According to ASIC's latest release of its "Company Plan" on August 22 as part of its four-year strategic plan, the financial watchdog said that "emerging technologies and products have transformed our financial ecosystem" and that it will work on "digital inappropriate Act" extended to 2026.
ASIC chairman Joe Longo said the regulator will have a particular focus on fraud and crypto assets.
[Our regulatory environment is changing and evolving – climate risks, aging populations, emerging data and digital technologies and their extreme volatility in crypto asset markets are having a transformative impact."
He noted that Scamwatch, a website that provides consumers and businesses with relevant information to identify, avoid and report fraud, received 4,783 reports of crypto investment fraud and $99 million in reported losses in 2021.
ASIC stated that these actions will "protect investors from damage caused by encrypted assets", including supporting the formulation of an efficient management and control framework for exchange-related products, the implementation and supervision of regulatory methods, and improving public awareness of the inherent risks of encrypted assets. Actions like DeFi.
The Sydney Morning Herald reported on August 23 that Longo again warned against investing in digital currencies, calling it a "high risk and high volatility activity" and that customers "must be very careful before doing so".
"We at ASIC are not against innovation and do our best to find legitimate ways to use the underlying technology, distributed ledgers and blockchain technology, but this should not be confused with investments, quotes and cryptoassets."
The ASIC announcement comes days after Australia's new government announced plans to implement a "token rollout" push to regulate the crypto industry by the end of the year.
Control may be one step closer
Currently, digital currencies and digital exchanges are only loosely regulated, with exchange operators only required to comply with the general provisions of the Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Center (AUSTRAC) Corporations Act.
Related: New Australian Government Finally Explains Its Crypto Governance Stance
The industry has been calling on governments to legislate in order to reduce risk for investors and transform digital currencies into a perfect, safer asset class.
However, with thousands of crypto assets or currencies, Longo agreed that [controls are coming," but [within the legal and regulatory arrangements we have in place, we need to design a framework that works for us."
