Austrailia s Financial Watchdog Expands Team to Better Regulate Crypto
Categories: Crypto News
Austrailia'sFinancial Watchdog Expands Team to Better Regulate Crypto
AustralianSecurities and Investments Commission (ASIC) increased the size of its cryptoteam, The Guardian reports, after the popular blockchain shifted from aproof-of-work (PoW) to a proof-of-stake (PoS) system.
The changehas prompted U.S. Security and Exchange Commission Chairman Gary Genslerto state that PoS-based tokens could be classified as securities.
Ethereum is under renewed scrutiny followinglast week’s merge event, as the ASIC looks set to decide on whether themarket's second-largest cryptocurrency is subject to its oversight.
Should ASICdecide to bring PoS tokens like Ethereum, Cardano, and Solana under itsremit, crypto exchanges could be forced to either delist them or startcomplying with more stringent regulatory requirements. This would includeapplying for financial services licenses and showing that these platforms alsohold significant liquidity in reserve.
Such a movemight force some crypto firms to adjust their operating models, as evenTether, the market's largest stablecoin, has been mired in controversy over itsalleged failure to hold enough dollar reserves to back its stablecoin.
Cryptoin Australia
Researchcarried out by SEC Newgate for ASIC last November showed that 44% of retailinvestors in Australia reported holding crypto, and only 20% of them viewedcrypto as high-risk.
In response,ASIC chair Joe Longo said the regulator was “concerned that there arelimited protections for crypto-asset investments given they have becomeincreasingly mainstream and are heavily advertised and promoted. There is astrong case for regulation of crypto-assets to better protect investors.”