The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) has released important updates to its guidance in INFO 225 on the regulation of digital assets, including in relation to digital asset exchanges, digital wallets, tokenisation, and offshore digital asset businesses promoting, selling or providing services in relation to digital assets in Australia. The significance of these updates is that, if a digital asset is a “financial product,” the entity issuing, dealing in, advising on, or providing a…
Australia’s long awaited draft legislation for digital assets and tokenised custody platforms was released on 25 September 2025. The proposed changes extend the current financial services regulatory regime to operators of Digital Asset Platforms (DAPs) and Tokenised Custody Platform (TCPs) in a tailored manner and impose new requirements on DAP and TCP operators. Notably, entities providing specified services in relation to DAPs or TCPs will be required to hold an Australian Financial Services Licence (AFSL). …
Earlier this month, New Zealand banned cryptocurrency ATMs. The move underscores a growing international trend: regulators are increasingly scrutinizing the cash-to-crypto pipeline, viewing it as a significant vulnerability for illicit finance. While the ban has sparked debate within the crypto community, it also offers a valuable case study in how jurisdictions are grappling with the intersection of digital assets and financial regulation. On July 16, 2025, David Zaslowsky published an article in the New York…
Last month, the Australian Tax Office published a notice detailing its latest data collection and surveillance requirements for crypto designated service providers in Australia. Specifically, the ATO will acquire account identification and transaction data from crypto designated service providers for the 2023-24 financial year through to the 2025-26 financial year inclusively. The data items include: client identification details (names, addresses, date of birth, phone numbers, social media account and email addresses) and transaction details (bank…
On May 16, 2022, the Australian Tax Office issued a publication that identified four key focus areas for the 2021-22 tax year. These four are areas where the ATO says they see people making mistakes. One of the areas is capital gains from crypto assets. The ATO plans to ensure that there is an appropriate level of scrutiny on correct reporting of deductions and income for the priority areas. The ATO warned that taxpayers who…
We have written often about how the US SEC has, to date, refused to authorize a spot Bitcoin exchange traded fund (click here), while other countries such as Canada have done so (click here). Australia’s main market, the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX), has now given the green light for its first Bitcoin ETF, as reported by the Australian Financial Review. Cosmos Asset Management could launch its bitcoin ETF as early as April 27. Interestingly, however,…
In late March 2022, in the opening hours of Blockchain Week, Minister Jane Hum announced that the Australian Government had released a consultation paper which proposed a new regulatory and licensing regime for ‘crypto asset secondary service providers’ (CASSPrs). This followed a call by Senator Andrew Bragg earlier that day for crypto reforms to be consolidated into a comprehensive legislative package (including a ‘Digital Services Act’). A write-up concerning these proposals may be found here.
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…
A new initiative from the Australian Government, the Smart Trade Mark, provides Australian businesses with a new technology to help protect their products from counterfeiting risks and imitation products in overseas markets. IP Australia (an agency of Australia’s Department of Industry, Innovation and Science which administers intellectual property rights) developed the Smart Trade Mark using blockchain and the Australian Trade Mark Register. IP Australia, alongside start-up Agile Digital, successfully piloted the Smart Trade Mark. They…