Australia moves to fold crypto platforms into financial licensing regime

The Australian government has introduced new legislation that would require financial licenses for crypto platforms, tightening oversight of the rapidly growing sector.

The Treasury submitted the Corporations Amendment (Digital Assets Framework) Bill 2025 to the parliament on Wednesday, following the circulation of a draft bill during its September consultation. The bill was introduced and read a first time yesterday, and has been moved for second reading.

The new legislation seeks to bring crypto service providers under the financial services licensing regime. Specifically, the bill would mandate digital asset platforms and tokenized custody platforms to hold an Australian Financial Services Licence (AFSL). 

Digital assets would be "subject to the same general legal frameworks as other assets, including property, consumer, insolvency, criminal, family and tax laws," the government said in an explanatory memo alongside the bill.

The Treasury also noted in a Wednesday statement that the bill aims to bring crypto service operators into the same consumer protection and conduct regime that governs 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 obligations

Under the new bill, licensed platforms would be required to act "efficiently, honestly and fairly," provide clear disclosures on how customer assets are stored, maintain robust governance and risk controls, avoid misleading conduct, and offer dispute-resolution and compensation mechanisms. 

However, the AFSL obligations would be tailored to reflect the unique structures of crypto businesses. Smaller operators — those holding less than A$5,000 ($3,263) per customer and facilitating under A$10 million ($6.5 million) in annual transactions per year — would be exempt, mirroring carve-outs for other low-risk financial products such as non-cash payment facilities.

Under current law, crypto exchanges in Australia are only required to comply with anti-money laundering and know-your-customer regulations, according to Australian Financial Review.

The proposed framework applies across both crypto assets such as bitcoin and stablecoins, and tokenized representations of real-world assets including bonds, property and commodities. Such tokenization and digital finance could unlock up to A$24 billion ($15.6 billion) in annual productivity and cost savings, the Treasury said, citing new research from the Digital Finance Cooperative Research Centre.

The legislation builds on earlier efforts by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC), which last month clarified how tokenized financial products fit within existing law and signaled stricter enforcement for unlicensed crypto business models.

Earlier this month, ASIC Chair Joe Longo said that the country must "seize the opportunity or be left behind" as tokenization transforms capital markets worldwide.