Australian Senator Bragg Releases New Draft on Digitial Assets

Australian Liberal Senator Andrew Bragg has released a new draft of the titled Digital Assets (Market Regulation) Bill 2022, aimed at regulating on digital asset exchanges.

The Act aims to provide an effective regulatory framework for the Australian market and provides requirements for the introduction of digital asset exchanges, digital asset custody services, licenses for stablecoin issuers, and disclosure requirements for China’s central bank digital Yuan service providers.

In a Sept. 19 statement, Bragg said that “Australia must keep pace with the global digital asset regulation race” as “Parliament must push for legal reform.”

The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) has launched a year-long trial to explore business models and innovative use cases for central bank digital currencies (CBDCs).

Since CBDC represent the digital form of a country's fiat currency, they are directly controlled by the country's central bank and backed by national credit and government power.

The Liberal senator said that Australia, as a global economy, has a large modern exposure to the issue of CBDC stablecoins, which is why relevant laws need to be drafted to manage the corresponding risks and require relevant banks to fulfil additional requirements. Responsibilities to provide relevant reports on information that may help Australia use or obtain digital renminbi.

But Andrew Bragg stressed just "preparing and gathering information" and added that Australia would not benefit from having a CBDC because of "the inability to manage privacy concerns",

In March, the government announced plans to introduce legislation seeking licensing and custody measures for the country's growing digital asset industry. The government has also announced potential changes to taxing this emerging asset class.