Australia Proposes Strict Crypto Regulations and Tax Reporting Rules

The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) and the Australian Treasury launched a dual regulatory push on October 15, 2026, to tighten oversight of the cryptocurrency sector. ASIC proposed new standards for digital asset custodians and exchanges to align them with traditional financial firms, focusing on customer fund safeguarding, trading transparency, and the prevention of market manipulation. These rules, scheduled for April 8, 2027, follow the collapse of FTX and Cryptopia.

Simultaneously, the Australian Treasury released the Treasury Laws Amendment Bill 2026: Tax information reporting. This draft legislation implements the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development's Crypto-Asset Reporting Framework to increase the Australian Taxation Office's visibility into digital asset transactions. Under the proposal, service providers must collect customer data and report transactions to identify undisclosed income, with domestic implementation targeted for July 2027.

ASIC has already received over 140 authorization applications from digital asset businesses. Public consultation for the ASIC standards closes November 27, while the Treasury's consultation on the tax reporting bill ends October 28, 2026. The broader regulatory environment has further tightened following expanded reporting requirements introduced earlier in 2026 by the Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre.