Australia forces exchange licensing
Australia passed a crypto law requiring exchanges and custody providers to obtain financial-services licenses within six months, aiming to cut risks like fund commingling and legitimize the sector for institutional capital. The regulatory window compresses project timelines for offshore exchanges serving Australian users and raises compliance costs for global platforms. (coindesk.com)
The Corporations Amendment (Digital Assets Framework) Bill 2025 cleared both houses on April 1, 2026 and has been presented for Royal Assent. (theblock.co) The legislation amends the Corporations Act 2001 and the ASIC Act 2001 to treat “digital asset platforms” and “tokenised custody platforms” as financial products, making operators subject to Australian Financial Services Licence (AFSL) obligations under ASIC’s remit. (parlinfo.aph.gov.au 1) (parlinfo.aph.gov.au 2) An explanatory memorandum and a published addendum make explicit that the law applies where a platform actually holds customer tokens — including worked examples addressing multi‑party computation (MPC) shared‑control custody — and excludes pure technology providers that do not custody assets. (classic.austlii.edu.au 1) (classic.austlii.edu.au 2) (cointelegraph.com) The bill’s commencement table sets the Act to begin the day after 12 months from Royal Assent, and published legal advisories note an additional six‑month transition period for licensing that will compress AFSL application and operational timelines for offshore exchanges serving Australian users. (classic.austlii.edu.au) (ashurst.com) ASIC updated INFO 225 on October 29, 2025 and issued a class no‑action position extending relief to June 30, 2026 to give digital asset businesses time to align governance, disclosure and AML/CTF arrangements before the new licensing regime takes full effect. (download.asic.gov.au) (asic.gov.au) Regulatory enforcement has already been active: the Federal Court ordered Binance Australia Derivatives to pay an A$10 million penalty on March 27, 2026 for misclassifying over 85% of its client base, a concrete example of the fines and remediation regimes firms face under tightened rules. (asic.gov.au) Market incumbents framed the passage as a regulatory milestone while calling for complementary measures — OKX Australia CEO Kate Cooper and Coinbase APAC MD John O'Loghlen urged prioritisation of the separate stablecoin framework and implementation detail to support institutional participation. (theblock.co)
