Australia expands legal guidance on digital assets and stablecoins

The Australian financial regulator (ASIC) has just issued an updated version of Info Sheet 225, expanding the scope of the financial services law to cover digital assets, including stablecoins, staking, and crypto products.

The new guidelines supplement the custody standards, provide 18 classification examples, and affirm that Australian law still applies to offshore or decentralized platforms if they serve domestic users.

This update aims to align with the upcoming regulations on digital asset and payment platforms to be announced by the Australian Treasury (, while also inheriting the previous decision by ASIC to relax regulations for licensed stablecoin distributors.

ASIC emphasizes that various types of digital assets such as yield-generating tokens, staking programs, or stablecoins linked to assets may require an Australian Financial Services License )AFS( under current regulations.

In addition, the new guidelines require that organizations that custody customer assets must meet a minimum net tangible asset threshold of 10 million AUD ), approximately 6.5 million USD (, unless the custody role is only ancillary.

ASIC also noted that foreign exchanges and investment funds must comply with Australian law when marketing or providing services to users here, dismissing the possibility of “avoiding” supervision through geographical factors.

This update is seen as an important stepping stone before the Australian government implements a comprehensive legal framework for the crypto industry, aiming to strike a balance between investor protection and promoting innovation.