
Binance names Matt Poblocki General Manager for Australia & NZ
Poblocki brings nearly 20 years of experience in fintech, regulatory, and commercial business strategy to the role, having previously held senior executive positions at well-known digital businesses including PayPal, Afterpay, and eBay, as well as working with start-ups and scale-ups in various international markets.
With over one million users in Australia and recent figures suggesting nearly one in three Australians have at some point owned cryptocurrency, the country has established itself as one of the most developed and regulation-forward digital asset markets worldwide. The decision to appoint Poblocki is seen as a step to further Binance's growth ambitions in the region. Few markets are as digitally capable and commercially dynamic as Australia. With a strong ecosystem, a progressive policy environment, and millions of Australians already engaging with crypto, we have a real opportunity to lead responsibly on the global stage," said Mr Poblocki.
Poblocki said that both Australia and New Zealand are globally recognised for their rapid adoption of technological innovation.
"Australia and New Zealand are renowned globally as early and fast adopters of innovative technology. This next wave of Web3 and blockchain is well and truly upon us. I'm excited to help shape the next chapter of growth and innovation for digital assets in Australia and New Zealand, and energised by the opportunity to pair Binance's global expertise with local momentum to build a trusted future for crypto in our region," he said.
Poblocki previously held an executive leadership role with eBay and was influential in PayPal's early development and expansion. At PayPal, he oversaw legal affairs in Australia and New Zealand, later progressing to international regulatory and legal responsibilities across 170 markets from the Singapore headquarters. Poblocki then joined Afterpay, working on expansion plans across Asia, and has since co-founded start-ups and advised on the international growth of Australian and overseas scale-ups.
Throughout his career, Poblocki has worked closely with government and regulatory bodies, including APRA, RBA, AUSTRAC, and ACCC, providing him with both commercial and regulatory expertise.
Addressing Binance's future direction in Australia and New Zealand, Poblocki said: Our next chapter will be about showing what responsible growth really looks like. That means combining commercial strategy and innovative product offerings with proactive engagement with regulators, robust compliance, and supporting everyday Australians with safe access to the digital asset economy. Regulation and innovation don't have to be at odds. In fact, they must go hand in hand if we want to build a future that all Australians want to be part of.
Richard Teng, Chief Executive Officer of Binance, welcomed Poblocki's appointment. "Matt brings an exceptional track record of scaling some of the most recognisable fintech brands across complex, highly regulated markets," Teng said. "He brings a unique ability to connect governance leadership with commercial strategy. His appointment reinforces our commitment to the Australian and New Zealand markets and to building a sustainable digital asset ecosystem for the long term."
Poblocki's combination of legal, regulatory, and commercial acumen is expected to play a role as the digital asset market in Australia and New Zealand continues to evolve and as regulatory standards mature further in the coming years.
Follow us on:
Share on:

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


Scoop
an hour ago
- Scoop
Take That! Tourism Campaign A Hit With Aussies
Minister for Tourism and Hospitality The 'Everyone Must Go' campaign encouraging Australians to pick New Zealand for their next holiday has hit its results out of the park, bringing in thousands of visitors in a boost for regional economies and tourism operators. Tourism and Hospitality Minister Louise Upston says 'Everyone Must Go' was initially targeted at 6,750 additional arrivals over the autumn but ended up significantly exceeding expectations. ''Everyone Must Go' has been a winner,'' Louise Upston says. 'Tourism NZ stats released to me show it delivering an additional 7,981 visitors to smash its initial forecasts. It also attracted significant attention on both sides of the Tasman, and got Kiwis and Aussies talking about New Zealand as a destination. 'Tourism is a key part of our plan to grow the economy, create jobs, lift wages and help Kiwis get ahead. 'Everyone Must Go' is a great example of the sector and Government working together to achieve these goals. 'We knew Aussies would recognise it as a great opportunity. Just like they grabbed Phar Lap and pavlova, it's proved the same story with 'Everyone Must Go.' 'A key part of this campaign's success were the deals the tourism industry came to the party with. This team approach showed we can deliver great results for the sector when Government and industry are joined up and working towards the same goals.' More than 800 deals from 450 operators across accommodation, transport and experiences were available during the campaign. The initial $500,000 campaign spend delivered a solid return on investment, leading to an additional $300,000 to give the campaign a further boost. 'This campaign was the first Tourism Boost initiative, and these positive results show that with the right investment in the right markets we will drive economic growth. 'Every one of those Australian visitors who ate at cafes and restaurants, visited tourist attractions and shopped in our towns and cities has helped the New Zealand tourism sector grow, and boosted the Kiwi economy in the process,' Louise Upston says. Notes: The Autumn campaign targeted an additional 6,750 visitors (above baseline growth) from Australia between March and May and delivered an additional 7,981 arrivals over the period. 6,804 arrivals were directly attributable to bookings made via the campaign and an additional 1,177 arrivals were from the indirect halo effect of conversion activity in market over and above the campaign. The additional 7,981 visitors generated an estimated $22M in incremental visitor spend (29 per cent ahead of the campaign target of $17M). Across Autumn 2025, the total number of visitor arrivals from Australia increased by more than 24,000 – up from 307,338 last year to 331,571 this year. These additional 24,233 visitors generated an estimated $67M in visitor spend. The campaign had support from the industry including: strong collaboration with airlines, hotels, travel agencies and online travel platforms; 450 tourism operators providing 800 deals on TNZ's


Newsroom
3 hours ago
- Newsroom
Sky taking the reins at Three makes sense for everyone
Comment: TV3 was New Zealand's first privately owned television station but in 35 years of operation it has lost well north of $1 billion in total for a string of local and overseas owners. While it produced some great TV it was also a great destroyer of shareholder value. The latest owner, US giant Warner Bros. Discovery finally cried enough and gave it away to Sky for less than you'd tip a waiter. Warners must have been close to shutting the doors on what was left of the local TV network after previously gutting the operation and contracting out its 6pm news production to Stuff. It may have stemmed the bleeding, but it clearly had no appetite for the investment required to keep the channel competitive. After buying the TV operation in 2020 (minus its only real asset – a large building and adjacent properties on Auckland's city fringe) for $20 million Warners lost hundreds of millions trying to keep a channel that produced some local shows, including news and (light) current affairs, afloat. In the end, it left a shell of a station (programmes are put to air from a control room in Sterling, Virginia) playing mainly reality shows. Sky has always been the logical owner of Three, but it has been smart enough not be sucked into paying over the odds for a free-to-air broadcaster in a small and declining market dominated by a state-owned network. There have been plenty of discussions between Sky and TV3's owners over the years, and at least one formal offer, which was turned down by the private equity funds that controlled MediaWorks (TV3's parent company at the time). Then CEO of Sky, John Fellet, dryly and correctly remarked at the time 'I think I've dodged a bullet.' One Australian private equity fund paid about $800 million for the business but lumbered the company with $700 million in debt. The banks moved in (not for the first time) and tipped MediaWorks into the hands of the receivers in 2013. A new set of private equity owners struggled along and lost hundreds of millions before selling up in 2020. No doubt Sky would have, once more, run the ruler over the TV operation at this point. It would have come up with a price tag of $1 but Michael Anderson (former MediaWorks CEO) pulled off a genius move and convinced US-based Discovery to pay $20 million for the TV assets. Discovery later merged with Warners – both companies enjoyed long-term relationships with Sky. From the beginning, Discovery seemed devoid of a strategy. The writing was on the screen when Warners left its major hits like Game of Thrones, White Lotus and other popular programmes on Sky channels. These shows could've transformed Three and seriously hurt TVNZ but clearly Warner Bros. felt it could make more money leaving them at Sky. The enduring relationship with Sky has clearly played a role in Warners giving Three to its local ally. Sky CEO Sophie Maloney told Newstalk ZB's Mike Hosking that she and her Warners counterpart (based in Singapore) had been discussing various options for Three off and on for about two years. Maloney also indicated that despite all of Warners' restructuring of the business and the deal with Stuff to supply it with a cut-price news service, Three was still unprofitable. Maloney's rock-steady confidence around the deal has been reassuring for Sky shareholders and, under questioning from a skeptical Hosking, she was unequivocal that TV3 would return to profit under Sky's management. Her optimism has been shared by share broking analysts with one predicting the deal might be worth $48 million to Sky. Sky says it has locked in a supply of Warner programmes for Three and judging by Maloney's confidence around profitability it is likely to be at a very good price. The synergies and value that Sky can bring to Three have always been obvious. Its sales and marketing team will take over the free-to-air inventory and add it to the advertising spots it's selling on the pay TV channels. Having more eyeballs available to advertisers will help it compete, and possibly give it an edge over TVNZ and other media companies. Three will also be a handy vehicle to promote Sky's own channels and subscription products. More rugby and cricket on Three will boost its ratings and Sky might also decide to migrate the best programmes from Sky Open (formerly Prime) to its new free-to-air platform. This would allow it to shut Sky Open, which is likely to have been losing millions annually. Sky has had to persist with its loss-making channel, so it could guarantee a free-to-air outlet for sport. That problem is now solved. Hosking put it to Maloney that TVNZ was now 'dead in the water' in terms of sport but the Sky CEO diplomatically suggested that certain segments of TVNZ's audience might be attractive enough to keep it in the hunt. NZ on Air will also find Sky a more attractive owner of Three than Warner Bros. While the reach of a platform rather than its owner should be the major factor in funding local shows for a network, there had to be some unease about giving millions in public money to an American corporate giant that has been rapidly reducing its staff and financial commitment to local programming. Will Sky look to up the level of quality programming (local and international) on Three? It's hard to know. Any significant cash investment in shows, unless they are a spectacular ratings success, is hard to recoup in this market. Warners and previous owners of Three have found out the hard way. Sky might be interested in a modest investment given its zero-capital outlay. It will want to stall the decline of the linear audience as much as it can while it builds up the on-demand platform, ThreeNow. Maloney described ThreeNow, which has been growing audiences, as a jewel in the crown. She will have a decision to make when Three's contract with Stuff to produce a 6pm news bulletin ends. The contract may have one, but most likely two, years to go. Sky will probably want a better product while Stuff will want more money. It might be an opportunity to move to a 30-minute, higher-quality bulletin. Before Warner Bros. shut its own news division (Newshub), it had, for many years, produced a nightly 30-minute news bulletin for Prime (Sky Open). It was a point of difference in the market and one of Prime's strongest performing shows.


Otago Daily Times
4 hours ago
- Otago Daily Times
First properties in affordable housing initiative hit market
Houses with a $100,000 incentive for first-home buyers have arrived on the market as a Dunedin businessman's philanthropic endeavour starts bearing fruit. Last year, Roger Fewtrell announced plans to develop affordable homes across Dunedin and sell them to first-home buyers. Yesterday, he told the Otago Daily Times about 170 sites had been secured for the project — he estimated about 40 properties would be built in the next year. "We've bought properties and some of them have got existing houses," Mr Fewtrell said. "We've subdivided the land off that we'll build other houses on." Those existing houses were to be redeveloped and two completed examples — 50 and 80 Panmure Ave, Calton Hill — went to market last week. "We've got a new roof and new windows in one of them, and the other one's all been tidied up," he said. "They've both got a new carpet and all that sort of stuff, new paint — they're looking pretty nice and tidy and liveable." The newly subdivided back sections would be developed for housing alongside an adjacent 16 acre block of land. "Eventually we'll build 68 houses in that 16-acre block." Three more redeveloped houses were expected to go on sale in the coming weeks, he said. The master plan was to build 250 houses and "probably lose $25 million ... about $100,000 a house if you do the maths," Mr Fewtrell said. "We're well under way with it." Houses had to be sold at or above cost as required by Inland Revenue Te Tari Taake, he said. "The way we get around it is, I personally chip in $100,000 towards the deposit, which means [buyers] get a decent deposit and a smaller mortgage so they can afford to make the payments." Mr Fewtrell said some of the redeveloped houses might be too expensive for first-home buyers even if he chipped in. "We look for first-home buyers for those ones, but if we can't find [them], we'll just sell them on the open market and put that money back into building more." It would be between 6 and 12 months before the first new builds were complete, he said. Work on a subdivision consented for 18 lots above Ross Home in North East Valley had begun and was expected to be one of the first finished, along with developments in Kaikorai Valley and Green Island. "We're not selling off the plan. "We want to complete the build so that people can actually walk through the house and have a good look at it, see if they can afford it and if they like it." Mr Fewtrell said prospective owners were required to have a 10% deposit — "otherwise I don't want to talk to them". "They've got to be able to service their own mortgage and then I'm happy to chip in the $100,000 to help them get into their own house. Mr Fewtrell co-founded Southern Hospitality in 1989 — a hospitality and food service industry supplier that grew to 12 showrooms nationwide. It was bought by Australian firm Reward Supply Co in 2023.