Swyftx's self-promotion on crypto news site it owns raises ethical concerns
The Brisbane exchange uses Crypto News Australia, which it owns, to promote its services. Media experts say the lack of transparency is concerning.
Local crypto exchange Swyftx has been quietly running its own industry news site, promoting its services over its competitors without prominently disclosing the company’s ownership.
Corporate records show Crypto News Australia (CNA) became a wholly owned subsidiary of Swyftx after the exchange bought it for $2 million in May 2022. Swyftx founders Alex Harper and Angus Goldman, who started the Brisbane exchange in 2018, took over as the outlet's sole directors.
No announcement of the acquisition was made by Swyftx and no article was published on the CNA website denoting the change of ownership for its readers. Two and a half years later, the only indication of its status as a Swyftx subsidiary is a single line in the legal disclaimer at the bottom of the website.
"CNA delivers its own content and pulls in crypto articles from around the world and we use it as an additional feature to deliver news to customers through our app. We’ve run the CNA website as a subsidiary since 2022 and our relationship to the platform is on the footer of every page of the website," Swyftx marketing director Chris Vanek told Capital Brief.
