Australia to re-do crypto regulation framework
Decrypt • November 08, 2022
Australia is following in EU footsteps by unveiling a plan to create regulatory frameworks for digital assets. The government’s approach will allow officials to ‘map tokens’ whereby officials review and evaluate crypto assets. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese emphasized a comprehensive understanding of crypto markets and crypto assets before drafting the actual regulations, unlike previous governments.
While the approach sounds solid on first glance, it is not unlike previous governments have attempted in Australia. A report, called, Transforming Australia’s Payment Systems (PDF), essentially did precisely that already. However, according to today’s statement, the token mapping project will proceed further to identify and fill notable gaps within the framework while moving forward on licensing frameworks, crypto custody rules and innovative organization structures such as DAOs.
As with the US and EU regulation, the timeline remains murky, possibly by the need to map out every little detail. Government ambition for a lot of regulation and overreach in a market that changes so quickly might mean that in a few years any research done in detail on the market of 2021 and 2022 could be outdated again. Officials realize regulation is needed, but the last report has been caught up by time. Going forward, exact implementation and timeline remains unclear with a slow-moving government versus a fast-changing crypto environment.