Australia’s Crypto Exchanges and ICOs to Receive more Scrutiny from Regulators

Australian Regulator To Increase Scrutiny On Crypto Exchanges and ICOs

The Australian Securities Investments Commission (ASIC), which is a top financial regulator in the country, has indicated that it would take a new (a harsher) approach to regulate crypto exchanges and Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs).

As part of its corporate plan for 2018-2022, the ASIC determined in which areas the financial watchdog would focus on. On the top of the list, it can be seen that monitoring threats from products like exchanges, ICOs and cryptos itself are of the priorities of the institution.

The regulator also states on the document that it will develop new frameworks until 2019 to use to regulate the principals and the infrastructure of this new crypto emergent market. This way, it intends to drive the harms of the technology away from the markets and to create a safe space for investors.

According to the announcement made by the ASIC, the institution will continue to focus on monitoring threats and to increase the cyber resilience of the financial market while punishing any type of misconduct made online. ASIC is very interested in ICOs, specifically, as it has stated that they will be monitored closely to ensure compliant behavior and to improve the defenses against money laundering.

The second area that will be the focus of the institution is to develop the approach to apply market principles in an effort to regulate crypto exchanges better. ASIC’s site states that the current market infrastructure should include licensing, settlement facilities, derivative trading and the supervision of financial market operators.

At the moment, crypto exchanges in Australia need to comply with Know Your Customer (KYC) and Anti-Money Laundering (AML) standards enforced by the country’s financial intelligence agency, Austrac. ASIC intends to help in this regulation.

Plan Comes After First Crypto Exchange In Australia Uses ICO

It cannot be denied that this plan comes at a very timely hour for Australia. Byte Power Group, which intends to launch a crypto exchange, has drawn the attention of the Australian media and market by being the first exchange in the whole country to use an Initial Coin Offering to raise funds for its construction.

Byte Power Group insisted that it met all the requirements for a token sale in the country and that it has sought legal advice in its effort to raise $15 million USD for the exchange, however, but the authorities will need to look at these companies closely if more of them start to use the ICOs as a way to crowdfund money.