The Australian government has proposed new laws that will strengthen the regulation of the quickly expanding industry by requiring banking licenses for cryptocurrency platforms.
After circulating a draft bill during its September consultation, the Treasury presented the Corporations Amendment (Digital Assets Framework) Bill 2025 to the legislature on Wednesday.
The measure has been moved for a second reading after being introduced and read for the first time yesterday.
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Details on the law
The goal of the new law is to include cryptocurrency service providers in the financial services licensing framework. In particular, the bill would require tokenised custody systems and digital asset platforms to possess an Australian Financial Services Licence (AFSL).
In an explanation document that accompanied the measure, the government stated that digital assets would be “subject to the same general legal frameworks as other assets, including property, consumer, insolvency, criminal, family, and tax laws.”
In a statement released on Wednesday, the Treasury added that the measure seeks to subject cryptocurrency service providers to the same standards of conduct and consumer protection that apply to traditional financial services.
“Millions of Australians are using or investing in digital assets every year, and this is about making that as safe and secure as possible, while also encouraging innovation,” Assistant Treasurer Daniel Mulino said in the statement.
New rules in a way
The proposed measure would mandate that licensed platforms operate “efficiently, honestly, and fairly,” maintain strong governance and risk controls, disclose clearly how client funds are handled, refrain from deceptive behaviour, and provide dispute-resolution and compensation procedures.
Nonetheless, the AFSL requirements would be modified to take into account the distinct organisational structures of cryptocurrency companies.
Similar to carve-outs for other low-risk financial products like non-cash payment facilities, smaller operators would be excluded if they held less than A$5,000 ($3,263) per user and facilitated less than A$10 million ($6.5 million) in transactions annually.
Australia and crypto
Crypto exchanges in Australia are now only obligated to abide by the know-your-customer and anti-money laundering laws.
The suggested architecture applies to tokenised representations of real-world assets like bonds, real estate, and commodities, as well as cryptocurrency assets like bitcoin and stablecoins.
Also, while it investigates the failure of the company’s cryptocurrency exchange, the Australian corporate regulator has barred Blockchain Global director Ryan Xu from departing the nation.
The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC), which last month defined how tokenised financial products fit inside current law and suggested tougher enforcement for illegal crypto business models, is building on past efforts with this legislation.
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