The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) has announced a partnership with Commonwealth Bank, National Australia Bank, Perpetual and ConsenSys Software to explore the use of a wholesale central bank digital currency (CBDC) using distributed ledger technology (DLT). The project is currently limited to the wholesale market, reflecting the RBA’s conclusion in a recent bulletin on the Design Considerations, Rationales and Implications of a Retail CBDC that there is currently no strong public policy case to…
Background The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) has released an update to Information Sheet 225 Initial coin offerings and crypto-assets (INFO 225). These updates follow the Australian Treasury’s release of its issues paper in January this year, and a subsequent consultation period with stakeholders. Baker McKenzie was involved in the consultation process and delivered a written submission addressing token categorisation, secondary trading in the ICO market, and the current Australian regulatory framework pertaining to…
In May of this year, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) indicated that ICO issuers and their associated advisers would come under regulator scrutiny where their conduct or statements were identified as misleading or deceptive. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) authorized ASIC to take action against misleading and deceptive conduct in relation to ICOs, even where the ICO does not constitute a “financial product” under Chapter 7 of the Corporations Act 2001.…