- The government wants to obligate platforms to obtain a license for financial services
- The changes will extend to platforms that hold over $1,500 of one person’s digital assets
Australian Treasurer Jim Chalmers introduced a proposal to subject digital asset platforms and crypto exchanges to existing Australian regulations on financial services. The government wants to obligate platforms to obtain a license to provide financial services in the country.
The changes will extend to platforms that hold over AUD 1,500 of one person’s digital assets or AUD 5 million collectively, the Guardian wrote. The government is also reviewing minimum standards for tokens and other digital assets. About 25% of Australians hold some sort of crypto.
Reining in risk
Crypto exchanges and other platforms expose consumers to high risk as they hold billions of dollars in assets according to the proposal. Further, it states:
Collapses of digital asset platforms, both locally and globally, have seen Australians lose their assets or be forced to wait their turn amongst long lines of creditors. These reforms seek to reduce the risk of these collapses happening, by lifting the standard of their operations and increasing their oversight.
The Treasurer is awaiting feedback on the proposal until December 1. Legislative talks will continue next year.
A tokenized future
Brad Jones of the Australian Reserve Bank presents his institution’s evolving views of “a tokenized future,” including digital assets. The bank is open-minded about infrastructure to support the economy and the functional forms of digital assets.
The bank and the Treasury will publish an overview of research into a central bank digital currency by the middle of next year.
The potential to save billions
According to Jones, Australians could save billions of dollars a year in terms of accountability and instant information related to some digital asset forms.
He said that around 15% of bank funding in the country, accounting for AUD 750 billion in term deposits, was still being processed the same way as a quarter of a century ago – by email, over the phone, in Excel sheets, and in physical bank branches.
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