Australia’s corporate regulator has published draft standards for how crypto exchanges and custodians must hold client assets, run trading and fund themselves, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) said on Thursday. Feedback is due by 27 November 2026.
Consultation Paper 392 implements the Corporations Amendment (Digital Assets Framework) Act 2026, which Parliament passed on 1 April and which takes effect on 8 April 2027. The law creates two new regulated products: digital asset platforms, which hold tokens for clients and may run trading, and tokenised custody platforms. Firms already operating such a platform must apply for an Australian financial services (AFS) licence, or a variation, by 7 October 2027. ASIC says they can keep operating while it assesses the application.
What ASIC proposes
The package has four drafts: a new regulatory guide, asset-holding standards, transactional and settlement standards, and financial requirements.
- Asset holding. Operators would have to identify, segregate and safeguard client assets. They would keep records of wallet structures and addresses and report their wallets and addresses to ASIC every quarter. Operators that use a third-party custodian stay responsible for it.
- Trading. Platforms would face rules on which tokens they admit and how they manage conflicts, plus trade monitoring, best execution and trade confirmations. Platforms that run an order book would have to publish pre-trade price information.
- Capital. Every licensee would need to stay solvent with positive net assets. A firm holding more than A$100,000 of client money would also need A$50,000 (about $34,500 / €30,800) in surplus liquid funds.
The biggest open question is the net tangible assets (NTA) floor, where ASIC offers three models. In all three, an operator that meets ASIC’s third-party custody conditions would hold at least A$200,000 (about $138,000 / €123,000), or a larger amount tied to assets held or revenue. For operators that hold assets themselves, Model 1 sets a floor of A$14 million (about $9.7 million / €8.6 million) or 10% of average revenue. Model 2 adds a A$7 million tier for operators that never hold financial products. Model 3 starts at A$2 million (about $1.4 million / €1.2 million), plus A$500,000 to A$1 million depending on whether the platform acts as agent, runs a neutral venue or trades as principal. ASIC asks which model “best supports the objectives of the NTA requirement.”
Why it matters: the capital choice will decide how many smaller Australian exchanges can afford to keep custody in-house. The custody concession pushes them towards specialist custodians; see what a crypto custodian does.
What happens next
ASIC plans to review submissions from November to March 2027, then publish final instruments and guidance in March 2027. Licence applications open on 8 April 2027. CoinDesk reported the same dates. ASIC notes that the government is drafting the related regulations in parallel, so some details may change.
Australia joins other Asia-Pacific markets that are rewriting their crypto rules this year; see Korea’s Digital Asset Basic Act talks and this week’s Asia Ten. Europe’s equivalent is the EU’s MiCA rules.
What to watch: submissions close on 27 November, and the government’s draft regulations.
This article is for information only and is not investment advice.