HopgoodGanim Lawyers is proud to have partnered with Dr Lachlan Robb and Dr Bikalpa Rajbhandari from the Queensland University of Technology and Ryan McCall from Zerocap in preparing a submission in relation to ASIC's Consultation Paper 381 Updates to INFO 225: Digital Assets: Financial Products and Services (CP 381) outlining proposals to update Information Sheet 225 Crypto Assets (INFO 225), released to the public on 4 December 2024.
In this paper, ASIC has proposed a range of updates to INFO 225 to provide guidance on how current financial product definitions apply to digital assets by including 13 practical examples. ASIC has sought feedback from the industry on several issues, including updated guidance, licensing processes for digital asset businesses, issues with wrapped tokens and stablecoins and potential regulatory relief.
Our submission provided feedback and recommendations on:
- Rethinking examples 1-4, 6, 12 and 13, offering broader asset clarifications and using counterexamples to help readers identify patterns.
- Clarifying more information on stablecoins and wrapped tokens, warning that discouraging blockchain interoperability could harm innovation.
- Clearly defining safe harbour provisions as a defence or carveout.
HopgoodGanim's key contributors in the submission include Partner and Head of our Technology & Digital Economy practice, Tim Edwards and Law Graduate, Jonah Farry.
This is the second submission we have made to ASIC, in conjunction with QUT and our client, Zerocap to the reform in the crypto regulatory space that is ongoing. View our first submission here.
We are pleased to see the progress that is being made by the Australian Government towards blockchain regulation and this latest step represents a significant effort to clarify the regulatory treatment of digital assets. We look forward in seeing ASIC's final version of the updated INFO 225 in mid-2025, after considering the feedback raised.