Australian Government Prepares for Virtual Crypto Stocktake Ahead of Plans for Sector Regulation

The Department of the Treasury will undertake "token mapping", as a first step to identifying which cryptocurrency assets to regulate, and how.

By Gadgets 360 Staff With Input From Reuters | Updated: 22 August 2022 17:46 IST

Australian Government Prepares for Virtual Crypto Stocktake Ahead of Plans for Sector Regulation

Australia said on Monday it would do a virtual stocktake of the country's cryptocurrency holdings

Highlights

Australia would be first country in the world to conduct such exercise
Australia has wrestled for years with the question
Calls for intervention have increased since 2020

Australia said on Monday it would do a virtual stocktake of the country's cryptocurrency holdings, the first signal from the new centre-left government that it plans to regulate the $1 trillion (roughly Rs. 79,86,850 crore) sector.

Treasurer Jim Chalmers said that his department would undertake "token mapping", or cataloguing the types and uses of digital currency owned within the country, as a first step to identifying which cryptocurrency assets to regulate, and how.

Australia would be the first country in the world to conduct such an exercise, he added in a statement.

[Sponsored] Samsung Galaxy S24: The Ultimate Camera Phone With Smarter On-Device AI

"With the increasingly widespread proliferation of crypto assets, to the extent that crypto advertisements can be seen plastered all over big sporting events, we need to make sure customers engaging with crypto are adequately informed and protected," Chalmers said.

Australia has wrestled for years with the question of how to regulate cryptocurrency - money that is regulated by decentralised computer networks, rather than central banks.

Calls for intervention have increased since 2020 when COVID-19 stimulus payments and home working prompted a surge in the sector's popularity.

General Bytes Bitcoin ATMs Compromised by Hackers, Details Here

Last year, a Senate inquiry under the previous conservative government recommended wide-ranging regulations to protect cryptocurrency owners, but that administration lost an election this May before any new laws were put in place.

The Australian Securities and Investments Commission has also said it wants the sector regulated, citing its research that found 44 percent of retail investors held cryptocurrency in late 2021.

Chalmers, the treasurer, did not specify any planned regulations on Monday, but said the token mapping exercise would be "the first step in a reform agenda".

Last month, it was reported that the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) was undertaking a trial that aims to take down scam websites targeting the crypto community there.

Netcraft, a UK-based Internet services company has been roped in by the ACCC to provide the countermeasures service to identify questionable and suspicious websites for the take down. The new trial also sees the Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC) joining it as a partner with the ACCC.

Do the Galaxy Z Fold 4 and Z Flip 4 offer enough over last year's models? We discuss this on Orbital, the Gadgets 360 podcast. Orbital is available on Spotify, Gaana, JioSaavn, Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music and wherever you get your podcasts.

Affiliate links may be automatically generated - see our ethics statement for details.

Comments

For the latest tech news and reviews, follow Gadgets 360 on X, Facebook, WhatsApp, Threads and Google News. For the latest videos on gadgets and tech, subscribe to our YouTube channel. If you want to know everything about top influencers, follow our in-house Who'sThat360 on Instagram and YouTube.