• This bill is an attempt to offer a consumer-protective and investment-friendly legal framework.
• Digital Assets (Market Regulation) Bill 2023 was introduced by Senator Andrew Bragg.

A new law that would establish guidelines for the provision of crypto services in Australia has been submitted to the Australian Parliament. Digital Assets (Market Regulation) Bill 2023 was introduced by Senator Andrew Bragg as a private senators’ bill with the stated purpose of protecting consumers and promoting investors. The measure proposes regulations for stablecoins, licensing of exchanges, and custody requirements.

Ministers in Australia are generally responsible for introducing new regulations. Members of parliament may introduce private members’ bills or private senators’ bills, which, according to the Parliamentary Education Office, might take months or even years to get through parliament.

For the private bill submission, Bragg added more details, criticizing the current Labor government for failing to implement the Senate Select Committee on Australia as a Technology and Financial Centre’s 12 recommendations for regulating cryptocurrencies, which were first introduced in October 2021.

Regulatory Certainty to the Sector

The senator continued by saying that the Australian government has failed to offer regulatory certainty to the sector, leaving customers vulnerable to industry-wide disasters like the FTX collapse.

This bill is an attempt to offer a consumer-protective and investment-friendly legal framework for cryptocurrency exchanges, custody services, and stablecoin issuers. The bill also aims to provide standards for how approved depositories must document the steps used to issue and manage a central bank digital currency.

If enacted, the measure would make it illegal for anybody without an Australian Securities and Investments Commission license or a comparable license from another country to run a cryptocurrency exchange. This would be relevant for Australian cryptocurrency custody services as well as stablecoin issuers.