Consultation Paper 392 would demand up to A$14 million in net tangible assets under the most expensive option and A$2 million under the cheapest, with submissions closing November 27.
Australia's corporate regulator opened consultation on Thursday on the standards that will govern crypto exchanges and digital asset custodians, and put three competing capital models to the industry without saying which one it prefers. Submissions on Consultation Paper 392 close on November 27.
The standards sit under the Corporations Amendment (Digital Assets Framework) Act 2026, which received Royal Assent on April 8 and commences exactly one year later, on April 8, 2027. The Australian Securities and Investments Commission is writing rules for two licensed categories: digital asset platforms, which covers exchanges and custodians, and tokenized custody platforms, which handle tokenized real-world assets. Operators in either category need an Australian financial services license or a variation to one they already hold.
Under the most demanding of the three options, a platform without a qualifying third-party custody arrangement would have to hold at least A$14 million in net tangible assets, or 10% of average revenue, whichever is greater, according to the consultation's terms as reported, which put the Australian figure at about US$9.7 million. Operators that do place client assets with a qualifying custodian would face a lower floor, built from a base of A$200,000, a percentage of assets held and the same 10% of average revenue.
The second and third models are materially cheaper. One account of the paper sets out a A$7 million threshold for operators that neither hold underlying assets classified as financial products nor qualify for the custody concession, and a third model starting at the largest of A$2 million, a percentage of underlying assets, or 10% of revenue, with add-ons of A$500,000 for agents, A$750,000 for neutral trading venues and A$1 million for platforms that trade as principal with their own customers.
The spread is the substance of the consultation. A platform without third-party custody is looking at A$14 million under the first model and a starting point of A$2 million under the third, a sevenfold gap between those two headline figures, before the percentage-of-assets and revenue tests and the third model's add-ons are applied, and ASIC has not chosen between them. It is asking for comment on the amounts themselves rather than presenting a figure for industry to argue down.
The rules would reach a largely unlicensed population. Industry estimates put about 400 crypto platforms in Australia with roughly 10% of them holding a financial services license, which is on the order of 40 licensed operators. ASIC has recorded more than 140 applications for digital asset financial services, more than 110 of them during a temporary relief period that ran from October 2025 to September 30 this year. Shane Chandra, chief executive of OKX Australia, said the proposed rules could push the industry toward consolidation as compliance and capital costs rise.
On custody, ASIC stopped short of an onshore requirement. The paper does not propose requiring that customer assets be held in Australia, so offshore custody survives with disclosure and risk-management conditions attached. Platforms would report their custody wallet structures and blockchain addresses to the regulator quarterly and keep records for seven years, but would not hand over private keys or recovery phrases. ASIC is separately asking whether Australian operators should be able to reach the keys in an emergency if an overseas parent or related entity fails. Amy-Rose Goodey, chief executive of the Digital Economy Council of Australia, called the offshore position "significant" given how much of the market runs across borders. She said, "After years of engagement on regulatory reform, it's encouraging to see the focus shift towards practical implementation."
The conduct proposals go further than capital. Order-matching platforms would be barred from acting as principal on their own venues, and related entities barred from trading through them. ASIC also proposes rules on conflicts of interest, including payments that influence which tokens a platform lists, and on obtaining a suitable outcome when executing customer orders. Liam Hennessy, a partner at Thomsons, said groups that rely on affiliated market makers may have to restructure to comply. A separate proposal would exclude stablecoins issued by a platform or its related entities from net tangible asset calculations, while allowing those held through independent third parties to count.
ASIC says it will review submissions between November 2026 and March 2027 and may consult again, with final standards and guidance targeted for March 2027. New license applications open when the regime commences in April, and firms already operating have until October 7, 2027 to apply or seek a variation, and may keep trading while ASIC assesses them. Commissioner Alan Kirkland said the approach rests on the principle of "same activity, same risk, same regulatory outcome". Other regulators have run comparable exercises this year, including the CFTC on crypto market structure and Singapore on the terms it would impose on licensed stablecoins.
The licensing regime followed FTX's 2022 collapse, which left about 30,000 Australian customers unable to reach their money, and the capital models decide how large a buffer each licensed platform has to carry. Stablecoins used for payments are being handled separately under Australia's payment services reforms. The figure is still open, and firms have until November 27 to make their case.
