returns for Kogan shareholders but also provides an opportunity to benefit from Bitbuy's future success in the crypto business abroad and potentially in the Australian market," Kogan executive director David Shafer said.

In addition, Kogan and Bitbuy have entered into an advertising agreement where the former company will provide marketing and advertising services to support the latter's future launch into the Australian market.

"With a Kogan.com partnership in place, we are confident of a successful expansion of Bitbuy into Australia," Bitbuy COO Jordan Anderson said.

Just recently, Bitbuy became the first approved marketplace and dealer of crypto assets in Canada.  

For its 2021 financial year results, Kogan reported its net profit after tax whittled down to AU$3.5 million, marking an 86% decline compared to its AU$26.8 million performance last year.

The nosedive in profit was due to higher freight and inventory costs, with both amounting to almost AU$69 million and AU$35 million, respectively. By comparison, these expenses were more than double those incurred during FY20.

Revenue-wise, Kogan continued to see increases during FY21 by earning just over AU$780 million in total revenue. In FY20, Kogan had AU$498 million in total revenue.

Elsewhere, Singapore-based cryptocurrency firm Crypto.com has announced it will be opening its Australian headquarters in Melbourne. The new office will serve as a space for the company to work with local talent and Victorian universities to help build its blockchain, application, and various systems needed to potentially provide its services in Australia.

Also on Tuesday, the blockchain developed by the University of Sydney and CSIRO, Redbelly Blockchain, has been spun out as a commercial enterprise, Redbelly Network, in a joint venture with blockchain venture studio Block8. The newly-formed company touts that speed tests last month, simulating a Central Bank Digital Currency application, showed it outperformed Visa and the Bitcoin blockchain.

"Visa and MasterCard together rarely process more than 10,000 transactions per second even at peak times," said Redbelly Blockchain inventor Vincent Gramoli, who will serve as CTO of Redbelly Network.

"So our ability to safely handle ten times that amount gives us massive flexibility in the types of applications we can run on the network, where they can be deployed, and the potential user base."

Updated 14 December 2021, 3.30pm AEDT:Added Crypto.com and Redbelly Network information.

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