- An Australian minister said it’s unnecessary to set up a different regulation for crypto.
- Stephen Jones argued that crypto should be considered financial products under the law.
- A blockchain attorney believes it is riskier to take a broad approach in classifying crypto.
According to an Australian press, Stephen Jones, an Australian financial services minister, said there are compelling justifications for recognizing some cryptocurrencies as financial products under the law.
The minister noted that the government plans to set up a ‘token mapping’ exercise as a first step toward crypto regulation in the country. Additionally, Jones expressed that he does not buy the idea of setting up a completely separate regulatory regime “for something that is, for all intents and purposes, a financial product.”
The minister added:
Other coins or tokens are essentially used as a store of value for investment and speculation. [There is a] good argument that they should be treated like a financial product.
According to The Sydney Morning Herald, Commonwealth Bank, one of Australia’s ‘Big 4’ banks, and the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) agree that cryptocurrencies should be regulated like financial products.
However, Michael Bacina, a blockchain attorney, argued that a broad approach of classifying a technology as a financial product without a clear and usable pathway to licensing and compliance would likely send even more crypto businesses offshore and create more risk.
In other news, Australian Financial Review recently claimed that the Ripple blockchain token XRP dominated the transaction volumes of local crypto exchanges. The report revealed that XRP accounted for 82% of all cash volume on the Independent Reserve exchange and 62% across Melbourne-based BTC Markets.
Caroline Bowler, the Melbourne-based Bitcoin Markets CEO, claimed XRP dominated trading volumes on the exchange because BTC Markets was Australia’s Ripple on-demand liquidity (ODL) partner.
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