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Australia to do Crypto Stocktake Ahead of Regulatory Moves

Treasurer Jim Chalmers said his department would list the types of digital currencies within the country, as a first step to identify which crypto assets to regulate, and how.


Crypto has enjoyed a seasonal change in outlook, with a US judge saying Ripple can be soldo on public exchanges.
The Ripple ruling came together with fraud charges against the former boss of bankrupt crypto lender Celsius, which are contested, and on the heels of moves into the market by finance firms BlackRock and Fidelity. File photo: Reuters.

 

Australia’s new government said on Monday it will do a virtual stocktake of the country’s cryptocurrency holdings, before moving to regulate the sector.

Treasurer Jim Chalmers said that his department would undertake “token mapping,” to catalogue the types and uses of digital currency owned within the country, as a first step to identify which cryptocurrency assets to regulate, and how.

Australia would be the first country in the world to conduct such an exercise, he added in a statement.

“With the increasingly widespread proliferation of crypto assets, to the extent that crypto advertisements can be seen plastered all over big sporting events, we need to make sure customers engaging with crypto are adequately informed and protected,” Chalmers said.

Australia has wrestled for years with the question of how to regulate cryptocurrency – money that is regulated by decentralised computer networks, rather than central banks.

Calls for intervention have increased since 2020 when Covid stimulus payments and home working prompted a surge in the sector’s popularity.

Last year, a Senate inquiry under the previous conservative government recommended wide-ranging regulations to protect cryptocurrency owners, but the Morrison government lost an election in May before any new laws were put in place.

The Australian Securities and Investments Commission has also said it wants the sector regulated, citing its research that found 44% of retail investors held cryptocurrency in late 2021.

Chalmers, the treasurer, did not specify any planned regulations on Monday, but said the token mapping exercise would be “the first step in a reform agenda”.

 

  • Reuters with additional editing by Jim Pollard

 

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Most Crypto Trades Were People Buying From Themselves: Study

 

 

Jim Pollard

Jim Pollard is an Australian journalist based in Thailand since 1999. He worked for News Ltd papers in Sydney, Perth, London and Melbourne before travelling through SE Asia in the late 90s. He was a senior editor at The Nation for 17+ years.