Share this article
Australia's Financial Watchdog Offers Exemptions to Stablecoin Intermediaries
The exemptions mean intermediaries do not require a a separate Australian financial services license to distribute licensed stablecoins.
Updated Sep 18, 2025, 9:13 a.m. Published Sep 18, 2025, 9:12 a.m.
What to know:
- Australia's ASIC will exempt stablecoin intermediaries from needing a financial services license.
- The exemption applies to intermediaries distributing stablecoins minted by issuers who are already licensed.
- This move aligns with Australia's broader strategy to integrate digital assets into its economy.
Australia's Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) said it plans to exempt stablecoin intermediaries from the requirement to hold a financial services license.
The financial watchdog said it granted class relief for parties engaging in the distribution of a stablecoin from an existing licensed issuer in an announcement on Thursday.
STORY CONTINUES BELOW
The exemption means the intermediaries do not require a a separate Australian financial services (AFS), Australian market or clearing and settlement facility licenses when providing services related to stablecoin issued by an existing AFS licensee.
Stablecoins, crypto tokens pegged to the value of a traditional financial asset such as a fiat currency, have become front and center of different countries' developing regulation of the cryptocurrency industry, following the introduction of regulatory regimes in markets such as the U.S. and Hong Kong.
More broadly, Australia showed signs of embedding digital assets into its economy earlier this year with the publication of a Treasury whitepaper, describing how the government planned to embrace tokenization, real-world assets and wholesale central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) to make financial markets more efficient.
Read More: Bank of England’s Proposed Stablecoin Ownership Limits Are Unworkable, Say Crypto Groups: Report
More For You
What to know:
- As of October 2025, GoPlus has generated $4.7M in total revenue across its product lines. The GoPlus App is the primary revenue driver, contributing $2.5M (approx. 53%), followed by the SafeToken Protocol at $1.7M.
- GoPlus Intelligence's Token Security API averaged 717 million monthly calls year-to-date in 2025 , with a peak of nearly 1 billion calls in February 2025. Total blockchain-level requests, including transaction simulations, averaged an additional 350 million per month.
- Since its January 2025 launch , the $GPS token has registered over $5B in total spot volume and $10B in derivatives volume in 2025. Monthly spot volume peaked in March 2025 at over $1.1B , while derivatives volume peaked the same month at over $4B.
More For You
Bank of America says U.S. banks are heading for multi-year onchain future
The Wall Street firm said faster U.S. stablecoin and charter rules are pulling crypto into the regulated banking system and pushing banks toward an on-chain future.
What to know:
- Bank of America said U.S. crypto rulemaking is set to accelerate as the OCC grants conditional national trust bank charters to five digital-asset firms.
- The bank expects the FDIC and Federal Reserve to follow with stablecoin capital, liquidity and approval rules under the GENIUS Act.
- Banks should embrace blockchain, the report said, citing JPMorgan and DBS pilots in tokenized deposits on public and permissioned blockchains.
Top Stories
