Australian Regulator Issues New Guidelines on ICOs and Cryptos

The Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC) issued today new guidelines regarding initial coin offerings(ICO) and cryptocurrency, which are now available on its official website.

In the new guideline, it was outlined what requirements a cryptocurrency business has to meet so that it can comply with the Australian Corporations and ASIC Acts. No other national regulatory proceedings were covered in the policy.

ASIC also stated that for crypto assets that fall under the category of financial products, the issuer and company managing it must own a license form the Australian financial services.

Miners will also be considered part of the clearing and settlement process in some special cases:

“Where miners and transaction processors are part of the clearing and settlement (CS) process for tokens that are financial products Australian laws apply.”

It was also written that “entities and their advisers need to consider all the rights and features of the ICO (regardless of how it is named and marketed) in determining whether the crypto asset is a financial product or involves a financial product.”

Exchanges that offer and manage such services will be required to be licensed as well:

“Businesses offering crypto-assets, or offering services in relation to crypto assets, need to undertake appropriate inquiries to satisfy themselves they are complying with all relevant Australian laws.”

According to ASIC, Know Your Client and Anti-Money Laundering measures, and the Australian Consumer Law all apply to cryptocurrencies, including in cases where the cryptos are issued from a service operating abroad.

In recent reports, ASIC issued a statement cautioning public traders to avoid the OneCoin cryptocurrency as it „could be involved in a scam.”

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