The Government has announced its intention to implement a regulatory system to manage crypto assets to keep up with developments and provide greater protections for consumers.
The ATO has recently estimated that more than one million taxpayers have interacted with the crypto asset ecosystem since 2018.
In a recent Media Release, the Government announced it is ready to start consultation with stakeholders on a framework for industry and regulators with the aim of allowing consumers to participate in the market while also better protecting them.
As the first step, Treasury has confirmed that it will prioritise ‘token mapping’ work in 2022, which will help identify how crypto assets and related services should be regulated.
The aim will be to identify notable gaps in the regulatory framework, progress work on a licensing framework, review innovative organisational structures, look at custody obligations for third party custodians of crypto assets and provide additional consumer safeguards.
A public consultation paper on ‘token mapping’ will be released soon.
In August 2022, the Board of Taxation published a Consultation Guide, 'Review of the Tax Treatment of Digital Assets and Transactions
in Australia' providing an overview of crypto assets and their current tax treatment, recent Government reports and announcements and
raising questions for interested parties to consider when formulating input to the review.
For more information, visit the Australian
Government Treasury
website.