Australia has passed legislation that will integrate many digital asset platforms and tokenised custody platforms into its financial services licensing framework. The Corporations Amendment (Digital Assets Framework) Bill 2025 has cleared both houses of the Australian Parliament, representing a significant advancement in the country’s efforts to develop a dedicated regulatory structure for digital assets.
Introduced in November 2025, the bill amends the Corporations Act and ASIC Act, focusing on enhancing consumer protection, market integrity, and regulatory certainty. The legislation awaits royal assent, which is necessary before it can become law. It is set to be implemented 12 months after receiving assent, allowing businesses a transition period for compliance.
The new regulations mandate that crypto operators, including exchanges and custody platforms, acquire an Australian Financial Services Licence (AFSL) from the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC). This requirement is designed to formalize the regulatory status of platforms engaged in these financial activities.
The Digital Economy Council of Australia (DECA) welcomed the legislative development, stating, “For the first time, we have a legislative framework that directly addresses digital asset platforms. It provides long-awaited clarity for businesses, investors, and regulators, and marks a shift from uncertainty toward implementation.”
Jazz Ozvald, a former assistant director of digital asset policy at the Commonwealth Treasury, expressed his satisfaction with the bill’s passage on LinkedIn. He noted that an Addendum to the Explanatory Memorandum was also introduced, detailing how the law applies to digital tokens governed by multi-party computation (MPC).
MPC is a cryptographic approach that secures crypto wallets by dispersing control across multiple parties, ensuring that no single entity possesses full control. Transactions require collaboration among parties to be approved, thereby reducing the risk of theft or misuse.
The addendum clarifies that the new law pertains to platforms holding customer crypto assets, rather than those that solely provide technological solutions for asset control, including MPC configurations.
