The Australian government has issued a consultation document on token matching and has requested stakeholder responses by March 3, 2023. Its development was first announced in August 2022. This happened 3 months after the government of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese replaced the previous administration under the leadership of Scott Morrison.
Then the politician said that he would use “a more serious approach to finding out what is in the crypto ecosystem and what risks exist.”
The new document states that the comparison of tokens is the process of determining the key actions and functions of products in the cryptocurrency market and comparing them with the existing regulatory framework of the state. This document was the first of its kind created by anyone’s national government, according to Angela Anga, senior policy adviser at blockchain analytics firm TRM Labs.
The former regulator of Singapore stressed that this paper will clearly explain the basic principles of understanding cryptocurrencies and compare them with the current legislation of the country. However, Anga noted that it is still unclear how Australia will address issues in the decentralized finance (DeFi) sector.
The consultation document also revealed plans for global cryptocurrency regulation. The idea was to issue a separate document proposing a licensing and storage structure for crypto asset service providers. The project is scheduled to be implemented in mid-2023. According to the authorities, this will be the next logical step for crypto reforms in Australia.
The future document will describe the obligations and operational standards for service providers. In addition, it will make it possible to determine the degree of storage security for virtual assets. Australia also planned to complete the CBDC pilot project in 2023.
