Australian Financial Minister Stephen Jones has suggested that crypto assets, except Bitcoin, should be regulated as financial products.
This comes after the collapse of FTX, which has prompted the Australian government to focus on regulating crypto assets that act like financial products.
Jones stated that there is no need to create a separate regulatory regime for crypto assets as they are financial products and the government plans to reveal which assets it plans to regulate through “token mapping” exercise.
However, the proposal faces opposition from lobby groups such as Blockchain Australia and the Australian Bitcoin Industry Body (ABIB) who argue that it would harm investment and growth in the sector and could lead to job losses and make regulatory efforts for the industry’s sub-sectors challenging.
The government has recently stepped up efforts to regulate the crypto industry and has pledged to establish a framework to guide the licensing and regulation of crypto service providers.
