ASIC chairman warns new crypto rules need more time
Australian Securities and Investment Commission chairman Joe Longo punctured the crypto industry’s enthusiasm for federal regulation, warning it will take time to finalise licensing to avoid high-profile collapses like that of US crypto exchange FTX.
Investor Mark Carnegie told The Australian Financial Review Crypto Summit that spruikers had “made common cause with criminals and scumbags for far too long by virtue of the bull market” and the crypto sector “have nobody to blame but ourselves” for new regulation around the world.
The corporate regulator will be forced to licence crypto platforms using the existing financial services licensing regime, with the government planning draft legislation by early next year. But Mr Longo said global regulators are still grappling with the complex area, and “more work is needed to ensure we get our domestic settings right for this complex issue”.
ASIC chairman Joe Longo at the AFR Crypto Summit in Sydney on Monday. Peter Rae.
“I, personally, think it’s going to be very challenging to land as quickly as many of you would like,” he told the summit, just hours after Assistant Treasurer Stephen Jones unveiled the plan. It will require crypto exchanges to get an Australian Financial Services Licence, and be subjected to additional standards including around the custody of assets. Lax custody was a major cause of investor losses in FTX.
Mr Longo said ASIC will continue with enforcement actions against crypto businesses it considers are issuing unlicensed financial products. The regulator’s case against BPS Financial, over a crypto product known as Qoin, alleging unlicensed conduct and the misleading promotion of crypto assets, began in Brisbane on Monday.
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