Australia’s Senate Economics Legislation Committee has endorsed the Corporations Amendment (Digital Assets Framework) Bill 2025, advancing a licensing regime for digital asset and tokenized custody platforms.
The March 16 recommendation would bring most centralized exchanges and custody providers under Australia’s financial services rules, subjecting them to ASIC oversight, custody standards, and disclosure requirements. Exemptions apply to small platforms under AU$10 million in annual transactions and certain blockchain infrastructure.
Industry groups including Piper Alderman and Ripple Labs raised concerns that broad definitions of "factual control" could capture wallet and infrastructure providers using multi-party computation. The committee accepted Treasury’s approach to refine rules later via regulation.
Coinbase Australia’s John O’Loghlen welcomed the progress but warned of ongoing debanking risks, urging faster implementation of financial regulator recommendations. The bill now proceeds to the full Senate for debate and vote.