Karsten Wenzlaff, Advisor
August 26th, 2025
Karsten Wenzlaff is a Crowdfunding and Fintech Expert from Germany. He is Secretary-General of Digit[...]
Australia Launches 2025 Digital Asset Framework
Digital Asset Regulation | Nov 27, 2025
Image: Australian crypto adoption 2019 2025 (Independent Reserve chart)
A Principles and Risk-based Digital Asset Framework Enters Australia’s Financial System
On November 26 2025, the Australian government led by Treasurer Jim Chalmers and Minister for Financial Services Daniel Mulino introduced the Corporations Amendment (Digital Assets Framework) Bill 2025 by official announcement New Digital Asset Laws to Unlock Innovation and Safeguard Investment.
See: Deloitte Australia’s AI Error Shakes Consulting Trust
The bill creates a clear digital asset framework that covers custody, settlement and platform operations, and it aims to raise investor protection while supporting stronger confidence across Australia’s quickly growing digital asset market. The government positions the framework as a foundation for long term innovation, including tokenization of real world assets, replacing years of uncertainty with defined expectations for operators and institutions.
Digital Assets Background In Australia
Australia has a large and active digital asset community with significant adoption, consistent user growth and a broad set of service providers, which explains the need for a clear regulatory framework. Australia also has several large crypto exchange platform operators serving mainstream users including global giants like Binance, Kraken and Coinbase to name a few.
Survey data and analysis of Australian crypto ownership in early 2025 shows that 32.5% of Australians have owned digital assets, and 70% of those investors hold Bitcoin. More than half of these investors report a profit on their activity.
Engagement continues to rise among older Australians (see chart above). Digital asset ownership among Australians over 65 reached 8.2% in 2025, up from 2% in 2019, read 'baby boomers and retirees invest in crypto'.
New Categories For Digital Asset Services
The bill creates two new financial product categories inside the Corporations Act. (1) A digital asset platform is a facility where an operator holds or controls digital tokens for clients, and (2) a tokenized custody platform is a facility where an operator holds a real world asset and links each asset to a single redeemable token.
These categories require an Australian Financial Services Licence and give operators a clear legal structure for activities that involve possession, safekeeping or management of client tokens and tokenised assets.
Principles-Based Standards For Custody And Settlement
The bill uses a principles-based approach by setting the main definitions and outcomes in the law while giving the Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC), Australia’s corporate regulator, the authority to write the detailed custody and settlement standards. Parliament explains what platforms must achieve, including the need to safeguard client assets, keep accurate records, reconcile balances and manage settlement risk. ASIC then decides how platforms meet these outcomes in practice.
See: Australia Announces 10 Voluntary Responsible AI Guardrails
This approach lets ASIC update requirements as technology evolves without rewriting legislation. It keeps the focus on clear results rather than long checklists of technical steps.
Risk-Based Framework for Market Activity
The bill also uses a risk-based model that links the level of obligation to the level of exposure. Large platforms that hold significant client assets must follow stronger custody and settlement rules. Small platforms that hold less than $5,000 per customer and process less than $10 million a year qualify for a small scale exemption. This supports early pilots and lower risk use cases without placing them under the same obligations as large operators.
The Minister can also use a product intervention power when a digital asset creates clear risks for consumers or the financial system, which allows the government to place temporary limits on that product while ASIC puts longer term rules in place.
In short, the bill uses principles to define the outcomes and risk to decide how strongly those outcomes apply across the market.
Stronger Transparency For Clients
Operators must publish platform rules that act as a contract between the operator and clients. These rules must describe eligibility, settlement processes, use of external liquidity, allocation of operational risk and redemption or delivery of assets.
See: Bank of England Sets New Rules for Systemic Stablecoins
Clients receive clear information about how the service works and what risks they face, which supports informed decision making and strengthens accountability across the sector.
What Comes Next
The bill must now move through Australia’s parliamentary process, which includes further debate and committee review before a final vote. Regulators will prepare the custody standards, settlement standards and platform rule requirements once the bill becomes law. Operators will begin licensing preparation, platform rule design and compliance planning.
The next stage will also decide how the framework reaches newer parts of the market. The legislation sets the main structure, but the regulator must still fill in many operational details.
Those standards will determine how custody rules work in practice, how platforms handle execution and settlement and how services near the line between custodial and non-custodial models will operate.
There are also open questions for stablecoins, decentralized finance and some wallet services, so the practical impact of the framework will depend on how the regulator completes this work in the months ahead.
Why The Framework Matters
Digital asset custody and platform activity now follow the same regulatory expectations used across Australia's financial system. Institutions can participate with more confidence because the framework sets out clear duties for operators that hold client assets or manage tokenized activity. The government notes that digital finance innovation could generate as much as $24 billion each year in productivity and cost savings for Australia.
See: Canada Releases The First Draft Of The Stablecoin Act
The combination of principles-based standards and risk-based market obligations gives operators clear expectations as they build new tokenized real world asset projects, and supports long term innovation under rules that stay steady even as technology changes.
The National Crowdfunding & Fintech Association (NCFA Canada) is a financial innovation ecosystem that provides education, market intelligence, industry stewardship, networking and funding opportunities and services to thousands of community members and works closely with industry, government, partners and affiliates to create a vibrant and innovative fintech and funding industry in Canada. Decentralized and distributed, NCFA is engaged with global stakeholders and helps incubate projects and investment in fintech, alternative finance, crowdfunding, peer-to-peer finance, payments, digital assets and tokens, artificial intelligence, blockchain, cryptocurrency, regtech, and insurtech sectors. Join Canada's Fintech & Funding Community today FREE! Or become a contributing member and get perks. For more information, please visit: www.ncfacanada.org
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