ASIC’s crypto licensing relief ends as Australia moves to stricter oversight

What the Sept. 30 deadline required

The deadline applied to firms whose digital asset products or services may already fall within Australia’s current financial services regime. For those businesses, ASIC said they needed to apply for an Australian Financial Services licence, or seek a variation to an existing one, before the relief expired in order to remain covered by the transitional arrangement.

Businesses that may need an Australian Market Licence or a Clearing and Settlement facility licence faced a different test. Rather than filing a full application by Sept. 30, they were required to notify ASIC in writing of their intention to apply and to hold a pre-application meeting with the regulator by that date.

Relief ending does not create a new law

ASIC’s no-action position was introduced as a transition measure after the regulator updated its Information Sheet 225 guidance in October 2025. That guidance explains how existing financial product rules can apply to digital assets and related services, including activity involving brokers, intermediaries, tokenized products and traditional financial services firms using blockchain technology.

The relief did not amount to a licence and did not exempt a business from the law. It described circumstances in which ASIC did not intend to take enforcement action while eligible firms assessed their position and moved toward authorization. That means Oct. 1 does not automatically place every crypto firm under a new licensing regime; it ends temporary protection for covered businesses that have not satisfied the arrangement’s conditions.

ASIC originally set June 30, 2026 as the deadline, then extended it by three months in June, citing industry challenges during the transition. The regulator also clarified the scope of the no-action position and broadened eligibility for some firms operating through authorized representative and intermediary structures.

How many firms have moved into licensing

Since the INFO 225 update, more than 45 digital asset businesses have sought relevant authorizations, according to ASIC. The regulator has not identified those applicants or broken them down by category, such as exchanges, custodians, tokenization providers or other service types.

Lodging an application does not itself mean a business has been approved. Firms still need to satisfy the requirements attached to the licence they are seeking while continuing to comply with any conditions linked to the transitional arrangement. ASIC also has not said that every unlicensed firm will face immediate enforcement from Oct. 1; its warning is directed at businesses that require authorization under existing law but did not take the steps needed to stay within the relief.

Court ruling underscored the existing legal reach

The question of whether existing law applies to crypto products has already been tested in Australia’s courts. In June, the High Court unanimously ruled that Block Earner’s former fixed-yield crypto product required a financial services licence.

The court found that the Earner product operated as a facility through which a person made a financial investment and also met the definition of a derivative under the Corporations Act. The ruling overturned an earlier appeal decision and sent the matter back to the Full Federal Court to consider ASIC’s appeal on penalties.

Next step is the 2027 digital asset framework

The end of ASIC’s no-action relief is separate from Australia’s incoming statutory regime for digital asset platforms and tokenized custody platforms. That framework was enacted in April 2026 and is scheduled to take effect on April 9, 2027, with ASIC responsible for licensing and supervising businesses that fall within the new categories.

Under the law, digital asset platforms can include arrangements where an operator holds digital assets for customers and provides services involving those assets. Tokenized custody platforms cover arrangements where an operator holds an underlying asset and issues tokens representing a customer’s entitlement to it. ASIC has said it will consult on operational and financial standards and release guidance on how covered firms will be licensed and supervised.

For some businesses, the current licensing push will not be the final step. ASIC has said many authorizations obtained under the existing framework will still matter after the 2027 regime begins, and firms that fall into the new categories may need to add further permissions once that framework starts.