Australia's Treasury to Include Stablecoin Rules in Crypto Bill Draft

Australia's regulators have provided rare updates on their plans for the digital assets sector, including plans to introduce a draft framework for stablecoins and hinted that more enforcement is on its way against unlicensed entities during an event in Sydney on Wednesday.

Australia's Treasury previously announced plans to release draft legislation to cover licensing and custody rules for crypto asset providers by the end of 2024. Now, that draft could include a framework to regulate stablecoins.

"The digital asset platform reforms have been allocated a drafting spot with The Office of Parliamentary Counsel (responsible for drafting and publishing Australian laws) that would see the exposure draft released before the end of this year," said Chris Adamek, director of the Australian Treasury's digital asset policy unit.

"Within that drafting slot, there are various reforms and each has a different priority to the payments reforms, which would include our proposed framework for regulating stablecoins sit within that same slot, and they'll be sort of done one after the other. Given that overlap, reps (representatives) are hoping that both of them will be released at the same time."

The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) said it was assisting the government in providing advice to colleagues in the Treasury and that it was having regular meetings with peers across the world including the EU, Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, and North America to understand more about the cases they have filed against digital asset firms.

"We are actively monitoring cases overseas and interacting regularly with our overseas peers," said Dr Rhys Bollen, senior executive leader of digital assets at ASIC.

(Source: CoinDesk)