Changes may be coming to the crypto industry as the Australian government cracks down on platform licensing requirements. The Australian government is in the midst of tightening regulations on the crypto industry, which could increase consumer protections while strengthening crypto’s reputation as a financial asset. In September, the government released draft legislation that would require more digital asset platforms and tokenized custody platforms to obtain an Australian Financial Services License and register with the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC). You can currently buy cryptocurrency in Australia through exchanges, crypto ATMs, and brokerages.
If you prize anonymity, you can buy crypto in Australia without an ID, but be sure to consider the tradeoffs. If a business exchanges fiat currency for digital currency or vice versa, it would generally be considered a digital currency exchange and have to register with AUSTRAC, which oversees compliance for areas like AML/CFT. Once you have purchased crypto through an AUSTRAC-registered exchange, you can transfer it to a non-custodial wallet such as Best Wallet to store and manage your assets outside of an exchange account. Centralized crypto exchanges (CEXs) typically resemble stock exchanges from the buyer’s point of view, and they’re generally on the more regulated side of crypto — though still perhaps not as much as stock exchanges.
In general, CEXs have to register with AUSTRAC as digital currency exchanges, meaning they have to follow verification procedures, like Know Your Customer (KYC) requirements. While it can reduce privacy, some buyers prefer KYC requirements because it can help them feel more confident that they’re transacting with trustworthy parties. Within Australia, some popular homegrown CEXs include Swyftx, CoinSpot, CoinJar, and Independent Reserve. International CEXs like Gate, Coinbase, Binance, and Kraken also operate in Australia.
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