Catenaa, Monday, December 1, 2025- Australia moved to tighten oversight of digital asset firms after the government introduced a bill that would place crypto platforms under the country’s financial licensing regime.
The Treasury submitted the Corporations Amendment (Digital Assets Framework) Bill 2025 to parliament, seeking to bring digital asset operators under rules applied to traditional financial services.
The proposal would mandate Australian Financial Services Licences for digital asset platforms and tokenized custody providers.
Officials said the plan places digital assets within existing legal structures covering property, consumer protection, insolvency and tax.
The government added that bringing crypto firms under one regime is intended to strengthen conduct standards and extend protections already applied to financial service operators.
The bill outlines new obligations for licensed platforms. Firms would need to act fairly, disclose how customer assets are stored, maintain governance and risk controls, avoid misleading behavior and support dispute resolution and compensation processes.
Smaller operators holding less than A$5,000 per customer and handling under A$10 million in annual transactions would be exempt.
Current rules require crypto exchanges to follow anti-money laundering and identity verification procedures.
The proposed changes would cover assets ranging from bitcoin and stablecoins to tokenized forms of bonds, property and commodities. Treasury officials cited research suggesting tokenization could deliver up to A$24 billion in yearly savings.
Regulators have signaled closer attention to digital asset activities. ASIC recently clarified how tokenized products fit within existing law and warned that unlicensed models would face stronger action.
