Australia’s laws to regulate the crypto industry and protect retail customers are still more than a year away, as government documents released under Freedom of Information Laws indicate.
Although the government hasn’t given a timeline for bringing in crypto legislation, last month it said it would release a consultation paper about the issue the middle of this year.
In a document released last August, three months after Anthony Albanese became Australia’s prime minister, the Treasury revealed how some stakeholders might be disappointed with a “perceived delay in implementing a licensing regime” but viewed the concerns as “somewhat mitigated” by the collapse of several crypto companies and market crash earlier in the year.
The Australian Financial Review has reported that the Treasury’s timetable for consulting with industry and designing new legislation stretches well into next year. “Final submissions to cabinet are not expected until towards the end of this year,” AFR said, leading some industry observers to suggest that “legislation would probably not come until well into 2024 or 2025.”
The Albanese government is taking a more serious approach to work out what is in the crypto asset ecosystem and what risks need to be looked at first. While recognizing the need for action, Treasury sees the opportunity to take more time to better understand the emerging innovations and risks.
Treasurer Jim Chalmers said Australian “regulation is struggling to keep pace and adapt with the crypto asset sector,” and introduced token mapping as a potential way forward.