The Australian government will create a market licence regime for crypto exchanges to ensure safety and security for people who want to invest in crypto assets.
According to ZDNet, Jane Hume – Minister for Digital Economy – outlined that the regime will be the government’s signal for Australians that they can trust the crypto services they interact with through verification in the form of an ‘Australian-made badge of approval’.
Hume remarked, “Crypto values will go up and down sure as eggs and the government will not be protecting consumers from market volatility — and nor should they. But Australian investors will be sure that if they use a licenced Australian exchange that they can trust that exchange will deliver on its commitments to customers and have appropriate protections.”
The federal government claims it is also introducing custody arrangements for crypto exchanges. Hume continued, “We have a plan to ensure that crypto investors who hold crypto on an exchange can always access their money by introducing custody requirements for crypto assets.”
The government, Hume stated, has a role in helping Australia’s crypto industry grow of assuring there is trust between the crypto investor and exchange.
She said, “Many commentators have called for us to shoehorn crypto into the financial products regime, but crypto assets don’t necessarily require the government to assure trust in the same way that financial products do.”
“There’s a lot more transparency. There are more fewer things that can go wrong. Crypto assets don’t generate the same potential harms as financial products, so we won’t regulate them in the same way … However, once you introduce an intermediary, like an exchange or an interaction with the physical or non-crypto world, then you introduce that trust requirement … the role of government is to help assure this trust and that’s why the Coalition is regulating licensees and custodians.”
Copyright © 2022 RegTech Analyst
Copyright © 2018 RegTech Analyst
